Microsoft 365 - Known Issues
Important:
- If NetID services were activated within the last 24 hours, please ask customer to wait and try again after the 24 hours have lapsed and see if issue persists. If it has been more than 24 hours, please troubleshoot accordingly.
- Many errors or inability to access a feature/action will occur if an Office application (such as Outlook, Word, or Teams, etc) is not correctly authenticated into Office 365. Before performing major troubleshooting, please follow steps outlined within Microsoft 365 (Outlook for Windows/MacOS/Android/iOS) - Incorrect Authenticated Account or Connected Services document and see if the problem is resolved.
Below is a list of known issues within Office 365.
You may also want to review support documentation from other services that may be related to the issue you are experiencing.
- OneDrive for Business: known issues | support
- Wisc Account Administration site: known issues | support
- Google Apps: known issues | support
All clients or multiple clients
The issues listed below apply to all or multiple email/calendar clients.
Teams Meeting details in (all) calendar clients
- Any Teams meeting will need need to be sent to the attendee(s) before the details are visible in the event body. The details will not be visible until the event has been saved and/or sent.
Cannot respond to S/MIME encoded emails in Outlook on the web
- Individuals who receive an email that is signed with a security certificate, may not be able to respond or forward that message when using the Outlook on the web client. The UW-Madison Office 365 team is working with Microsoft for a solution.
- Workaround: Use a desktop client to answer S/MIME encoded email.
Cannot print calendar in Outlook on the web's new interface as of 09/2019. Per Microsoft, this is known behavior/issue.
-
Workaround 1: Print calendar using the browser option instead of using the print option in Outlook on the Web.
-
Workaround 2: Save the calendar as a PDF using Internet Explore and then print the calendar events.
When editing a single instance of a recurring event, the edited event may not appear appropriately for invitees of that event.
- In order to prevent this and any possible data corruption of your calendar from occurring, we recommend that if you would like to edit a single instance of a recurring event, delete that single instance from the recurrence and create a new event where the deleted instance would have taken place. Microsoft 365 (Outlook on the web | Outlook for Windows/Mac) - Best practices when using the calendar.
Unable to view/open attachment
- Certain attachment types are blocked in Office 365. If you are unable to view or open an attachment, please review Microsoft 365 - Unable to view/open attachment article to verify that the file type is not blocked.
If a resource calendar is set to auto-accept meeting invitations, the title/subject of the event will list the name of the organizer when the resource calendar is viewed
-
This only occurs only if the resource calendar is invited to the event. If the event is scheduled on behalf of the resource -- i.e., the resource calendar creates the meeting -- this will not occur.
-
Microsoft is aware of this issue and has stated that the feature is working as designed.
-
There are two ways to work around this issue:
-
Use the resource calendar to create the meeting. In order to do this, you will need at least read and write permissions to the resource. Select your client below for instructions:
-
Disable auto-accept for the resource calendar:
-
Desktop versions of Outlook may display some emails in CJK characters (aka. Chinese characters, Han characters, kanji, etc.)
- Open the problematic email in Outlook, click More Move Actions > Other Actions > Encoding, and then change the encoding to Unicode (UTF-8).
- Or, open the email via Outlook on the web. If the CJK characters still appear, you will need to open the email in an Outlook desktop client and change the encoding.
Filtering based on which alternate address in the To field does not produce the expected results.
- The reason for this is because when the message is received and processed within Office 365, the alternate address is replaced by the primary address of the account.
- A possible workaround for this is to create a matching header rule (It includes these words | in the message header...) instead - and enter the alternate address as the matching words.
When calendaring between different systems (e.g.,Gmail, Yahoo!, etc. to Office 365 and vice versa), the attendee may receive anywhere between 0 and 2 invitations.
- Similar behavior should be expected when the attendee accepts or declines a meeting, and when the owner of the event cancels the meeting.
UW-Madison Microsoft 365 users cannot add other UW-Madison's 365 email addresses to their safe sender's listing via any Outlook client.
After further review/discussion with Microsoft, this is working as designed. There is no workaround and Microsoft views this as part of their 'secure by default' principles.
If messages are ending up within "Junk Email" folder, please contact DoIT Help Desk so that the M365 service team can review the message.
Note: Even though Outlook clients will appear to add/save the information within the safe sender's list, when you return to this screen, the entry will not appear.
