SharePoint Everyone Except External Users Not Working: A Read-First Claim, People Picker, and Public-Site Triage
Helpdesk: "A site owner typed Everyone except external users in the People Picker on the Partners site and nothing came back. On the company intranet it used to show up. Can you just re-enable the Everyone group so they can share with the whole company?" Twenty minutes later a second ticket: a guest who accepted an invite last month can open a folder that was shared with Everyone , and Security…
A SharePoint site owner configured the People Picker to show "Everyone except external users" on the Partners site, but the feature failed to display any results. A second issue arose when a guest who had previously accepted an invitation could open a folder previously shared with the "Everyone" group. Security personnel wanted the claim disabled permanently, but before making any changes, it is crucial to understand the correct approach.
Firstly, it is important to note that "Everyone except external users" is a special SharePoint claim, not a security group like "Everyone" or "All Users." It only functions as intended when the entire chain is correct: the correct claim (Everyone, Everyone except external users, or All Users), the tenant showing "EEEU" in the People Picker, the site being private or public, and the site's settings allowing the claim. If these conditions aren't met, SharePoint will not behave as expected.
Microsoft states that all users added to your organization automatically become a member of the "Everyone except external users" claim, whereas guests who accepted invitations are not included in this claim. Therefore, guests will not be able to access content shared with the "Everyone" group.
If the issue is related to sharing with people outside the company, such as seeing a "policies-don't-allow" error or experiencing access denied messages for Anyone, that problem is different. However, if the issue is the missing "EEEU" from the People Picker, it is not about granting the access that was thought necessary or confusing it with the "Everyone" claim.
In summary, "Everyone except external users" is a claim, not a security group, and Microsoft states that every user added to your organization automatically becomes a member. Guests who accepted invitations are not part of this claim. It is not visible as a normal group in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Therefore, if the "EEEU" is missing from the People Picker, it does not mean the user has been deleted; it simply means the claim is hidden from the picker.
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