Whiteboard Sharing/Collaboration is not working on Neat/Surface Hub Devices

 

Where does Microsoft Whiteboard canvas content is saved?

When you initiate Microsoft Whiteboard canvas on the Microsoft Surface Hub or Microsoft Teams Room on Android by default the data is stored in Azure. However, if you initiate a whiteboard sharing on the Teams client (Windows/Mac) the data will be stored on the user One Drive who is initiating the whiteboard. The Whiteboard content is saved and synced automatically to OneDrive for Business or Azure. So, the next time when you open the same whiteboard on the same device or any other device with the same login you will see all your content and you can start from where you are left over.

Where does my Whiteboard content store in OneDrive?

Microsoft migrated Whiteboard's default storage location from Azure to OneDrive starting in January 2022. Once the migration is completed (Admin must configure Teams meeting policy to enforce the default store location) you can access the data under the “One Drive\Whiteboard” folder.

If you collaborated with others, the data will be under "Shared".

Whiteboard is not starting on the Surface Hub/ Neat Board devices?

After Microsoft migrated to OneDrive for Business the SharePoint sharing policy takes precedence to produce the data, you might see errors like a blow,

You SharePoint admin can configure the Sharing policy to allow anonymous users to access the content with the below settings,

Set-SPOTenant -AllowAnonymousMeetingParticipantsToAccessWhiteboards On

Manage sharing for Microsoft Whiteboard | Microsoft Learn

After the change, you should be able to access the whiteboard without any further issues.

What is the anonymous user can access to the content means?

When you are sharing a whiteboard and inviting Surface Hub or Neat Boards, the device resource accounts will impersonate the presenter tokens to temporarily access the whiteboard during the meeting. Once the meeting is over the device account will not have access to the content.

Can external participants able to collaborate on the whiteboard in Teams meeting?

Yes, external users will be able to collaborate within Teams meetings, if your SharePoint admin enabled the below settings.

Set-SPOTenant -AllowAnonymousMeetingParticipantsToAccessWhiteboards On.

Can I disable external anonymous users accessing the whiteboard during the meeting?

If you want to allow only MTR devices within the organization, but you want to block the external attendees, your Teams Admin needs to configure “Meeting Settings” not to allow external users to have access to Teams meeting apps.