Teams meeting link/information not visible within calendar event until the event is saved
When creating a calendar event which includes a Teams meeting link via Outlook on the web or Outlook for Mac (New version), the Teams meeting link/information will not be visible within body of the event until you save the event.
Microsoft has responded that this is by design and working as expected.
Sending an event invite to an "@groups.wisc.edu" address -- will result in all Office 365 members receiving up to 3 notifications of the event.
- The attendees will be able to take action on the event invitation from any of the notifications, but only one response is necessary.
If a Novell/GroupWise user invites an Office 365 resource calendar to an all day event, the event may appear from 7:00pm to 7:00pm the next day.
From March 1 - March 31, if an Office 365 user receives an event invitation from an external calendar system, the event time will be one hour behind.
- This issue occurs because of Daylight Saving Time. Learn more.
Calendar clients may not load/sync or load/sync very slowly.
There are times when you know there are events within a calendar, but your Outlook client is not showing them. What causes this delay:
- This may occur if recurring event(s) do not have an end date set. To fix this issue, set an end date for all recurring events/meetings. Learn more.
- All Outlook clients are internally coded to sync your calendars and any other calendar(s) you are subscribed to in the following priority/order:
- Calendars within the user’s account (like Calendar and any other they have created within their account) – within minutes if not quicker
- Group calendars – within minutes if not quicker
- Shared mailboxes (we do not use this feature) – within minutes if not quicker
- All other subscribed calendars (one you have read, editor, delegate permissions to) – these are synced over a 24-48 hour cycle
The UW-Madison Microsoft 365 team has engaged with Microsoft regarding the syncing delay and Microsoft confirmed the syncing priority/order. Unfortunately, the workarounds they provided are not feasible within our environment. At this time, the only solution is to wait up to 48 hours for the data to sync.
Email clients that are configured via IMAP will experience a variety of limitations and performance issues.
-
All clients connecting via IMAP will experience data throttling
- Throttling causes a reduction of speed when downloading or moving a large number of messages
- Throttling is controlled by Microsoft and cannot be removed
-
If throttling occurs when you are attempting to move mail, you may lose messages. For information on how to avoid this issue, click here.
-
Most IMAP flags are not supported in Office 365. Only the "Read/unread", "Important", and "Recent" flags are supported
-
If you have a client configured via IMAP, Outlook on the web will show drafts of messages you have already sent in message threads
-
Additional information on how to improve your IMAP client's performance.
Due to the issues listed above, configuring a client via IMAP is not recommended.
Suggested Meeting Add-In places event at incorrect time and/or on incorrect date.
- Sometimes the Suggested Meeting Add-In does not schedule the event at the correct date/time, even though it did pick up the correct date/time in the email.
- The event should be deleted and recreated manually.
- Learn more about Microsoft 365 - Suggested Meetings add-in
Unable to install the plug-in or add-in for an Office application - receive the following error: "Add-in Error Your system administrator has blocked add-ins from the Office Store".
-
If other users are able to install this add-in, then the issue may be related to an Office application setting on the user's computer.
- Open any Office application.
- Go to File | Options | Trust Center.
- Click Trust Center Settings... button.
- Chose the Macro Settings tab.
- Make sure to select VBA macros that are digitally signed.
If the above steps do not work, please try the following:
- Open Word application.
- Go to File | Options.
- Within 'General' page, click Privacy Settings button with "Privacy Settings" section.
- Enable Turn on optional connected experiences check box.
- Restart Office application.
Add-ins not appearing in Outlook for Mac desktop client
- Add-ins not appearing in Outlook for Mac desktop client even though they are active within the Office 365 account and available within Outlook on the web.
- Current Work Around
- Start/Open Outlook client.
- Go to Outlook | Preferences | Privacy menu.
- Make sure "Turn on optional connected experiences" is selected/enabled.
- Close Preferences menu.
- Restart Outlook.
- Current Work Around
Similarity function within Spelling and Grammar in Word for Mac is not available
- If other users are able to use the Similarity feature, then the issue may be related to an Office application setting on the user's computer.
- Start/Open Microsoft Word.
- Go to Word | Preferences | Privacy menu.
- Make sure "Turn on optional connected experiences" is selected/enabled.
- Close Preferences menu.
- Restart Word.
- If the above steps do not work, please try the following:
- Start/Open Microsoft Word.
- Go to Word | Preferences | Spelling & Grammar menu.
- Make sure Writing Style is set to Writing and Grammar.
- Close Preferences menu.
- Restart Word.
