Collaborating with external persons

Prerequisites

• Microsoft 365 account
• Fully configured Teams desktop app or Teams web app
• A team in Microsoft Teams that has already been created

 Note

It is not possible for students to create teams. An error message appears when trying to create a team. Students can not be added to an existing team as a team member.

Adding members to a Team

If you are a team owner, you can add people to a team. These can be people from your organisation or guests. 

1. Click on Teams in the left-hand navigation.
2. Click on the 3 dots to the right of the desired team and then on Add member in the menu. Members can be removed again via the Manage team entry.

 Note

Joining a team can take up to 48 hours.

External participants must accept the requested authorisations of the University of Vienna before joining a team at the University of Vienna. Please also read the information on data protection.

Accepting invitations from external teams

Invited persons receive an e-mail with the subject You have been added as a guest to [name of institution] in Microsoft Teams. The invitation can be accepted by clicking on Open Microsoft Teams in the e-mail text.

 Note

For security reasons, only click on links in invitation e-mails that you actually expect.

The standard browser opens. Here you can decide whether the invitation should be accepted with an already configured, locally installed Teams desktop app or the Teams web app.

Problems with adding members

 Note

Problems often occur when invitations are accepted with the Teams test environment of the University of Vienna, which has already been decommissioned. This means that a guest account already exists in the external unit. In this case, the only solution is to remove the authorisations and delete the existing guest account.

If you have difficulty adding members to a team, try the following:

• First check the authorisations that have been granted.  
• Repeat the invitation attempt at a later time.
  
  Please note: The invitation to a team can only be accepted with the current invitation e-mail.
   
• Remove all authorisations and set them again. Please note: Removing or re-setting authorisations can take some time.
• Ask invited persons to check their local configuration as follows:  
  • Remove the corresponding account for Microsoft 365 and Teams and add it again. User guide: Manage user accounts in Windows on the Microsoft support pages
  • Reset the cache of the Teams desktop app or reset the cache of the web browser when using the Teams web app. User guide Clear the Teams client cache on the Microsoft support pages
  • Remove credentials for Teams via the Windows Credentials Manager. User guide: Accessing Credential Manager on the Microsoft support pages

• If the problems persist, please contact the external IT administration with a request to remove the authorisations granted and delete the guest account. As soon as the guest account has been deleted, the authorisations can be reassigned and a new invitation can be sent.
  
  Please note: If a collaboration has already taken place, back up data that has already been transferred. Deleted accounts are kept for 30 days by default. However, each organisation can set this value itself.

Switching between accounts

In the Teams desktop app, you can now switch between Teams environments by clicking on the profile picture.

Leaving an external Team

1. Open your Microsoft 365 account at https://myaccount.microsoft.com.
2. Select Organisations in the navigation on the left.
3. Click on Exit for the desired entry. Exiting deletes the guest account you created.