How to share a SharePoint Online document library Files with external users?

Do you want to share SharePoint document library files with external users? Keep reading this step-by-step tutorial; I have explained how to share SharePoint Online document library files with external users.

To share document library files with an external user, you must enable the external sharing feature at the tenant and SharePoint site level. And then, you can share a particular library with an external user.

Through the SharePoint External Sharing feature, users in an organization can share content with people outside the organization (such as partners, vendors, clients, or customers).

NOTE:

By default, external sharing is turned on for the entire SharePoint environment and the sites in it.

To Share a SharePoint Online document library with external users, first, we need to enable external sharing at the below two places.

• Enable External Sharing at the Tenant Level
• Enable External Sharing for the particular site level.

Enable External Sharing at SharePoint Tenant Level

Here, we will see how to enable external sharing at the tenant level.

• Open the SharePoint admin center. Expand Policies -> Select Sharing.

In the External Sharing window:

• File and folder links: It has three sections
  1. Choose the type of link that’s selected by default when users share files and folders in SharePoint and OneDrive: Select Anyone with the link.
     • By default, it will be Only people in your organization.
  2. Choose the permission that’s selected by default for sharing links: View
  3. Choose expiration and permissions options for Anyone links: Select the checkbox of [These links must expire within this many days (30)].

• Other settings:
  • By default, all the options of checkboxes will be selected under other settings.
• Click Save.

Once you click on the Save button, it will enable external sharing at the tenant level.

Enable External Sharing at the SharePoint Site Level

Once you enable external sharing at the tenant level, we must enable external sharing at the particular site level to share a document library with an external user.

Follow the below steps:

• Open the SharePoint admin center -> Expand sites -> Select Active sites.
• Select a specific SharePoint site for which you want to enable external sharing -> Click on Sharing.

• In the Sharing window, it has three sections:
  • External Sharing: Select Anyone

• Default sharing link type: Select Anyone with the link from the below options
  • people with existing access
  • specific people ( only the people the user specifies)
  • only people in your organization
  • Anyone with the link

• Default link permission: By default, it is a View permission
  • Select Edit, if we want to give edit permission to the external user.
• Click on Save.

This is how to enable external sharing in SharePoint Online at the particular SharePoint site level.

Share a SharePoint Online Document Library File With External Users

Once you enable external sharing at the above two places, we can now share a SharePoint document library file with an external user.

Note:

Sharing multiple files of a SharePoint document library is not possible, instead of that we can create a folder for a multiple files and then share a folder.

Follow the below steps to share a library file with an external user in SharePoint Online.

• Open a SharePoint document library, select a file and click on the Share option.

• Enter an external user name in a Share dialogue box, and click on Send.

• Then, it displays a dialogue box i.e., a Link shared with an external user.

• Whenever an external user opens a link, it will display Request Verification Code, Click on Send code.

• Enter a code that has been sent to the registered email address and Click on Verify.

• Then a SharePoint document library file will be opened as shown below image:

This is how to share a SharePoint Online document library file with an external user.

Conclusion

Sharing a document library with external users is easy, and we need to follow the below steps to do it:

• First, we need to enable external sharing at the tenant level for external users.
• Second, enable external sharing at the particular SharePoint site level.
• Third and then in the final step, we can share the SharePoint document library file with external user.

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