"You do not have permission to download this file" on All Teams/OWA file downloads - preview works, download fails.

Question

"You do not have permission to download this file" on All Teams/OWA file downloads - preview works, download fails.

VEDANT VINODRAO KULKARNI 5

Hi Team,

We have a rehired user who had an 11-month gap and whose account was recreated with the same email ID rather than restored. The user is currently facing the issue described below:

Symptoms:

User can preview any file/image shared via Teams chat, Teams channel, or OWA attachment — preview renders fine.
Clicking Download gives: "You do not have permission to download this file."
This happens on every file, from every sender, including brand-new files sent today (not just old pre-existing shares).
Reproduced on Teams Desktop, Teams Web, and OWA — same result on all.
Confirmed on multiple browsers, after full sign-out/sign-in — same error.
Only this tenant is affected — the same user has a second M365 account in another tenant, where Teams file downloads work normally.
2 other users with the exact same history (left the org, rehired later) are showing the identical symptom.
Other users in the same tenant download the same files without any issue.

Licenses assigned: Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Intune.

What we've already checked:

Entra ID sign-in logs: all interactive sign-ins show Success, MFA policy = Success, all other Conditional Access policies = Not Applied/Disabled (nothing blocking).
SharePoint Admin Center → Active Sites: the user's OneDrive doesn't reliably show up in the list (aware this view can lag for personal sites).
storage shows ~0.05% used, so the personal site does exist/is provisioned.
SharePoint User Profile Service → Manage User Profiles: exactly one profile found for this user (no obvious duplicate).
No eDiscovery hold, no unusual restricted access control (Unmanaged Devices) — that setting is org-wide and other users aren't affected.

Question: What is the supported/recommended way to fully reconcile or fix this. Permission Denied Download Alert

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2 answers

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Answer 1

VEDANT VINODRAO KULKARNI 5

Thank you for you quick response @Julie Huynh **

**We don’t have Microsoft Premium Support tied to our tenant. Is there any alternate way to get this issue resolved? It’s urgent and needs immediate attention.

Julie Huynh 3,420 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-03T13:04:05.8066667+00:00
Dear @VEDANT VINODRAO KULKARNI,

Thank you for letting me know.

Regarding this matter, I'd like to check whether you have administrative access to the Microsoft 365 tenant.

Are you able to sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (https://admin.microsoft.com) with an account that has Global Administrator or another administrative role?

If so, you can typically create a support request directly from the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by navigating to: Admin Center > Help & Support

You can raise support ticket at: https://admin.microsoft.com/#/support/requests

When you open a support ticket, please make sure to turn off the Support Assistant (AI) in the help panel.

Several customers have reported issues when the Support Assistant is turned on the system sometimes fails to display the “Contact Support” option.

Therefore, simply switch Support Assistant > Off, then type your issue description. Once the AI is off, the “Contact Support” button will appear normally, allowing you to submit a ticket directly.

This support channel is available to Microsoft 365 customers and does not generally require a separate Premier/Unified/Premium Support agreement for standard break-fix issues. Creating the ticket through the Admin Center also allows Microsoft Support engineers to collect tenant-specific diagnostics and investigate potential service-side issues.

Given that:

Multiple rehired users are affected,

The accounts were recreated rather than restored,

File previews work but downloads fail across Teams and OWA,

Other users in the tenant are not impacted,

this may indicate an underlying identity, OneDrive, SharePoint, or account-mapping conflict that requires backend investigation by Microsoft. Unfortunately, these types of service-level checks cannot be performed from the tenant side alone.

If you're unable to access the Admin Center or don't have the necessary admin permissions, please let me know.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding!
VEDANT VINODRAO KULKARNI 5 Reputation points

2026-09-04T10:30:02.45+00:00

Thank you for your suggestion @Julie Huynh

Actually, our tenant does not have Microsoft Premium Support. We are a small-scale organization, so we have not purchased a Premium Support plan. I currently have the Exchange Administrator role in our tenant.

I also came across one possible solution, although I have not performed it yet. I would like to confirm this with you before proceeding.

Would it be possible to delete the affected user’s OneDrive user profile from the SharePoint Admin Center under User Profiles → Manage User Profiles, by searching for the user and deleting the profile? My understanding is that after this, when the user signs in to OneDrive again, the profile would be recreated automatically.

Can we try this approach for the current Teams download-permission issue?

Could you please confirm whether deleting the user profile from SharePoint Admin Center → User Profiles → Manage User Profiles is a supported and appropriate troubleshooting step for this scenario? Also, please confirm whether doing this could have any impact on the user’s OneDrive data, files, permissions, sharing links, or any other services associated with the user.

I would like to get your confirmation before making this change, as I want to ensure that it will not cause any unintended impact to the user. Thanks in advance!
Julie Huynh 3,420 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-04T13:49:48.5966667+00:00

Dear @VEDANT VINODRAO KULKARNI,

Thank you for the additional details.

While I appreciate the research you've done, I'm unable to officially confirm the outcome of this action for your specific environment. Since this is a backend service-related issue, the results of administrative changes can vary depending on tenant configuration, synchronization state, and other environmental factors. Because of that, I cannot guarantee that deleting and recreating the user profile will resolve the issue or be free of unintended side effects.

Regarding Microsoft Premier Support, that offering mainly provides benefits such as faster response times, dedicated support engagement, and assistance with complex or business-critical issues. It is not required to receive Microsoft support for standard Microsoft 365 service issues.

Given the nature of this issue and the proposed backend change, my recommendation would be to open a support ticket with Microsoft 365 Support so that the support engineers can review the affected account and tenant directly. They have access to diagnostic tools and service-side information that are not available through the community and can advise whether modifying the SharePoint user profile is appropriate in your specific case.

This will help ensure the issue is handled safely and avoid any unexpected impact to the user's OneDrive profile, permissions, or related services.

Thank you for your understanding.

Answer 2

Dear @VEDANT VINODRAO KULKARNI,

Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

Based on your description, I understand that several rehired users whose accounts were recreated instead of restored can preview files in Teams and Outlook on the web, but are unable to download any files, receiving a "You do not have permission to download this file" error. The issue occurs across Teams Desktop, Teams Web, and OWA for all files, while other users in the tenant can download the same files without issue.Thank you for providing the detailed information and for the troubleshooting you've already completed.

As an initial step, I'd recommend running the relevant Microsoft Self-Help Diagnostics for Exchange Online and Outlook, as these tools can automatically detect and remediate common configuration and access issues: Self-help diagnostics for issues in Exchange Online and Outlook

If the diagnostics do not identify or resolve the problem, I would recommend opening a Microsoft Support ticket for further investigation.

Given that:

The affected users were recreated rather than restored,
The issue is impacting multiple users with similar rehire histories,
File previews work but downloads fail across Teams, OWA, browsers, and devices,
Other users in the same tenant can access and download the same files successfully

there may be an underlying identity, SharePoint/OneDrive profile, or permissions reconciliation conflict associated with the recreated accounts. These scenarios often require backend investigation by Microsoft to verify account mappings, permissions inheritance, and service-side associations that are not visible through standard tenant administration tools.

When creating the support request, please include the troubleshooting already performed, along with the affected users' UPNs and a few recent examples of files that reproduce the issue. This will help expedite the investigation.

For more details, you could refer to this article to create a support ticket: Get support for Microsoft 365 for business

Thank you for your kindness and understanding!