External App not render with external user

[abusedmedia]

Hey there,

I’m having trouble on using an external app with an external user.

I enabled the feature, created an app in external-user group, invited an external user, but the app doesn’t render its content.

Here the settings:

Here the permission group with two app in there:

Here the details of the permission group:

Here the external user:

Here the user detail:

Here the sharing setting in the external app:

And this is the App that should be visible to them:

But that user see as this one:

It looks like the app is working but all the inner components are not rendered.

The App is properly released with a tag.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help.

[Shawn_Optipath]

Hi @abusedmedia,

A couple of ideas:

• Do you have any modules in that app? Permissions would need t be set there as well (a long shot).
• Have you published the latest version of the app? (i.e. not left it in Draft). I’ve forgotten this step in the past.

• Try a hard refresh or open the app in incognito mode (or a different browser) — cache or session/cookie issues can sometimes prevent the external-user landing page from loading properly.

[abusedmedia]

Hi @Shawn_Optipath

thanks for your answer.

Unfortunately all your ideas didn’t work:

• No modules in the app
• App already published with a tag
• Hard refresh, empty cache, different browser

It looks that every component is not rendered (even a simple text component) for some reason.

Thanks again for the attempt.

[abusedmedia]

A further test:

Creating some other users.

here the results:

• The working user: personal gmail account, I signup with user/password
• The broken one: workspace gmail account, I signup with Google connect (oAuth flow)
• Another broken one: same of above workspace gmail account with user/password
• Another working one: a different workspace gmail account with user/password

It looks like a specific google workspace has issues with the external app.

Any hints?

[Shawn_Optipath]

So personal gmail works with pw, gmail workspace = broken weather pw or google connect on one account but works on a different workspace. If you can, I would compare the 2 workspace security configurations. It seems like something is blocking one of them.

Is the Workspace-managed Google account subject to any additional security restrictions (e.g. SAML SSO, enforced MFA, domain-wide policies) that might interfere with OAuth sign-in?

Did you configure Google OAuth / “Sign in with Google” SSO for that workspace domain (i.e. with proper OAuth client + authorized redirect URIs)?

[abusedmedia]

I don’t own that Workspace, thus, I’m unable to investigate at such level.

Before going to that route, I’d wait if there are something relevant to know from Retool team.

[Shawn_Optipath]

Have you looked in the browser console yet to see if there are any errors or clues? That might be your next step.

Otherwise, if you have time, office hours is probably your best bet. If they can’t solve it live with you, they will reach out to the appropriate department to investigate further.

[Jack_T]

Hi @abusedmedia,

That is very odd, it seems like you have the permissions on the app set up correctly.

The fact that the page loads and has some JS/HTML on the screen (although empty) leads me to wonder what the browser console is saying, as @Shawn_Optipath mentioned

Since if it was permissions they would likely be given an error message or redirected.

[abusedmedia]

Hi @Jack_T

Ok I think I was able to identify the cause.

It happens with a specific Google Chrome (the latest Dev build of Chrome) that I was using with that Google Workspace account.

Here the console log that shows a Security Error on localStorage and, I guess, it blocks everything that follow:

I don’t know why, but at least the problem happens with that specific Chrome build, that is not the common one.

Thanks for the help.

[Jack_T]

Ahhhhh ok I see, thank you so much for the detective work and sharing that!

Browser related bugs are so tricky to troubleshoot.

I can relay that to our engineers.

[abusedmedia]

Hi @Jack_T

last follow-up, after checking closely the log error, the issue was caused by a Chrome extension, not the browser, this one: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/custom-useragent-string/lejiafennghcpgmbpiodgofeklkpahoe

Thus, I guess, a very edge case you shouldn’t worry about.

Best

[LBCooper]

Hi Fabio:

I am new to Retool. I am a non-technical vibe coder and product/project manager looking to make some money as an AI consultant, implementing more efficient tech stacks for business owners and/or their selected divisions.

I thought I would reach out to you to find out if you finished your project giving your external users access to your. product. And if you did, I wonder if you would share your steps for creating a workspace for my external leads to test drive my new Tech Stack Audit Widget.

I first built it on Base 44, but I wanted to compare it to the AI builder on ReTool and it was much better. But now I feel that I am in very technical waters, and I need some help. Making money is critical for me at this time. I need tools that work easily and accurately.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide based on your experience with setting up access for external users.