Entra B2B guest accounts

What changes with the switch to Entra B2B guest accounts?

From May 2026, one-time passcodes may no longer work.

The one-time passcode that has frequently been used until now works on a simple principle: an external person receives a code by e-mail and can use it to access a shared file.

With Entra B2B guest accounts, access is somewhat more structured:

You create a guest account in your Microsoft environment for external people
The external people sign in with their own Microsoft, work or organisational account
External people without a Microsoft or organisational account can register once.
Access can be managed centrally and revoked again at any time.

Why is Microsoft gradually withdrawing one-time passcodes?

Collaboration with external partners is steadily increasing in many companies. At the same time, the requirements for IT security, traceability and compliance are rising.

With Entra B2B guest accounts, companies can, for example:

manage external access better
control permissions more precisely
revoke access more easily
apply security policies such as multi-factor authentication to external users as well

In short: companies gain more transparency and control over who can access their data.

Check now whether you can create Entra B2B guest accounts in your Microsoft account.

Our tip as an IT systems house on Entra B2B guest accounts:

With Entra B2B guest accounts, companies gain more transparency and control over external SharePoint access.

First check whether your company issues sharing links with one-time codes to external partners.
Define security rules that should apply to external users (e.g. multi-factor authentication).
Check your Microsoft 365 settings to see whether guest access is already enabled.
Create a test guest account and go through each of the individual steps up to sharing.
Do employees know how external shares are set up correctly?
Inform important partners at an early stage that from May 2026 the access options via one-time passcodes may change.

Often a short test is all it takes: create a guest account for an external user and run through the sharing process once in full.

This quickly shows whether the current configuration suits your own collaboration with external partners.

Conclusion

The gradual replacement of the one-time passcode is less a restriction than a further development of external collaboration in Microsoft 365.

With Entra B2B guest accounts companies gain more transparency about external users and can manage access much better. Especially for companies that regularly work with customers, partners or service providers, this brings more security and structure in the long term.

According to Microsoft, the changeover will take place gradually from May to December 2026. Anyone who deals with the topic at an early stage ensures that SharePoint shares for external partners will continue to work smoothly in future.

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Entra B2B guest accounts

Microsoft is gradually changing external SharePoint access

From one-time passcode to Entra B2B guest account

Table of contents

What changes with the switch to Entra B2B guest accounts?

Why is Microsoft gradually withdrawing one-time passcodes?

Our tip as an IT systems house on Entra B2B guest accounts:

Conclusion

Are you considering introducing Microsoft 365 in your company?

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