When inviting guests to access your SharePoint site/s all you need to do is enter their email address, they will then receive an invite as picture below.
The guest then needs to client on the name of the site next to where the invite says 'Go To' in order to complete the sign up process. The screen they should see should look like below...
A this point the guest user needs to sign in with their Microsoft Account, they can choose from three options...
- Microsoft Account: this is normal a personal account, not associated with the guest users employer. Normally used for Microsoft consumer services like Skype, Xbox Live, Hotmail and outlook.com.
- Organizational Account: If the guests users work account is a Microsoft account (i.e. their employer users Office 365) they can choose this option
- Don't have an account: Most people have a Microsoft account but if for whatever reason this guest does not they can create one for free by following the link.
Once the guest has chosen an option and entered their correct Microsoft Username and Password they should be able to access your SharePoint site.
Troubleshooting
There are a few common problems users may face....
Forgotten password
The guest can't remember the password for their Microsoft account: Go to the Microsoft Account Password reset page and follow the steps there to reset the password. If for whatever reason you can't regain access to the account you could consider creating a new one.
Wrong account
Some people may have multiple Microsoft accounts, associated with different email addresses they own. They may have one for work and then one or more for personal accounts. It's also common to be signed into an account already before you start the process, and this may not be the Microsoft account you wish/need to use.
- In the first instance, go back to the invite email, right click the link and select copy link.
- Now right click your internet browser in the task bar and choose 'InPrivate', 'Incognito' or 'Private', this will open a new browser window which is a blank canvas, it won't have any accounts signed in.
- Copy the link into the address bar of this new browser window and try to sign in with your Microsoft account again
If the above doesn't help it may be the SharePoint site you're trying to access is setup to only allow you to sign in with the email address the original invite was sent to (to prevent the email invite been forwarded on to someone else for example). In this case you must sign in to the Microsoft account which is linked to the account the email invite was sent to (i.e. the username of the Microsoft account will be the same email address as the one the invite was sent to).
If you don't have a Microsoft account linked to the account the email invite was sent to you need to do one of the following:
- Create one by clicking the third option of 'Don't have either Account'.
- Link your existing Microsoft account to the email address the invite was sent to by following the steps here.