This message will appear when User Consent Permissions have not been configured to allow a user to give consent for applications to access their mailbox. To resolve this, an Administrator needs to configure user consent settings in Outlook.
Granting Folderly permissions
1. Your Global Administrator should sign in to your Microsoft Entra admin center (entra.microsoft.com).
2. Click Identity > Applications
3a (recommended). Select the Enterprise applications > User consent settings and choose "Allow user consent for apps" in the list so your users can add the apps they want.
4. Go back to Folderly and add your mailboxes.
If, for some reason, you're not allowed to grant your users full access, please follow the next steps.
3b. Select the Enterprise applications > User consent settings and choose "Allow user consent for apps from verified publishers, for selected permissions (Recommended)" in the list.
4. Now navigate to Admin consent settings and choose "Yes" under "Users can request admin consent to apps they are unable to consent to".
5. Fill in the rest of the information:
Add Users or Groups who will have the right to review the future Consent requests
Choose "Yes" under both "Selected users will receive email notifications for requests" and "Selected users will receive request expiration reminders".
Increase "Consent request expires after (days)" to the available maximum
The chosen users will receive requests for the applications.
5. You may need to go back to Folderly and attempt to add the mailbox once again to send a request for approval.
6. Now go to Admin consent requests under Enterprise applications > My Pending and approve Folderly's request.
Here's also a direct guide from Microsoft on reviewing and taking action on admin consent requests.
I turned on "Allow user consent for all apps" but users still get "Need admin approval."
The setting can take up to an hour to propagate: users hitting it immediately after saving will still see the error. As the user, sign out and sign back in to force a new token.
Can my IT helpdesk person make this change, or does it need a Global Admin?
It requires a Global Administrator role to change user consent settings in the Entra admin center.
I enabled the admin consent workflow (set to Yes), but users still see "Need admin approval" without any option to request access. What's wrong?
Two likely issues. First, you must also assign at least one reviewer: the workflow won't activate without a reviewer configured. Second, propagation takes up to an hour. If the user hit the error before the setting took effect, you need to re-attempt after waiting. As the user, sign out and sign back in to force a new token.
I set "Do not allow user consent" but forgot to set up the admin consent workflow first. Now users are completely stuck. What do I do?
Fastest fix is to go to the specific app under Enterprise apps → find Folderly → Permissions → click "Grant admin consent for [your tenant]". This bypasses the workflow and grants consent for all users immediately. Then configure the workflow properly for future apps.
I can see the request, but the Approve, Deny, and Block buttons are all greyed out.
The app is requesting permissions (app roles), which only Global Administrators can approve - you need to escalate to a Global Admin.
Can I grant consent for an app without waiting for a user to trigger the request workflow?
Yes. Go to Enterprise apps → find or add the app → Permissions → click "Grant admin consent for [tenant name]". This grants tenant-wide consent immediately and is the fastest path when you know you want to approve an app proactively.