Collaborating and Sharing with External Users in Microsoft 365

Instructions and information for sharing with people external to University of St. Thomas, who do not have St. Thomas accounts.

Guidance for sharing content with external users (guests) in Microsoft 365. 

Microsoft allows sharing of files and folder with external guest collaborators when files are stored in OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

External Collaborators: Sharing Files and Folders

The easiest way to share content is to select the “Share” option from the sites’ menus. See instructions from Microsoft below:

External or guest sharing in OneDrive, SharePoint, and Lists - Microsoft Support

In most cases, the method described above will not require the use of the Microsoft Authenticator app. However, guests will need to do secondary authentication via a code sent to their email address.

OneDrive does allow you to share links with “Anyone” so that no authentication is required. Please keep in mind the following:

• OneDrives are tied to individual St. Thomas user accounts, so OneDrive files are deleted when someone leaves the University.
• “Anyone” links essentially provide anonymous access. That means that anyone who gets the link would have access to your content, and it cannot be tracked. Do not use anyone/anonymous links for sharing anything sensitive or content you would not feel comfortable with unknown parties accessing.

Add Guests as Members to Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams

You can also add guests as “Members” to a SharePoint site. However, this method will require them to download the Microsoft Authenticator app. We have noticed many external users have a hard time with this, and sometimes ITS support is required to unlock external guest MFA settings.

Guests can be added to Microsoft 365 groups as members through Outlook or Teams. See instructions below from Microsoft:

Adding guests to Groups in Outlook - Microsoft Support

Instructions for external collaborators to participate as a guest member in Microsoft 365 Groups:

Use Groups in Outlook as a guest - Microsoft Support

Other Considerations

We also recognize that external collaborators may use different systems for file sharing. It is acceptable per the St. Thomas Data Management Policy to store and share collaborative research data on other platforms (such as Dropbox or Google Drive) if the following is true:

• The content does not include any student data.
• The content does not include any University-owned or private data.

Before sharing externally, please make sure you are familiar with the University’s Data Policies outlined in the document linked below.

800-IT-6 Data Security Policy Compendium