I am sure we can all agree that at some point or another we had a need to email a user that did not have an account within our domain via a SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2013 workflow. And while attempting to set it up we were surprised to find out it wouldn’t work. Not only did it NOT send the email, but to add insult to injury the attempt actually would suspend the workflow if forced to try. If you have never had the need, well thanks for coming to my post anyways and let me tell you… it can’t be done. An easy workaround is to build a SharePoint 2010 workflow, which doesn’t have this limitation, but then you lose the other fantastic benefits of a 2013 workflow. Microsoft removed this ability as a security enhancement. Today I am going to demonstrate how to email an external user in a SharePoint 2013 Workflow.
Quick note: Microsoft Flow does NOT have this limitation. I am describing how to to it in SharePoint Designer because so many still use this tool