One of the greatest assets the cloud and digital storage industries have is the capacity to govern external sharing, which is one of the key values of cloud collaboration platforms. Most external sharing for firms that rely on file servers must be done over email, which is challenging to control, especially on a large scale.
To resolve the issue you may need to visit the share setting page located within the admin centre settings panel. Here you will be able to edit sharing preferences and grand external members of OneDrive with the files.
Step by step process: How to enable external sharing for OneDrive
- Click the app launcher settings which illustrates as nine dots in the top left corner of the M365 dashboard
- Once this stage is complete you can then click admin to enter the admin center
- Once the user has accessed the admin portal, you can then access the SharePoint admin center. Initially they will be shown pinned options to access different functionalities within the Microsoft 365 network. However to access the full list of functions you need to click Show all to bring up the list of admin centers
- Once the user has clicked show all, they can open the SharePoint admin center
- In the SharePoint admin center, you can set the global permissions related to sharing. You will find the sharing policies in the SharePoint Admin Centre under Policies > Sharing.
- Move the OneDrive slider to Most permissible to enable external sharing of OneDrive files and folders
These initial steps will allow you to edit the sharing permissions and ensure they are set so you will be able to share content with external users. With the correct share, permissions enabled users can share content with external members of a group.
However, issues may involve the data not being able to transfer to external users via OneDrive or cloud storage due to setting changes or admin preferences restricting the file transfer to only internal users. Below is a list of problems users may encounter if they are unable to transfer files with external users.
OneDrive External Sharing Setting Options
- Sharing With Anonymous Users
- Files and folders can be shared with any external user who receives the sharing link, whether authenticated or not. Although there are still options to limit what users who receive the link can do with the content being shared, this is by far the broadest and least secure setting for external sharing. It is vital to remember, though, that links can be passed around by individuals who receive them, and that the link and the actions enabled by it remain active until explicitly disabled. Sites cannot be shared via link with anonymous users.
- Sharing Limited to External Users in Your Directory
- External users can only access files, folders, and sites if they are already in your directory, have been imported from another Office 365 directory, or have accepted sharing invites and therefore been added to your directory. Allowing sharing only with external users who already exist in your organization’s directory is quite valuable for many admins, as it allows them to easily verify the security and intent of individuals with whom content is shared.
- No External Sharing
- Individuals with accounts in your organization’s OneDrive, SharePoint Online, or Office 365 subscription can only access files, folders, and sites.
- Sharing With All Authenticated Users
- Any external user who has a Microsoft account or is a member of another Office 365/OneDrive/SharePoint Online subscription through school or work can access files, folders, and webpages. While these users will not be required to log into that account in order to view the shared content, they will be sent a one-time authentication code that they must enter in order to view it.
In most businesses, users and administrators will come across a scenario that appears to initiate each of these settings at some point. However, people in charge of external sharing protocols must understand when each is suitable and do their best to impose the right limits in each circumstance.
There are 2 main types of links present when sharing content using OneDrive
- Shareable Links:
- These are the broadest options. Anyone, internal or external, can open the link.
- Direct Links:
- When these links are created, users must specify the emails to which the link is going. As such, anyone who is not specifically invited to the document being shared will not be able to use the link
Additional sharing criteria can be addressed in addition to the aforementioned options. It’s possible, for example, to prevent all users from specific domains from sharing, even if they’re in your directory, such as a rival. It’s possible, for example, to prevent all users from specific domains from sharing, even if they’re in your directory, such as a rival. It’s also possible to prevent external users (who aren’t anonymous) from sharing items that have been shared with them, as well as set expiration dates on the links shared with them, so they don’t have access to your content.
How To Enable External Sharing for OneDrive
- When you login to Office 365, Click the M365 365 App launcher in the left corner which illustrates as nine dots in the top left corner of the 365 dashboard.
- Once this stage is complete, you can then click admin to enter the admin center
- Once the user has accessed the admin portal, they can then have access to the SharePoint admin center. Initially they will be shown pinned options to access different functionalities within the SharePoint network. However, to access the full list of functions you need to click Show all to access the SharePoint admin center.
- Once you’ve clicked show all, click SharePoint to open up the SharePoint admin center
- In the SharePoint admin center you can set the global permissions related to sharing. You will find the sharing policies in the SharePoint Admin Centre under Policies > Sharing.
- These sliders will help the users to change the permission settings directly on the panel. Here they can operate the sliders and modify their permission roles and share it with more people if necessary. The labelling is from most permissive at the top where anyone can see the link to the least permissive which is set to the users which require the data sharing feature to be set to the most specific users within the content.
- The final aspect to update the share feature is to save the changes which will then allow the users to effectively secure the new changes. Once the setting has been updated the users will be able to share the content over to anyone who requires its assistance.
Note – Users may be required to wait 10-15 minutes for the changes to fully update before they have the ability to share the content.