How to enable SharePoint External Sharing! | Can SharePoint be shared externally?

Welcome to our tutorial on how to enable external sharing in SharePoint. SharePoint is a powerful collaboration platform that allows users to create, manage, and share content with others. With external sharing, you can extend the reach of your SharePoint content beyond your organization and collaborate with external partners, customers, or vendors. In this video, we will walk you through the process of enabling external sharing in SharePoint and answer some of the most frequently asked questions about this feature.

In this video we will not only answer the question can SharePoint be shared externally but we will show you how to achieve it.

To enable external sharing in SharePoint, you will need to have admin privileges to your Microsoft 365 tenant. Here are the steps to follow:

Step 2: Click on the admin button to go to Microsoft 365 admin centre
On the Microsoft 365 home page, click on the "Admin" button located at the top right corner of the page. This will take you to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Step 3: Select to see all admin centers
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, select the "Show all" link on the left-hand side of the screen. This will reveal a list of all the admin centers available in your Microsoft 365 tenant.

Step 4: Select the SharePoint admin center
From the list of admin centers, select the "SharePoint" admin center. This will take you to the SharePoint admin center.

Step 5: Click on the sharing tab under policies
Once you are in the SharePoint admin center, click on the "policies" tab located on the left-hand side of the screen. This will reveal a list of sharing policies that you can configure.

Step 6: Adjust the sliders of SharePoint to Anyone for full external access
To enable external sharing, you will need to adjust the sliders of the "SharePoint" policy to "Anyone" for full external access. You can also choose to limit external sharing to specific domains or allow only authenticated external users.

Step 7: Click save at the bottom
Once you have configured your sharing policy, click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to apply the changes.

Step 8: Go back to active sites
After you have enabled external sharing for your SharePoint tenant, you can go back to the active sites section of the SharePoint admin center to enable external sharing for specific SharePoint sites.

Step 9: Find the site in search you wish to enable for external sharing
To find the SharePoint site that you want to enable external sharing for, use the search bar at the top of the page to search for the site by name.

Step 10: Select the site and click the sharing button at the top
Once you have found the SharePoint site, select it from the search results and click on the "Sharing" button located at the top of the page.

Step 11: Then select Anyone (or other external sharing setting) from the pop out
From the "Sharing" dialog box, you can choose to share the site with anyone or specific external users. You can also set permissions for external users to view or edit the site.

Step 12: Click save
After you have configured your sharing settings for the SharePoint site, click on the "Save" button to apply the changes.

That's it! You have successfully enabled external sharing in SharePoint and shared a SharePoint site with external users.

You might be wondering what is SharePoint external sharing. I will show you how to share both a SharePoint site and an individual document to external parties outside of your organisation.

Often people wonder is SharePoint external sharing secure and I can ensure you that it is when done correctly.

If you are concerned by documents falling into the wrong hands, I would suggest using the share with existing guests only policy explored in this SharePoint tutorial.

Creating these external sharing SharePoint sites with external users is referred to as an Extranet.

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00:00 SharePoint External Sharing Explained
01:00 Accessing the SharePoint Admin Centre
01:45 SharePoint Policies Explained
03:00 How to create guest users in Microsoft 365
04:35 Different types of Sharing Policies
07:40 Enable a site for external access
09:10 Example of a site external sharing

[joseallencantosii]

Thank you so much! Took me days to look for this! Thank you!

[johnboy]

Thanks . Most informative video I found. Thanks again

[orenagami]

Thank you. I have a question though. can that person sync the folder or site to his PC?

[dineshvasamshetty]

Hi Dougie. How about creating unlicensed user IDs for the guest users. Please let us know if you found any limitations. Thanks

[Elevity-bdfh]

Share just documents (entire folder structure) vs individual files? Great video, thank you! Can you share just the documents folder, files, subfolders and their files? Thank you!

[jordanlogan-dnjj]

Hi wondering if you can help?

I have added a guest user to Azure but it isn't giving me the option to then invite him to the site?

Any Ideas?

Thanks

[trollerjesus]

If you add a user by typing their e-mail when sharing a Site from the Site, is that creating the same guest account in Azure? Or just sending them a link to go create an account if they don't use O365?

[varunmenon]

Is there a non powershell way to set the site level sharing settings to Anyone or New and Existing guests by default once External Sharing has been enabled? There is bulk edit but it has some limitation on how many it can bulk edit.

[SallyMacMillan-kded]

Hi Dougie, a good video, thanks. Out of interest, do organisations build a brand new seperate site that external and internal people can get to? Or do they stick with their existing site and just share the documents they wish to share externally? My concern about the latter option, is that often site owners often don't get the SharePoint permissions thing at all ! I would be interested in your views. Sorry for such a convoluted message, just couldnt think of another way of describing it. Thanks.

[josephkuit]

Hey Dougie, I'm guessing this only works for a "communication site"? is there a way to share, or add external MEMBERS-not guest to a team site?

[tokyopulis]

Does this setting also affect the user's OneDrive business? If you set the external settings specifically for one site which is a group of people in it?

[mason]

any reason why i wouldnt have share option in the top right hand side. i have following and 11 members but no share option? i need to share it to an external tenant for a few users to access 2 sharepoint sites.

[davethemonkey]

How does external identities relate to these settings. They do conflict or overlap with these settings. Pretty confused. Pls advice

[Ackie]

Hi Dougie. This has been very informative. One question if I may. I have one site and want to create additional pages accessible to my external partners. They will only have access to their particular pages. Is this something that is possible rather than creating many additional sites?

[trollerjesus]

when you share the site, is this creating a Guest account via Invitation in Azure? And if so, is that going to require that recipient to create a password?

[kailash]

We tried the sharing of an OneDrive Folder. When the receiver doesn't have a Microsoft 365 Business account, one can't integrate the file/folder in one's OneDrive. The MS Support told us to use Azure for that.... Maybe you have a video on this as well?

When I share a folder with external users from Sharepoint it will work for some and not for others. Or the link works at first and then stops working after a few days. I have content sharing set to "anyone" and "anyone with the link" and anyone can edit." I have no expiration date. Questions: 1. If I want to update files in a particular shared folder so that external users can check back repeatedly to get the latest updates to files, do I have to re-share the link with the external users every time there is an update? 2. If I add new external users to the same shared folder does that change the previous link I already shared with existing external users? The link "path" appears to be different every time I share it. The work flow I'm looking for is to share my files in one location such that external users can access daily updates without having to re-send them a new link every time something changes. Please advise. Thanks.

[spanishinmin]

Hi Dougie, I'm struggling so I hope you can help me :) What about if the link of an extranet site is displayed via a QR code? in this case, will anyone who scans the QR code be able to access the SharePoint site without further need of authenticate? Background: My company has created 4 microsoft form to obtain feedback from depot employees (not part of my company) we would like to build an extranet site, link it to a QR code and then hang it on the depots, so employees can scan it go to the sharepoint site and then click on one of the 4 forms displayed on that sharepoint site.

[victoria]

Hey Doug, my external user doesn't receive the invitation althoug O have tried sending the linkwhich works but we need external users to get the invite.

[johnmatta]

What of I want to share a site page to the public not to a particular email address