Problem with resource calendars not automatically processing event invitations and cancellations
- Some users may experience an issue with resource calendars not processing event invites and cancellations appropriately, even if the setting is selected to do so.
- Our current work around for this issue can be found here: Microsoft 365 - Resource Calendar Not Automatically Processing Invitations and Cancellations.
Changing your NetID password
-
When changing your NetID password, you must ensure that you update your clients and mobile devices accordingly and restart them because Office 365 has no facility to terminate active client sessions..
- Update the password on the account linked to your desktop or mobile client. You can visit the following document for more information regarding client configuration/access Microsoft 365 - Setup/configure Outlook on mobile device or desktop computer
- Restart your mobile device or desktop client to put the change into effect.
Service account display names suddenly changes to include a "." in front of the name
- Role accounts migrated as service accounts will display with a period in front of the name, for example: the name 'Bucky Badger' will appear as '.Bucky Badger.' To resolve this issue, a domain admin will need to change the first and last name by following the steps provided in this document Microsoft 365 - Change your display name.
When sending as someone else in Outlook desktop client, if you save the message as a draft, it will disappear.
- The current work around is to not change the 'From address' until you are ready to send the email.
When using Office 365 web services, text appears in a language other than your 'default' Office 365 language
- Office 365 web services use browser settings to determine language. If you have multiple languages configured within a browser for translation or other purposes, Microsoft may recognize one of these additional languages and translate text automatically. Remove any additional languages besides the one which you would like to be displayed on Office 365 Web Services from your browser's settings.
Sending a message to a Google Group causing a large amount of auto replies
- Here is the workflow for this scenario to occur:
- A UW-Madison Office 365 user is a member of the group
- The Office 365 account has auto reply (out of office) enabled
- This same account is configured in Apple Mail client
- This account has sent or replied to a message using the Apple Mail client to the Google Group
- The above will cause an automatic reply to be sent for each additional response or reply to the Google Group conversation.
- The workaround for this is to only use Outlook clients when interacting with your Office 365 account.
Error AADSTS70008 when trying to access account.
If you receive an error when trying to access an Microsoft desktop application(Teams, Excel, etc.) please try the following;
- Re-authenticate Microsoft 365
- If re-authentication doesn't work, please see this article for a resolution
- If neither works, please contact Help Desk
Outlook on the web
The issues listed below apply only to Outlook on the web. Issues occur in all browsers, unless otherwise specified.
Error "An internal server error occurred. The operation failed" when attempting to add/change image for a resource/shared mailbox.
- Microsoft confirmed this as a known issue/behavior. When opening another mailbox via Outlook on the web, the account control cannot be maintained to the mailbox that was opened. It will only control the account you authenticated/logged in with.
Editing the participants for a calendar event may result in external attendees receiving email updates.
- Issue: When a meeting organizer updates a meeting by adding participants, all external attendees may receive an update if there is a corrupted image contained within the message body.
- Workaround: If a meeting organizer intends to include images in the event invite, the images should be added using the attachment feature within the message body. It is not recommended that organizers utilize the Insert pictures inline feature.
-
Microsoft has made modifications to the Send Updates feature for editing meetings/events.
Outlook for Windows/Mac clients
The issues listed below apply to one or more desktop versions of Outlook. If a version is not specified, the issue applies to multiple versions of Outlook. Learn more about client support.
When creating a calendar day event via Outlook for Mac - New client, the day event will appear to overlap with either the previous day or next day when viewed via Outlook on the web or other Outlook desktop client.
- Microsoft is aware of this issue/behavior and is working to resolve it.
- Workaround/solution:
- Either Microsoft 365 - Introducing the new Outlook for Mac or use Outlook on the web to create the calendar day event.
When you view items in the secondary mailbox, new items may not appear or items seem to be missing or items that you had deleted still appear in the secondary mailbox.
- For additional details on this issue, review following information.
- Workaround/solution:
- Start Outlook for Windows.
- On the "File" tab, click Account Settings in the Account Settings list.
- In the Account Settings dialog box, click the "E-mail" tab and then double-click your Microsoft Exchange Server account.
- In the 'Change Account' dialog box, click More Settings.
- In the 'Microsoft Exchange' dialog box, click the "Advanced" tab.
- Click to clear the Download shared folders check box.
- Click OK two times.
- Click Next, click Finish, and then click Close.
- Restart Outlook.
Outlook for Windows will automatically load any account that you have been granted full mailbox permissions to, Outlook for Mac will not.
