How To Share Files And Folders Externally In SharePoint
Thanks to the cloud, sharing content externally is easier than ever. Historically speaking, sharing content externally in SharePoint/Office 365 was a hassle, which is the reason why a large percentage of active Microsoft 365 users neglected to use it for file sharing (particularly with external users) and instead opted for Google Drive or Dropbox, which were previously much more user friendly to the average user becoming acquainted with the cloud.
Thanks to some recent updates from Microsoft, sharing documents and folders with external users is much easier than ever before. Here’s a brief rundown of what you can share and how to go about sharing your files with external users.
What content can be shared with external users?
- Files
- Folders
- SharePoint Online Sites
*Please note that the SharePoint external sharing settings are at both the organizational level and the site level and you may need to have full administrator permissions to adjust these settings.
How to share SharePoint files externally?
Once you’ve uploaded the file to a SharePoint site, simply click the Share button at the top of the page.
Click Specific people and check the Allow editing box if you plan on collaborating on this specific document with the external user.
From there, you can either select the Copy link but and include the link in an email to the external user or enter their name or email address in the field as shown in the screenshot.
TIP: We typically recommend copying/pasting the link in an email because we have seen cases where the default email gets lost in the spam folder or, at times, not delivered at all.
How to share SharePoint folders externally?
The process to sharing a SharePoint folder externally is very similar to sharing a document with an external user. The main difference between the two is the permissions, which we’ll cover shortly.
Once you’ve uploaded the files and created a folder in the SharePoint site, simply click the Share button at the top of the page.
Click Specific people and check the Allow editing box if you plan on collaborating on this specific document with the external user.
From there, you can either select the Copy link and include the link in an email to the external user or enter their name or email address in the field.
When the recipient receives the file
The external recipient will receive an email and clicks on a link within the email from the actual sender (not Microsoft).
Once the recipient clicks Open, they will need to request a verification code to open the secure link.
This will send the user another email with the verification code. Once the code is entered, they will be granted access to the file or folder.
What the external recipient will be able to do with the file you shared?
It depends on whether or not you provided the user with editing permissions when generating the link.
If you allowed editing (clicked on Allow Editing checkbox), users will be able to do the following
- Modify file/folders
- Download files/folder
- Share the file/folder with others
- Create and upload new subfolders
Users will not be able to
- Delete files/folders
- Rename files/folders Rename the root folder that has been shared with them
- Access any other files or folders in the same library
- Access anything else on your SharePoint site
