Carrying out University business often requires that you collaborate with individuals outside of the University. Therefore, the University of Chicago allows external users to access its Microsoft 365 Teams tenant. This article will assist you with granting access to your external users and collaborators.
Add an External User
Getting Started
To add an external user, the external user must have access to Microsoft Teams via:
- their external university, company, or institution, and their organization must allow external users as well, or
- an existing or new Microsoft account using Microsoft Teams (free).
Add a user by their email address
In cases where the external user has a Microsoft account, you will see two or more listings. Confirm the external user has access to Teams before attempting to add. In the image below, the external user has a Microsoft Skype account but is not signed up for Microsoft Teams (free). In this case, you may encounter these two error messages for these reasons:
- If you have tried adding an external user who has a Microsoft account like the Skype account in the screenshot below, but has not signed up for Teams yet, you will get an undeliverable error like the one below that will say, "Failed to Send."
You may also receive the error message, "We ran into a problem sending your message. Please share diagnostic code 504/1009 with your admin to help them troubleshoot the issue." The external user needs to sign up with their Microsoft account for Microsoft Teams (free), then add your CNetID@uchicago.edu address to their Teams tenant. - If you have tried adding an external user from a private company that does not allow external users, you will get this error:
Unfortunately, unless the company changes its policies, there is nothing you can do.