Microsoft 365 supports different ways to collaborate with external users. We can use the Azure AD portal to invite guest users. The invited user’s account will be added to Azure Active Directory with a user type as Guest. The guest user must accept their invitation to access resources.
In this post, we will share steps to add guest users directly to the directory (Azure AD) and steps to add external users to groups. Once you have added an external user to the directory, you can easily pick the user to share resources or B2B collaboration with a team from Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Groups.
Summary
- Add guest users to the directory from Azure AD portal
- Add guest members to a group or Microsoft Team
- Resend guest user invitation to the users who are not accepted
Add guest users to the directory from Azure AD portal
Follow the below steps to add guest or external users to the directory.
- Go to Azure AD portal.
- In the left navigation, click Azure Active Directory.
- In the Azure Active Directory pane, under Manage section, click Users.
- Click New guest user.
- In the New user page, select the Invite user option and then provide the guest user’s information.
- Click Invite to send the invitation to the guest user.
- After the invitation is sent, the user account is automatically added to the directory as a guest.
- The user must accept the invitation to complete the process and access resources from your tenant.
- Now, you can grant access or add the user to the required team to collaborate with the user.
Add guest members to a group or Microsoft Team
Steps to add a guest user as a member of a group or the group associated Microsoft Teams.
- Go to Azure AD portal.
- In the left navigation, click Azure Active Directory.
- In the Azure Active Directory pane, under the Manage section, click Groups.
- Select the required group (click on group name hyperlink) to open Group details UI.
- In the left navigation, under the Manage section, click Members.
- If the guest user has already been added in the directory, search and select the user, and then click Select to add the user to the group or team. If the guest user does not already added, just type their email address in the search box and click Select to invite the user to the group. The invitation automatically send to the invited user.
Resend guest user invitation to the users who are not accepted
Once we sent a guest invitation to a user, the guest user must then accept their invitation to access resources. An invitation of a user does not expire, so they can accept anytime they wish. If they missed out on the invitation mail, then follow the below steps to re-send invitations to the guest users.
- Go to Azure AD portal.
- In the left navigation, click Azure Active Directory.
- In the Azure Active Directory pane, under the Manage section, click Users.
- Select the guest user (click on user name hyperlink) to view the User profile page.
- On the Profile page, under Identity section, the Resend invitation button will be available if the user has not yet accepted the invitation. Click the Resend invitation button to send again the guest invite request.
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