e-mail with sensitivity label recieved by someone without permissions to open e-mail

Question

Hello,

Im testing the waters with sensitivity labels and created one label applying only to e-mails with asign permissions now to specific internal mail domains we are using.

Everything works great. When i send an e-mail with this label to a test e-mail account for example @gmail. The recipient is recieving this e-mail, can click in the new window on recieve OTP one time password and recieves a OTP. When the OTP is filled in to read the e-mail the error: "Sorry, we can't display your message right now" Try again... is displayed.

Is this normal behaviour? Shouldnt the message be something like: "you dont have access to read this e-mail" kind of error?

Thanks,

LEVD

Answer 1

@van Daalen

Greetings & Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum! Thanks for posting your query!

When an email with a sensitivity label is sent to an external recipient who does not have the necessary permissions to access the content, the behavior you're experiencing can occur. The error message "Sorry, we can't display your message right now" is indicative of a connection issue or a problem with accessing the Azure Information Protection (AIP) endpoint, rather than a straightforward access denial message.

This situation can arise if the sensitivity label applied to the email restricts access in ways that prevent the external recipient from viewing the content. For instance, if the label scopes access to internal recipients only, the external recipient may encounter issues when trying to authenticate or access the encrypted message.

It's not uncommon for users to receive vague error messages in such scenarios, rather than a clear notification that they lack access to the email. This can lead to confusion, as the recipient may not understand why they cannot view the message.

For more details, please refer to the following documents that might help you in getting some useful insights:

• We can't display your message right now" error in Outlook Web App when an Exchange Online user views an encrypted message
• External recipient can't open encrypted email that uses Microsoft Purview Message Encryption
• Sensitivity labels are missing in Outlook, Outlook on the web, and other Office apps
• Manage sensitivity labels in Office apps

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.

Thank you.