Office 365 - Known Issues

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.

• 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.

  • Microsoft recommends voting for the option to print calendars in Outlook on the web's new interface here: https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/264636-general/suggestions/38460925-not-printing-details-of-the-meetings-calendar.

• 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.

• 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 this document 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:

      • Office 365 (Outlook on the web | Outlook for Windows/MacOS) - Work On Behalf of a Resource Calendar

    • Disable auto-accept for the resource calendar:

      • Office 365 - Configure Resource Scheduling Options/Settings/Permissions

• 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 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.

• 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. More information can be found here.

• Calendar clients (in most case mobile clients) may not load/sync or load/sync very slowly.

  • This may occur if recurring event(s) do not have an end date set. To fix this issue, edit all recurrence events using Outlook on the web or Outlook desktop client and confirm/set a specific end data.

• 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

  • For information on how to improve your IMAP client's performance, click here.

• Due to the issues listed above, configuring a client via IMAP is not recommended.

• Issues involving Office 365 service accounts:

  • Service accounts hidden from the Global Address List (GAL) by default. However, it takes a few moments for this setting to be enabled, meaning that for the first five (or so) minutes after creation, the service account will be displayed in the GAL.

    • During this time, it is possible to subscribe to the account's calendar or use the Open mailbox feature in Outlook on the web.
    • Once this five-minute window has elapsed, users will no longer be able to subscribe to the calendar or use the open mailbox feature because the features to do so require searching the GAL.
    • To allow users to subscribe to the service account's calendar or use the open mailbox feature, you will need to show the account in the GAL using the Wisc Account Administration site.

  • When a service account is hidden from the GAL, the only way to subscribe to its calendar is to use the Add calendar option within the email invitation that is sent as a result of the service account sharing it's calendar.

    • The Add calendar option does not work in local Outlook clients. When users attempt to subscribe to the calendar, the button either does not respond or the Outlook client will crash.
    • Adding the service account to your address book will allow you to subscribe to it's calendar in desktop Outlook clients; however, the data for the calendar will not populate. Outlook on the web does not allow searching based on address book entries.

  • A service account cannot be deleted within ten minutes of creation

• 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.

• 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
      1. Start/Open Outlook client.
      2. Go to Outlook | Preferences | Privacy menu.
      3. Make sure "Turn on optional connected experiences" is selected/enabled.
      4. Close Preferences menu.
      5. Restart Outlook.

• 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: Office 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 Office 365 - Set up your mobile device or desktop client
    • 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 Office 365 - Change your display name.

• User receives bounce-back messages from phish@office365.microsoft.com

  • "phish@office365.microsoft.com" is an account owned/managed by Microsoft. There isn't anything the Office 365 team can do to resolve this issue. Microsoft usually resolves their issues receiving junk within some time. Review Office 365 - Learn about junk email and phishing article to better understand and manage phishing/junk email processes.

• 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.

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.

Desktop versions of Outlook

The issues listed below apply to one or more desktop version of Outlook. If a version is not specified, the issues applies to multiple versions of Outlook. Learn more about client support.

• 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:
    1. Start Outlook for Windows.
    2. On the "File" tab, click Account Settings in the Account Settings list.
    3. In the Account Settings dialog box, click the "E-mail" tab and then double-click your Microsoft Exchange Server account.
    4. In the 'Change Account' dialog box, click More Settings.
    5. In the 'Microsoft Exchange' dialog box, click the "Advanced" tab.
    6. Click to clear the Download shared folders check box.
    7. Click OK two times.
    8. Click Next, click Finish, and then click Close.
    9. 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: Office 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."

  • To resolve this issue, start by removing all Microsoft Keychain entries by following Step 3's instructions in this document:  Troubleshoot Office for Mac issues by completely uninstalling before you reinstall 
  • If following the instructions in Step 3 does not resolve your issue, complete all additional steps in the document to completely remove Office for Mac.

• 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! There was a problem, please try again. 

• When you attempt to submit a message as spam/phish, you receive the following error: Sorry! There was a problem, please try again
• For information on how to avoid this issue, see Office 365 (Outlook for Windows/Mac) - Error - Sorry! There was a problem, please try again.

• 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 Office/Teams applications.
  • 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
      1. Open Outlook
      2. Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings
      3. Select your Exchange profile > Click "Change" > Click "More Settings" > Select the "Advanced" tab
      4. Check Use Cached Exchange Mode (if not already checked)
      5. Uncheck "Download shared folders"
      6. Click OK > Click "Next" > Click "Finish"
      7. Restart Outlook

OneNote

• Issue: 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.

Teams

• Users are unable to change the default apps in both the web and desktop application.

  • Issue: Users attempting to change their default Teams apps will initially see the change go into affect; however, their change will eventually revert back to the default settings. The issue will not appear immediately and can sometimes take approximately 15 minutes or more to appear.

  • Workaround: None.

  • Status: Microsoft plans to roll out a fix in the next couple of updates to 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.

See Also:

• Office 365 - Get better performance when using Outlook desktop clients
• Office 365 (Outlook on the web | Outlook for Windows/Mac) - Best practices when using the calendar
• Office 365 - Automapping
• Office 365 - Mobile device Known Issues
• Office 365 - Known Issues with OneDrive for Business