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Couldn’t add external users as a member in SharePoint [FIX]

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Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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SharePointusers reportedly facing difficulty while granting an external user permission to an external content type in Office 365SharePointadmin center. Basically, the users are unable to add external users as a member onSharePoint.

The issue can also occur with the older version of office andSharePointincludingSharePoint2010. If you are also unable to add an external user to theSharePoint, here are a couple of fixes you can try to fix the issue.

Fix Couldn’t add as a member in SharePoint

Fix Couldn’t add as a member in SharePoint

1. Grant External Content Type Access to Everyone / All User

To resolve this issue, you need grant access to the Everyone or All User groups to the External Content Type. Once done, use list permission to manage permissions to the external resource. Here is how to do it.

Once done, you need to manage access to the external list by usingSharePointpermissions. The external content exists on theSharePointsite.

2. Turn on External Sharing

If you haven’t already noticed it, it is possible that you may have turned off External sharing on Office 365,SharePointand Site. Try turning on External Sharing to see if that resolve the issue.

To turn on External Sharing onSharePointOnline, do the following.

That’s it! Try to add external users toSharePointand check if the issue is resolved.

3. Use PowerShell Cmdlet

Good folks at Microsoft community has provided a PowerShell based cmdlet that can fix the issue when you run it through SPO PowerShell Module. Here is how to do it.

If successful, launchSharePointand try to add the external user and see if the issue is resolved.

4. Logout of Microsoft Accounts

If the user sees “We are sorry[email protected]can’t be found in Microsoft.SharePoint directory”,errorit could be a because of an authentication token creating conflict with the server. One way to fix this is to log out of all the Microsoft Accounts from the problematic device.

After signing out of all the Microsoft Accounts, follow the next method before you try to sign in again.

5. Clear Browser Cache

While your web browser stores cache to speed up the page loading, a bad cache can at times create conflict with the site resulting in server and loginerrorinSharePointsite. Try clearing the browser cache and then try again.

Clear Cache for Chrome

Clear Cache for Microsoft Edge (Chromium)

After the browser cache is cleared, restart your system and login to your Microsoft Account. Try to add the user toSharePointand check for any improvements.

We recommend using a browser that doesn’t use a lot of processing capacity and has built-in tools that aim to provide a safe environment to share and store your data.

⇒Get Opera One

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More about the topics:collaboration software,Sharepoint issues

Tashreef Shareef

Tashreef Shareef is a software developer turned tech writer. He discovered his interest in technology after reading a tech magazine accidentally. Now he writes about everything tech from Windows to iOS and streaming services to IoT at WindowsReport.

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