Are you a Teams administrator that needs to troubleshoot file sharing issues in Microsoft Teams person to person chats? In this clip from my Troubleshooting Microsoft Teams: File Issues Pluralsight course you will learn how to troubleshoot file issues in person to person chats!
Video Summary
Here are the key points from the video:
- Identify the sender and receiver: Knowing who shared the file and who cannot access it helps in pinpointing the problem.
- Check file permissions: Ask the sender to copy the link to the file. This link can reveal if the file is in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business, and you can check if the file exists and its permissions.
- Common issues: Often, issues arise when a user is added to a chat after a file is shared, or when external sharing settings in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business don’t match those in Microsoft Teams.
- Admin access: Admins can gain access to a user’s OneDrive for Business through the SharePoint admin center to check and modify file permissions if necessary.
- Sync external sharing settings: Ensure that external sharing settings across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business are in sync to avoid access issues, especially for guest users.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
Video Transcript
Now that we know the expected behavior, let’s talk about how to troubleshoot file issues in person-to-person chats. First of all, what are some of the common issues that you might encounter with person-to-person file sharing? The first one is that a user cannot upload a file to a chat. You might also encounter a situation where a user cannot access a file in a chat, or a user cannot access a file in a chat but others can, which makes it even more interesting. Lastly, a common issue is that a file from a chat was previously accessible but isn’t anymore.
To troubleshoot these issues, there are three main pieces of information that you need. First, who shared the file? Who is the sender? After that, who is the user or the users who cannot access the file? Finally, a good piece of information to have is whether the receiver is internal or external. Is it just an external user who cannot access files, or is it internal as well? This can really help you focus on the right settings right away. The easiest way to get a lot of this information is to simply ask them to go into the chat and copy the link to the file that they cannot access. By looking at the URL, you will see right away if the file is in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business, as well as the path to the file, so you can go in and check if the file exists and, if it does, check the permissions.
If you try that and find that the item was deleted, you might get an error such as this one. I’ve seen this happen a lot of times when collaboration is done via chat, but the original sender leaves the organization and their OneDrive for Business files are deleted or migrated to another user’s OneDrive for Business during the offboarding process. Now, if we look at some common causes, the one that happens most of the time is that a user was added to a chat after the file was shared. This happens because when a sender uploads a file, that file is shared by default with people in the chat at that moment in time. If a user is added afterwards, those files are not updated automatically. Teams do warn you about this as a user, but users often forget and still open tickets about it.
Another common configuration issue that I have seen, which impacts mostly external users, is that the external sharing settings in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business don’t match those of Microsoft Teams. Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business can all have different configurations regarding whether external sharing is enabled or not, or even the allowed and blocked domains. Without those being in sync, file access errors can happen.
Now that we have seen the theory, let’s head over to the lab and see how we can troubleshoot file issues in person-to-person chats. We are now in the demo environment. Let me open up the browser where I’m logged in as Vanessa Lee, and let’s start with a chat with John Smith. Here, let me just go and upload a document. I will go into the demos folder and pick this PowerPoint file. I’ll add some text here, “Hello John,” and then I will change the permissions. I will select “specific people,” take John Smith off and leave only Vanessa Lee there. I click on “apply,” and as you can see, Teams is really smart. It gave me another warning: “The recipient does not have permission to access this file.” I will still send it. Now, if I go to John Smith and click on the file, I will get an error.
To troubleshoot this, ask the sending user to copy the link. I will copy the link and put it in Notepad so we can take a look at what the link looks like. After the company name, I see a dash “my,” which tells me this is in OneDrive for Business. The link could have also come from a SharePoint site, in which case we would see “sites” at the end and not the dash “my.” Then, I see “personal,” which again tells me it’s OneDrive for Business, and I know it’s in Vanessa Lee’s OneDrive. As an admin, I might not have access to that user’s OneDrive for Business, but there are multiple ways to gain access. From the SharePoint admin center, I could go into “more features,” “user profiles,” search for the user, and add myself as a site collection administrator. Another option is from the Microsoft 365 admin center, where I could find the user and get access to their files.
Once I have access to Vanessa Lee’s OneDrive for Business, I can go to the account name, click on “manage personal site,” and navigate to the “Microsoft Teams Chat Files” folder. I see the file that was just uploaded, and I can check the sharing settings. I see that John Smith does not have access, and I can either modify it myself or train Vanessa on how to do it so the error doesn’t happen again. It’s important to ask the sending user to copy the link, not the receiving user because the receiving user won’t have access to the file. If the sending user cannot copy the link, it might be because the file was deleted.
If we have an external user, the process is similar. I will go to a conversation with John Smith and Vlad Kresco, my guest account. I will upload a PowerPoint file and leave the default setting, “people in this chat with the link can view.” If I go as John Smith, I can access the file with no problems. However, if I go as Vlad, the guest account, I will get an error. This can be due to the OneDrive for Business external sharing settings. In the SharePoint Online admin center, under “policies” and “sharing,” I can see the external sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business. I need to ensure that OneDrive for Business can share externally and that the settings are in sync with SharePoint.
After modifying the settings to allow new and existing guests, I might need to re-share the file. Vanessa might need to go in, change the properties of the file, and add Vlad. When adding another user to the chat, the permissions to the file will not be changed automatically. Vanessa needs to copy the link, go to OneDrive for Business, and ensure that the new user has access to the file. The key to troubleshooting file issues in person-to-person chats is to get the sending user to provide the link to the file, check the permissions, and ensure that external sharing settings are in sync across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business.
