External Sharing in Microsoft 365: The Rest

Episodes in the Microsoft 365 External Sharing Series

1. External Sharing in Microsoft 365
2. External Sharing in SharePoint Online
3. External Sharing in Microsoft Teams
4. External Sharing in Microsoft 365: The Rest

While we were working on our other sessions on external sharing we realized that there were lots of other miscellaneous things to share about parts of Microsoft 365 that we hadn’t already talked about. So, in this session of Ask Sympraxis we are covering all the rest.

OneDrive

OneDrive Tenant Level Settings

Tenant administrators can set different external sharing policies for both OneDrive and SharePoint. Administrators have the ability to set external sharing policies individually for SharePoint and OneDrive however there is a failsafe. SharePoint can be more permissive than OneDrive, but OneDrive cannot be more permissive than SharePoint. Microsoft wanted to give administrators the ability to control the most permissive thing and to not let people sneak past it by using OneDrive. For example, if something is in SharePoint and it can be shared with anybody versus in OneDrive it can only be shared with existing guests. There are many layers of security which act like a filter or funnel. When it comes to things like guests or external sharing, it’s important to know that at the tenant level, the tenant admin or teams admin has to turn a couple of switches on or off. The most common factor is differentiating between external users and guest users.

Suggested Settings - What is the default?

The default can be anyone, but it should be people with existing access which unfortunately isn’t an option. It’s smart to pick the most restrictive one.

Sharing Within OneDrive

There are three different ways you can share from within OneDrive. You can share from the folder level, which means everything within that folder and subfolders is shared. You can share just the one-off files, or you can do a file request. If you are actively syncing your OneDrive, you can also share from Windows Explorer. The main idea here is that internal users.

What’s on the horizon?

For quick permissions and link settings, they have changed the user interface a bit. They shifted the order of the dialog sharing menu and expanded the link settings to be an entire window of their own. These new settings are available now but are still rolling out across all tenants.

Managing Access

Managing Access In OneDrive

One thing you can do in OneDrive right now is manage access after you’ve done that initial sharing. From the OneDrive default view, you can see when an item is shared, who has access, and what links are giving access. Later this year, a new layout to manage access will roll out that will include a changed user interface.

Managing Access in Office Applications

Later this year, users will be able to manage access within the applications. So instead of opening Outlook to send a document, you can share it directly from the application.

Share To Teams

This is another item that will be rolling out later this year. This item will be on OneDrive with the option to share directly to Teams. Instead of copying the link and bringing it over to chat, you can share that link right into Teams.

Request Files

This feature is only in OneDrive and not in SharePoint. Users are able to create a folder, select that folder and then send that folder out to people that aren’t in your tenant. This can be used to collect documents for an event or presentation.

Planner

To use Planner, you must be a member of an M365 group. This is very similar to Teams where you have owners and members only.

Stream

There is not external sharing. External guests cannot see this content. If you have videos that need to be shared, use OneDrive and SharePoint.

Yammer

Users can externally share in Yammer. When first creating that community, chose either internal or external. This is a good option if you have an externally shared communication site for onboarding and you want new employees to have access to this site before they join the company and provide a chat space.

Power Platform

Power Apps

You can share with people that are external users in your environment. The user, however, will need access. For example, if you are writing to a SharePoint list, that user will need edit permissions in SharePoint to that list.

Power Automate

Power Automate Flows run under the account that created them so all actions that are taken in the Flow such as writing to a list or sending an email are done on behalf of the user creating the Flow. External users still need access to the content that is triggering the Flow such as adding an item to a list or filling out a Microsoft Form. External users can not create Flows in your environment.

Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms can be shared with external users or shared anonymously.

This series has been fun for us to do. We hope that you enjoyed it and learned a little something about the breadth of sharing options in the M365 platform.

How are you externally sharing content? Continue the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #AskSympraxis and mention @SympraxisC.