External user error message on sign in: 'Your sign-in was successful but does not meet the criteria to access'

Angharad Davies 40 Reputation points
2026-11-06T16:25:33.81+00:00

Several of our external users accessing folders from a shared subsite are getting this error message when signing in:

You cannot access this right now

Your sign-in was successful but does not meet the criteria to access this resource. For example, you might be signing in from a browser, app, or location that is restricted by your admin.

Investigated:

  • They were all invited in the last month
  • Three out of four use gmail accounts
  • They all have Entra accounts
  • Three out of the four have accepted their email B2B invite
  • They are all visible in All People on the subsite under permissions
  • The folders have been shared with them
Microsoft 365 and Office | SharePoint | For business | Windows
0 comments No comments

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Ivory 2,610 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-11-06T17:10:25.93+00:00

    Hi Angharad,

    It appears that a Conditional Access policy, whether a default or custom policy, is blocking access based on the user's browser or location. Please contact your IT administrator to verify that the browser being used is supported and that the user's location or IP address is permitted under your organization's Conditional Access policies.

    You can find reference via these article:

    Conditional Access - Block access by location - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn

    Conditional Access Policy: Using Network Signals - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn

    Ask your IT administrator to review your organization's Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra ID to determine whether any other access restrictions are causing the issue. Common conditions that can block guest users include:

    • Location-based restrictions: Access may only be allowed from specific IP ranges, countries, or geographic regions.
    • Device compliance requirements: Users may be required to sign in from managed, compliant, or domain-joined devices.
    • Approved applications or browsers: Access may be limited to specific browsers, desktop applications, or mobile apps.
    • Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Guest users may be required to complete MFA before accessing the resource.

    To further isolate the cause, the IT administrator should review the Microsoft Entra sign-in logs for the affected users. These logs can identify whether a Conditional Access policy is blocking access and help determine which tenant's policy is responsible for the restriction.

    If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post.


    If the answer is helpful, please click 'Yes' and kindly upvote it.

    Note: Please follow the steps in the forum documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.