- In Outlook for Windows, accounts that you have full mailbox permission to -- including any linked accounts -- will be added to your account list automatically. Review the following document for further details on AutoMapping: Microsoft 365 - Automapping.
- In Outlook for Mac, accounts that you have full mailbox permissions to -- including any linked accounts -- will not be added to your account list automatically. You will need to subscribe or configure these accounts.
User attempts to run Outlook for Mac (or any other Office for Mac application) and receives an error similar to the following: "Your account, [account name], doesn't allow editing on a Mac, to learn more, contact your admin about your office plan." or application appears to be in "view only" mode.
Important: your Netid@wisc.edu must either be licensed for Office Pro Plus or you must be running a valid licensed version of Office desktop apps. Contact your local IT staff or DoIT Help Desk to confirm the license before proceeding with troubleshooting steps below.
- Step 1: Access the keychain application and remove/delete any of the following records: Microsoft Office Identities Cache 2 | Microsoft Office Identities Settings 2 and any ADAL, Microsoft, or Office entries that are listed within the "Name" or "Kind" columns. Note: search for 'microsoft' and 'adal' within the keychain application and delete all returned results. Detailed steps.
- Step 2: Restart computer and start Outlook and see if issue persists. If issue is not resolved, continue to Step 3.
- Step 3: Completely uninstall Office for Mac - Troubleshoot Office for Mac issues by completely uninstalling before you reinstall. Important: After restarting your computer, go to next step to install Office for Mac.
- Step 4: Follow steps outlined within Office for Mac installation article.
If above steps do not resolve the problem, please see Microsoft 365 - Can't sign in to Microsoft Office, access Microsoft Outlook, or interact with Microsoft data files (Option 6).
Search in Outlook for Mac returns no results after installing macOS Monterey 12.1
- After installing the macOS Monterey 12.1 update, search in old versions of Outlook for Mac returns no results.
- Solution: This issue has been resolved with the release of Office for Mac version 16.57 (22011101). To apply the fix, install/update the latest Office for Mac updates. Information on how to install the latest updates can be found here: Update Office for Mac. Learn more.
Error - Sorry, another account from your organization is already signed in on this computer. (or "Something went wrong")
- Sometimes when attempting to login to office apps, users receive this error
- To resolve this error, use Microsoft steps outlined here.
- If the previous steps do not resolve the issue, please attempt the following:
- Within Windows, run "Settings".
- Go to Accounts | Access work or school.
- Remove all accounts from this area.
- Restart Outlook and configure your account.
- If the steps outlined in the previous troubleshooting does not work, you can also try modifying a registry key. Important: Before making changes to your computer's registry, please make sure you have backed up your registry and/or working with support staff before making the changes outlined below. In addition, this process will be creating a new Outlook profile.
- Quit out of all Microsoft applications (like Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, etc).
- Backup Windows Registry.
- Run "registry editor".
- Go to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity'.
- Rename 'Identity folder to 'Identity.old'
- Quit out of registry editor.
- Restart computer.
- Start Word and sign into your Office 365 account.
- If you are using Outlook desktop client, start Outlook and configure a new Outlook profile.
Unable to edit or assign permissions to or create/edit/delete events on a resource when granted editor/owner rights in Outlook for Windows.
- Some users may experience the inability to edit (create, edit, delete events) or assign permissions to a resource even though the user has been granted the appropriate access to the resource.
- Current Work Around
- Open Outlook
- Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings
- Select your Exchange profile > Click "Change" > Click "More Settings" > Select the "Advanced" tab
- Check Use Cached Exchange Mode (if not already checked)
- Uncheck "Download shared folders"
- Click OK > Click "Next" > Click "Finish"
- Restart Outlook
- Current Work Around
Day Event overlaps with previous day when created via New Outlook for Mac desktop client
- When creating a Day Event, the event will appear to traverse across multiple days when view via Outlook on the web or on a subscribed calendar. Microsoft has been made aware of this issue and is working on a solution.
- Current Work Around
- Revert back to the original version of Outlook
- Create the Day Event as need
- Current Work Around
Sync issue when using AutoArchive within OneDrive
- Within your AutoArchive settings, if the selected default folder is within your OneDrive's file path, it will cause various sync errors. For more information please see the following:
AutoArchive Settings explained
It is not recommended to store pst-files within Cloud based storage folders like OneDrive.
OneNote
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) does not appear as an option for imported PDFs in the OneNote for Mac desktop client.
