Common issues with inviting guests/external users to Teams are listed below:
See also
- Adding external users and what permissions they have in Teams
- How a guest joins a Team (from Microsoft)
Switching Institution
Does the person already have an account they use for Microsoft Teams at another organisation? We recommend you ask your external users this question in order to set them up correctly.
If they are already a Teams user, they will need to follow the link in the invite you sent to authenticate with Microsoft and join our Brighton Teams. They then need to switch between institutions using the drop down menu by their photo/initials (this feature is only available if you are a member of one of more institutions).
If the person is already using Teams, you need to add them to Brighton Teams using the same email address (usually their work email address). You may need to re-add those existing externals to the team area and then it will work for them next time.
External users can’t see the ‘institution’ switcher? Firstly, external users should try logging out of Teams , fully closing, and restarting Teams.
If that doesn’t work, this would imply that the external user hasn’t been added using their current institutional email address – perhaps worth following up with the University of Brighton colleague who added them and checking the email address used.
Please note: Colleagues at Sussex University… If you wish to add a colleague from Sussex University to a University of Brighton Team as a guest, you must add them using their alpha-numeric username/email eg. abc123@sussex.ac.uk. This is the way they interact with their own systems at Sussex. Do not add a Sussex colleague to a Brighton Team with their normal email: A.Lastname@sussex.ac.uk – This will not add them as a full-guest to our Teams.
Note: If your external user will need to access meeting recordings in Stream, you will need to set them up with a Brighton account as external guests cannot access Stream recordings.
Multiple Microsoft Accounts/Personal Microsoft Accounts
Does the person already have a personal Microsoft account?
Some users have a personal email address that is not attached to a Microsoft account, but if they already have an active Microsoft account when they attempt to access your team using the automated email (including link to the team) that is sent when you add them as a guest they will receive an error.
As their email address is unrecognised and teams cannot be logged into more than one account at once they are not then setup on the University of Brighton ‘organisation’. Therefore they cannot switch between organisations in the teams software in order to access your meetings. The user needs to let you know the correct email address to use for their existing personal Microsoft account.
Note: If your external user will need to access meeting recordings in Stream, you will need to set them up with a Brighton account as external guests cannot access Stream recordings.
External users are trying to use two different Teams accounts on the same device. How is this done?
We don’t recommend switching between different Teams accounts using the Teams app, as this can cause issues with accessing other Microsoft software on your computer. The best option is to use the installed Teams application for one account, and use a web browser to sign in to the other account (you can access Teams online at https://teams.microsoft.com ) . You may find your web browser ‘remembers’ your other Teams login, which can be frustrating. To resolve this we recommend using Firefox’s in private browsing feature, or Google Chromes incognito feature. Using this you can then sign into Teams using whichever account you need.
Organisational Limitations
We have seen issues with users attempting to access Teams from within the NHS network.
Still not working?
If you continue to have issues contact the ServiceDesk to log a ticket for someone to provide additional support.
