Error FYI-2153 "We were unable to create the guest user in Microsoft 365" when adding a user to New Collaborate Sharing Settings

Issue

When trying to add a client to the New Collaborate Sharing Settings the following error is displayed:

• We were unable to create the guest user in Microsoft 365 Please refer to the article for troubleshooting steps.

Cause 

This issue is typically caused by one of the following:

• The Microsoft 365 organisation that the email address is associated with does not allow users to be invited as guests to other Microsoft 365 organisations.
  
  
• The email address being added is an email distribution list, Microsoft Group alias or Shared Mailbox.
  
  
• If your practice has historical guest user accounts in Entra. For example, where the accounts share the same name or similar domain (client.frank.marshall@hotmail.com and client.frank.marshall@hotmail.com.au). FYI may not be able to identify and correctly invite the user account when added to Sharing Settings.
  
  
• The email address added in Share Settings is invalid due to special characters in the email address, such as apostrophes.

Troubleshooting

To identify and resolve the issue, we recommend attempting to manually add the user to the client share folder in SharePoint. Performing a manual share will identify if there is a conflict or error in Microsoft 365 that is preventing FYI from being able to invite the user to SharePoint.

We suggest performing the following troubleshooting steps as the Practice OneDrive Admin account:

1. Login to FYI as the Practice OneDrive Admin account.
   
   
2. Navigate in FYI to Automations - Apps - Collaborate.
   
   
3. Click the Collaborate site link.
   
4. Click Documents at the top of the page. This will display your client share folders.
   
5. Locate the client share folder of the client where the error occurred.
   
   
6. Select the folder and click the three dots to display a drop-down of options.
   
   
7. Select Manage Access.
   
   
8. Click Share in the Manage Access window.
   
   
9. Type the original client email address where the error occurred.
   
   
10. Click Copy Link to save:
    
    
    • If no error messages are received, close the window. Move to Step 11.
      
      
    • If an error is received, Move to Errors Received when manually inviting users.
      
      
11. Open FYI.
    
    
12. Navigate to the Client Workspace > Collaborate tab.
    
    
13. Click Sharing Settings.
    
    
14. The client email address should now display in Sharing Settings. A Status Check will be performed to detect any issues. Where an issue is detected, the Status Check will attempt to rectify this automatically. Refer to Troubleshooting New Collaborate using Status Check.
    
    
15. We recommend waiting 5 minutes before running the Status Check again to confirm the guest user account is operating correctly.  Refer to Troubleshooting New Collaborate using Status Check.

Errors Received when Manually Inviting Users

After performing the Troubleshooting steps 1 - 10 above, you may be presented with one of the following errors. Please refer to each message for the possible cause:

1. Error Message:
   
   "This invitation is blocked by cross-tenant access settings. Admins in both your organization and the invited user's organization must configure cross-tenant access settings to allow the invitation."
   
   Cause: This error indicates that the user’s Microsoft 365 organisation is preventing the email account from being added to your Microsoft 365 tenant. Your client will need to nominate another email to use in conjunction with Collaborate.
   
   
2. Error Message:
   
   "Please configure B2B collaboration settings correctly and troubleshoot first. Error from Entra BRB: At least one invitation failed. Error: ResponseStatusNotOK, message: Group email address is not supported."
   
   Cause: This error indicates that the email provided by the client belongs to a Microsoft 365 distribution group/list and cannot be invited to Microsoft 365. Your client will need to nominate another email to use in conjunction with Collaborate.

If the Email Address Contained Special Characters

You will need to remove the email address from Share Settings and add the email address again, ensuring that no special characters have been used. Refer to Sharing the Share Folder and Upload Folder with Clients.