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Error when an external user accepts a SharePoint Online invitation by using another account

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    SharePoint Online

Problem

You receive one of the following error messages when trying to access an externally shared resource:

  • Access Denied
  • Let us know why you need access to this site.
  • User is not found in the directory
  • You need permission to access this site.

Solution

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

  1. Determine which account accepted the invitation.
  2. Remove the incorrect account and the correct account.
  3. Reinvite the user to the resource.

Note

Many examples in this article use <contoso> as a placeholder. In your scenario, replace <contoso> with the domain that you use for your organization.

Determine which account has access as an external user

If you can access the site as the incorrect external user, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in as the external user account that you used to accept the invite.

  2. Click the profile image in the upper-right corner, and then click My Settings.

  3. In the Account field, review the email address. For example, i:0#.f|membership|JonDoe@contoso.com.

    Note

    In this example, JonDoe@contoso.com is the email account that accepted the user invitation.

  4. If the address is incorrect, go to the "Remove the incorrect external user account" section.

If you can't access the site as the incorrect external user, follow these steps:

  1. As a SharePoint Online administrator, sign in to the site collection that was shared with the external user.

  2. Click the gear icon for the Settings menu, and then click Site settings.

  3. In the Users and Permissions section, click People and groups.

  4. At the end of the URL in your browser window, after the people.aspx? part of the URL, replace MembershipGroupId=<number> with MembershipGroupId=0, and then press Enter.

  5. In the list of users, locate the name of the external user. Right-click the user name, and copy the shortcut.

  6. In a new browser window or tab, paste the URL that you copied in the previous step into the address box. Add &force=1 to the end of the URL, and then press Enter.

  7. In the Account field, review the email address. For example, i:0#.f|membership|JonDoe@contoso.com.

    Note

    In this example, JonDoe@contoso.com is the email account that accepted the user invitation.

  8. If the address is incorrect, go to the "Remove the incorrect external user account" section.

Remove the incorrect external user account

External users are managed from a site collection by site collection basis. An external user account will have to be removed from each site collection to which the account was given access. You can do so from the SharePoint Online user interface or through the SharePoint Online Management Shell, depending on your version of Microsoft 365.

For Microsoft 365 for Business subscriptions, use the SharePoint Online UI:

  1. Browse to the Microsoft 365 admin center at https://portal.office.com.

  2. In service settings, click Manage Organization-wide settings.

  3. Click sites and document sharing from the left-side menu, and then click Remove individual external users.

  4. Select the external user who has to be removed, and then click the Delete icon.

All other subscriptions must use the SharePoint Online Management Shell by following these steps:

Note

This option doesn't apply to Office Small Business (P) organizations.

  1. Download and install the SharePoint Online Management Shell. For more information, go to Introduction to the SharePoint Online Management Shell.

  2. Start the SharePoint Online Management Shell.

  3. Type the following cmdlet:

    $cred = Get-Credential

  4. In the Windows PowerShell Credential required dialog box, type your admin account and password, and then click OK.

  5. Connect to SharePoint Online, and then type the following cmdlet:

    Connect-SPOService -Url https://-admin.sharepoint.com -Credential $cred

  6. Remove the user from each site collection. Type the following cmdlet, and then press Enter:

    $ExtUser = Get-SPOExternalUser -filter <account@contoso.com>

    Note

    In this cmdlet, replace account@contoso.com with the affected account. Then, to remove the user, type the following cmdlet, and then press Enter:

    Remove-SPOExternalUser -UniqueIDs @($ExtUser.UniqueId)

The steps below remove the external user's ability to access SharePoint Online. However, the user will still appear in any people searches and within the SharePoint Online Management Shell Get-SPOUser cmdlet. To remove the user completely from SharePoint Online, you'll have to remove the user from the UserInfo list. There are two ways.

  1. Use the SharePoint Online UI. To do so, browse to each site collection to which the user previously had access, and then follow these steps:

    1. At the site collection, edit the URL by adding the following string to the end of the URL:

      _layouts/15/people.aspx/membershipGroupId=0

      For example, the full URL will resemble the following:

      https://<contoso>.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/people.aspx/membershipGroupId=0

    2. Select the user from the list.

    3. Click Remove User Permissions from the ribbon.

  2. Use the SharePoint Online Management Shell. For more information about how to use the SharePoint Online Management Shell, go to Introduction to the SharePoint Online Management Shell.

    Note

    This option doesn't apply to Small Business subscriptions.

    1. Start the SharePoint Online Management Shell.

    2. Type the following cmdlet:

      $cred = Get-Credential

      In the Windows PowerShell Credential required window, type your admin account and password, then click OK.

    3. Connect to SharePoint Online, and then type the following cmdlet:

      Connect-SPOService -Url https://<contoso>-admin.sharepoint.com -Credential $cred

    4. Remove the user from each site collection by typing the following cmdlet:

      Get-SPOUser -Site https://<contoso>.sharepoint.com | FT –a

    Notice the external user's Login Name in the returned results. As an external user, it might have a "live.com#" prefix if it's a Microsoft Account.

    Type the following cmdlet:

    Remove-SPOUser -Site https://<contoso>.sharepoint.com -LoginName live.com#jondoe@company.com

    Note

    Replace live.com#jondoe@company.com with the user in your scenario.

Next, you have to remove the account from Microsoft Entra ID:

  1. Download and install the Azure Active Directory PowerShell Module and its prerequisites. To this, go to Manage Microsoft Entra ID using Windows PowerShell.

  2. Open the Azure Active Directory PowerShell Module, and then run the following commands:

    Connect-MSOLService

    Enter your administrator credentials in the dialog box:

    Get-MsolUser -ReturnDeletedUsers -UnlicensedUsersOnly | ft -a

  3. Locate the external user who you just deleted, and then confirm they're listed.

    Remove-MsolUser -RemoveFromRecycleBin -UserPrincipalName 'jondoe_contoso.com#EXT#@yourdomaint.onmicrosoft.com'

    Note

    Replace jondoe_contoso.com#EXT#@yourdomain.onmicrosoft.com with the specific user in your scenario.

Clear the browser cache

SharePoint Online uses browser caching in several scenarios, including the People Picker. Even though a user was fully removed from the system, the user may still remain in the browser cache. Clearing the browser cache resolves this issue. To do so for Internet Explorer, follow the steps given in Viewing and deleting your browsing history.

When you clear the cache, make sure that you also select the Cookies and website data option.

Reinvite the external user

After you follow these steps, reinvite the external user to the site by using the desired email address. To make sure that the end-user accepts with the appropriate email address, it's a best practice to copy the link in the invitation and then paste it into an InPrivate Browsing session. Doing so makes sure that no cached credentials are used to accept the invitation.

More information

An external user invitation doesn't require to be accepted by the email address to which it was first sent. It's a one-time invitation. If another user accepts the invitation, or if the user who accepts the invitation signs up by using an account other than the email address to which the invitation was sent, you may encounter an access denied message.

For example, a user is signed in through a browser by using a Microsoft account, and the user receives an email invitation to the user's external user account in the user's email application. Then, the user selects the link to accept the invite. However, based on the user's browser cookies, the user accidentally accepts the invite by using the incorrect identity.

When the user signs in to the resource by using the user's external user account, the user receives the error that the user isn't found in the directory.

Still need help? Go to SharePoint Community.