Sharing Document from Teams to Sharepoint

Good day Sarah, and I appreciate the clear explanation of your concern.  

Just to gently clarify before we go any further, this is a user‑to‑user support forum. I don’t have the ability to access or investigate individual accounts because this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, do not have access to internal systems or the ability to directly take action on Microsoft product features. However, I truly hope I can help review your situation, offer some guidance, and support you in finding the right next steps as best as possible.   

This behavior typically occurs because files in Teams channels are stored in SharePoint, and access to those files is controlled by SharePoint sharing permissions. If external sharing is not properly configured at the file, site, or organization level, external users will not be able to open the shared link. 

Please see the following workarounds that will help you verify the issue:  

Option 1: Share the file directly from SharePoint (view-only) 

This is the most suitable approach if external users only need read access. 

Open the Teams channel where the file is stored. 

Go to the Shared/Files tab. 

Select More options > Open in SharePoint to locate the file. 

In SharePoint, select the file and click Share. 

Click Manage access > Links > Remove the old link.  

Then go back and enter the external user’s email address under People you choose or choose Anyone if your organization does not restrict it. 

Set permission to Can view. 

Send the invitation or share the link. 

Note: This option will only work if external sharing is enabled at both the organization and site levels in SharePoint and OneDrive. 

• If the external user still cannot access the file after sharing, it is necessary to verify tenant-level settings with the organization's IT administrator.  

I recommend reaching out to your organization’s IT admin and sharing the information below with them: 

Note: In case you do not know who is your IT admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support  

• Step 1: Confirm Teams guest access 

Go to the Teams admin center > Navigate to Settings & policies > Guest access settings > Ensure that Guest access is turned On. 

This allows external users to participate in Teams. Without this setting enabled, guest collaboration will not work. 

Step 2: Confirm Microsoft 365 Groups settings 

Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center > Navigate to Settings > Org settings > Microsoft 365 Groups. 

Ensure both options are enabled: 

• Let group owners add people outside your organization to groups. 
• Let group members outside your organization access group content. 

These settings control whether external users can be added to Teams and access associated content. 

• Step 3: Check SharePoint organization level sharing 

Go to the SharePoint admin center (Microsoft 365 admin center > Show all > SharePoint).

Navigate to Policies then Sharing. 

Set external sharing for both SharePoint and OneDrive to at least New and existing guests. 

This is one of the most common causes of the error you are seeing, since Teams files are stored in SharePoint. 

Step 4: Check SharePoint site level sharing 

In the SharePoint admin center, go to Active sites > Select the site connected to the Team. 

Open Sharing settings > More sharing settings. 

Ensure it is also set to at least New and existing guests. 

Even if the organization level is open, a more restrictive site level setting can still block sharing. 

Step 5: Review Microsoft Entra external collaboration settings 

Go to Microsoft Entra admin center > Navigate to External Identities > External collaboration settings. 

Ensure guest invitations are allowed. 

Check that there are no domain restrictions blocking the recipient. 

These settings can override other sharing configurations, especially in environments using B2B integration. 

Step 6: Ensure the guest is added to a Team (optional) 

This is a better fit if the outside organization needs ongoing access to files and collaboration inside the Team, not just one document. With guest access, people outside your organization can access Teams, channel documents, and related resources after they are added to at least one Team. 

If the user was only created as a guest in Entra. 

Add them to at least one Team in Microsoft Teams. 

Guest permissions in Teams are only fully activated after being added to a Team. 

• Step 7: Allow time for propagation 

After making changes or adding a guest. 

Try again after some time. 

In some cases, guest access provisioning can take several hours to fully apply. 

Option 2: Contact Microsoft Support 

If the issue still persists after trying the steps above, I recommend reaching out to your organization's IT administrator to create a support ticket via Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support for further backend investigation. 

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.    

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have any extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".            

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.