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Question

External Collaboration is Restricted

  • April 6, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 251 views

I am the Admin on my company’s box account. My members regularly share folders externally. Suddenly we are getting a message that says “Invitations could not be sent … because external collaboration is restricted” As the Admin nothing has been changed or updated to stop collaboration externally. What could be causing this?

    1 reply

    • Jill
    • Community Manager
    • April 6, 2026

    Hi ​@LaurenSSP,

     

    Welcome to Box Community and glad to assist! 

    The error you received "Invitations could not be sent to the following people because external collaboration is restricted by either your or their enterprise", shows up when the setting "Restrict external collaboration" is enabled either in the folder settings or Account Settings of the user in Admin Console. Please check both settings and if it is enabled, you can disable it so you can share the folder to external users.
     
    In folder settings:

    1. Hover your mouse to the folder in question
    2. Click More options(...)
    3. Click Settings from the dropdown menu
    4. In Invitation Restrictions section, see if the setting "Restrict collaboration to within..." is checked. If it is, uncheck it and save the changes.

     
    In Enterprise settings:

    1. Go to Admin Console > Users & Groups > Managed users
    2. Access the folder owner's profile in the list
    3. Under Role and Access Permissions, see if the setting "Restrict collaboration to within..." is checked. If it is, uncheck it and save the changes.

     

    Thanks for posting! 

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