File share troubleshooting

Microsoft have recently made some changes that mean the experience of sending files via SharePoint has changed for some people, and that there are now two different ways of accessing the files, depending on the email address you nominate to recieve the files. On this page we will show video and text guides to both those approaches, so you know what to expect, and to help get through any problems you might experience.

We recommend using an email address associated with a Microsoft account for the simplest access.

When we share files with you, you should be sent a link in an email that has been shared specifically with the address that you nominated in our request form. The files will be available for up to 14 days from the point we send that email, hosted on our SharePoint site. In both cases you will be prompted to ‘Sign in’; you should use the nominated email address here.

How exactly you access the files will depend on whether the nominated email address is associated with a Microsoft account (this includes all Microsoft email addresses, but also 3rd party addresses that have been manually associated with a Microsoft account); if it is, you will be prompted to log into that account; if it is not, then you will be sent a verification code to the nominated email that you need to enter, and also required to use Microsoft Authenticator on a mobile device. There are step by step instructions in text and video form for both of these below.

Common issues

If you are signed into a Microsoft account in the browser you open the link in, but asked for the files to be shared with a different account, you may get an error message like this:

AADSTS50020: User account ‘[email address]‘ from identity provider ‘[some link]‘ does not exist in tenant ‘Churchill College’ and cannot access the application ‘00000003-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000′(Office 365 SharePoint Online) in that tenant. The account needs to be added as an external user in the tenant first. Sign out and sign in again with a different Azure Active Directory user account.

To get round this problem, you can either ask us to share the files with the email address in the error message, or open the link in a ‘private’ window (Edge: InPrivate, Chrome: Incognito, Firefox: Private, etc), as this will not have the other account signed in.

Method 1: Address associated with a Microsoft account

  1. Follow link from email
  2. Enter email address
  3. You should be redirected to a Microsoft webpage (for example, one at login.live.com, although this may differ depending on the account); log into the account there as normal.
    • The exact methods available will depend on what is normal for that account (eg you may be able to use a password, or you may have a passkey set up)
  4. Accept the following permissions prompt
  5. Click ‘Download’ at the top of the page
    • If you get a ‘Please sign in’ popup at this stage, you can ignore or close it

Method 2: Address not associated with a Microsoft account

  1. Follow link from email
  2. Enter email address
  3. Check your email account for a code from ‘Churchill College (via Microsoft)’ ([email protected]). This should be a 8 number code, and will last half an hour
  4. Enter that code in the window
  5. Accept the following permissions prompt
  6. You will need to have Microsoft Authenticator on a mobile device, scan the provided QR code, and then authenticate with the code given on screen
  7. Click ‘Download’ at the top of the page
    • If you get a ‘Please sign in’ popup at this stage, you can ignore or close it