# Troubleshooting Microsoft Teams External Access

{% hint style="info" %}
Aphex uses Microsoft Teams to communicate with customers and their users where they typically communicate internally. We do this for training, support, coordination, and analytics work. This allows us to provide real-time support with fast response times.
{% endhint %}

From time to time, some customers find that we're unable to create group chats due to external access restrictions in their Teams configuration.

## When You Might Need This Guide

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Your Aphex Customer Success Manager might contact you saying they're experiencing an error when trying to add team members to a Teams group chat. The error typically appears as:

* "`We can't set up the conversation because your organisations are not set up to talk to each other`"
* "`External access is not enabled for this organisation`"

If your Customer Success Manager reports seeing these errors, it's usually caused by your organisation's Teams external access settings blocking communication with external domains.

## Prerequisites

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To resolve this issue, you'll need:

* **Teams Administrator Access**: The person making these changes must have Microsoft Teams administrator privileges in your Microsoft 365 environment
* **Permission to Modify Security Settings**: This change affects organisation-wide communication policies, so appropriate approval may be required depending on your company's change management process

## Enabling Aphex External Communication

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### Step <img src="https://2273109354-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FLu0mYklsCTm7XQm3ZGqv%2Fuploads%2FWHGjuanVlmOHA4cZ8aYQ%2F1%20Grey.svg?alt=media&#x26;token=56471c5f-ac0f-4afb-9149-453a36097a85" alt="" data-size="line">: Access Teams External Communications Settings

1. Go to <https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/company-wide-settings/external-communications>
2. Sign in with Teams administrator credentials

### Step <img src="https://2273109354-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FLu0mYklsCTm7XQm3ZGqv%2Fuploads%2Fx4scw3mIcnyLsn8g8MmY%2F2%20Grey.svg?alt=media&#x26;token=f6db6b12-c9fd-4d08-bae0-e141912069da" alt="" data-size="line">: Configure External Domain Settings

You have two recommended options:

**Option A: Allow All External Domains (Simplest)**

1. In the "Teams and Skype for Business users in external organisations" section
2. Select **"Allow all external domains"** from the dropdown
3. Click **Save**

**Option B: Allow Specific Domains (More Restrictive)**

1. In the "Teams and Skype for Business users in external organisations" section
2. Select **"Allow only specific external domains"**
3. Add `aphex.co` to the allowed domains list
4. Click **Save**

<figure><img src="https://2273109354-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FLu0mYklsCTm7XQm3ZGqv%2Fuploads%2FuRhhMnTiTiRPcppFYkWL%2FTroubleshooting%20-%20MS%20Teams.svg?alt=media&#x26;token=ee8064aa-7f0d-4c7d-ab76-d91f590f26d7" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Step <img src="https://2273109354-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FLu0mYklsCTm7XQm3ZGqv%2Fuploads%2Fz0xFokg3mMNUa5YFeFPq%2F3%20Grey.svg?alt=media&#x26;token=8c7ad95f-9887-4530-8006-d8b807c108da" alt="" data-size="line">: Test the Configuration

1. **Wait 2-4 hours** for the changes to propagate across Microsoft's systems
2. **Contact your Aphex Customer Success Manager** to test group chat creation
3. **Verify functionality** by sending a test message in the group chat

If issues persist after 4 hours, contact your Teams administrator to verify the configuration was saved correctly.


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