-
Workaround: The OCR feature is available in the OneNote for Windows desktop client.
-
Status: The Office 365 team is working with Microsoft to find a resolution.
OneNote Transfer Error for the Desktop Client
You may experience the below, which are a few examples of errors that can occur when trying to transfer OneNote sections. This error is temporary and is due to Microsoft experiencing high volumes of traffic to their servers.
Workaround: These errors are temporary and should resolve themselves when the server traffic has been reduced. OneNote will continue to try to reach the server to sync the notes. OneNote for the web can be used to avoid such errors, but please read the below error notice for information on what will happen to the OneNote sections that are not synced and the web version is used.
OneNote Sync Error for Desktop Client
Below are a few possible errors that can occur when trying to sync a OneNote sections. Microsoft has notified us that the below errors occur when there is high volumes traffic to their servers.
"We couldn't sync your notes because the server is busy. We'll try again later. (Error code: 0xE40200B4)" or "(Error Code: 0xE000145C bukxh 10007)
Workaround: The errors are temporary and should resolve themselves once traffic to the servers has lessened. Once this occurs the changes made will automatically sync.
Please note that if there are changes made to the sections on the web version of the OneNote by you or anyone with access to the OneNote, then any changes on the desktop version will be overridden. If you would like to see the changes made during the error, please go to OneNote > File > Options > Save & Backup. For more information recovering OneNote Data please see, Recovering Data from the OneNote Cache - Microsoft Support .
Teams
User's account is being blocked when sending a calendar invite through the Teams app (desktop or web) when they include the option to "Add channel" to the invitation. This adds the Teams channel to the invite and includes the Office 365 group members in the invitation.
-
Issue: When a Group has a large number of external members, this can result in the sender being blocked by Microsoft if they include the "Add channel" option to the Teams invitation. Basically sending suspicious messages to external recipients is consistent with compromised account behavior, the accounts are being flagged and in some cases blocked from sending additional messages.
-
Workaround: If the Office 365 Group includes a large number of external members you should not include it as a channel on the meeting invite. People can invite the Group, they just shouldn't add the channel. Outlook on the web and Outlook desktop clients do not have the option to add a channel to the invitation so they don't run into this issue.
-
Status: Microsoft has resolved the issue.
Owner of a Team is unable to create tags, they receive an error message in both the web and desktop application.
- Issue: When an owner of a team attempts to create a tag, an error message populates indicating the following: "We had trouble applying your changes. Please try again later." This error occurs due to a corruption of the users membership data.
- Workaround: User needs to be removed from the team by another owner. Once removed, they should be re-added to the team and promoted to owner. User should then be able to create tags. If there are no other owners of the team, promote a member to owner and ask them to perform the above steps.
OPP
Why am I Getting the Error, "Your school account is no longer active"?
The OPP add-on license has been removed from your UW-Madison Microsoft 365 account. If you need to continue to access Microsoft 365 desktop or mobile apps, excluding mobile Outlook and Teams apps, please consider purchasing a personal Microsoft 365 license.
Example:
Why am I getting a OneDrive Error saying my storage is full?
On February 1st 2024, a change was made by Microsoft that capped Exchange Online 1 plans at 100GB. As such, when the OPP license was removed the change made by Microsoft took effect. For more information on this change, click here.
If you are experiencing issues, please reduce your OneDrive space or contact your Local IT Department for help to do so. Please note, this storage amount cannot be expanded, as stated by Microsoft. Note: Any OneDrive that is over its limit will be read only until the user deletes/transfers enough files to get under the new quota. No files are automatically removed.
What can I do to get access to Desktop Applications?
Below are a few optional recommendations to prepare for the removal of the OPP add-on license:
-
Consult your IT department for guidance.
-
Purchase a personal Microsoft 365 license.
-
Compare feature similarities and differences between web apps, desktop apps, and mobile apps.
-
Download free Microsoft 365 mobile apps for Outlook and Teams.
See Also
- Microsoft 365 - Get better performance when using Outlook desktop clients
- Microsoft 365 (Outlook on the web | Outlook for Windows/Mac) - Best practices when using the calendar
- Microsoft 365 - Automapping
- Microsoft 365 - Mobile device Known Issues
- Microsoft 365 - Known Issues with OneDrive for Business
- Microsoft 365 - Can't sign in to Microsoft Office, access Microsoft Outlook, or interact with Microsoft data files