Microsoft 365 Won't Connect Unless A New User Profile Is Created In Windows

tsmith · Feb 10, 2023

I have a user who keeps having an issue where Outlook will stop receiving email, and it apparently cannot connect to the account anymore. Microsoft Teams is the same, cannot connect. The 404 screenshot below also pops up if I try to add the account via Settings > Accounts >Email & accounts > Add a work or school account (no prompts for a login or password). The account can still be accessed online in a browser, and on a different computer. The only solution has been to create a new user profile. This has happened 4 times to this particular user, and we have been unable to figure out what is causing the problem.

Some images of the issue:
Outlook:

bottom right corner
taskbar icon
system tray

Microsoft Teams:

while signed in:
after signing out, and trying to sign back in:

glasskuter · Feb 10, 2023

Welcome to the forum.
There is needed information missing from your post. We need to know what we are working with.
What type 365 license are we dealing with here. 365, 365 Family, or 365 for Business?
365 is a single user license, 365 Family is for up to 6 users, and 365 Business is just that -up to 300 users limited to however many users a business pays for.

Going on the assumption this is a single user license and that user is the user logged in,here are my suggestions.

Make sure there are no flags against the user account such as the account needs to be verified or there is a problem with account.
Settings>System>Accounts. At the top, beside the logged in user, a notice would be marked in blue if something needs to be done with the account.

Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

Scan for malware using Malwarebytes.

Uninstall 365 and then reinstall per this: Download and install or reinstall Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 on a PC or Mac - Microsoft Support

@tsmith I have revised my post

tsmith · Feb 10, 2023

glasskuter said:
Make sure there are no flags against the user account such as the account needs to be verified.
Settings>System>Accounts. At the top, beside the logged in user, it would be marked in blue.

I'm not sure what you mean here. In Settings, System and Accounts are two different areas. I don't see any sort of flags though.

To clarify, it is just a local user account on the laptop, not a Microsoft account. It's been about a month since this issue last happened, and creating a new local user account fixed the issue at the time. The old user accounts still exist, and the issue persists if I log in to one of those old accounts.

glasskuter said:
I would suggest you make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

glasskuter said:
Scan for malware using Malwarebytes.

Scanned with Webroot SecureAnywhere didn't find anything. If it was a personal computer I might use Malwarebytes, but it's in a corporate environment and don't really want to mess with installing and removing Malwarebytes. I don't think malware is likely the culprit in this case anyway.

glasskuter said:
Uninstall 365 and then reinstall per this: Download and install or reinstall Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 on a PC or Mac - Microsoft Support

Tried this in the past, didn't have any effect. The fact that the software works perfectly fine on a new user profile seems to suggest that it isn't a problem with the software installation. Messed around with uninstall/reinstall, and tried using the SARA tool in the past to try and fix it, was not able to fix the issue.

I appreciate the suggestions and your post! Open to other suggestions. Hoping someone else has had the same issue and found a solution other than a new user profile. We did have one other person with this same issue, but it has not returned for that user. This user has had it happen 4 times now in 8 months or less.

glasskuter · Feb 10, 2023

Try the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant which is a tool to fix all kinds of problems with all the apps in Office.
MSR Assistant

Also, I found this, which seems to be exactly the same problem as yours. It was fixed with a registry change. I found the exact same registry information on the godaddy site. It would only take a minute to try it to see if it will work for you. Backup(export) you current registry key so it can be imported back in if necessary.
Error connecting Outlook to M365 (HTTP 404

GoDaddy - "Your browser is a bit unusual" FAQ

Here are some things to try if you see the message, "Your browser is a bit unusual."

community.godaddy.com

tsmith · Feb 13, 2023

glasskuter said:
Also, I found this, which seems to be exactly the same problem as yours. It was fixed with a registry change. I found the exact same registry information on the godaddy site. It would only take a minute to try it to see if it will work for you. Backup(export) you current registry key so it can be imported back in if necessary.
Error connecting Outlook to M365 (HTTP 404

When I tired that, Outlook just got stuck in a loop asking for the password, and saw no change with Teams. Also, probably more of a workaround than a fix considering this Disabling ADAL or WAM to fix Office sign-in or activation issues not recommended - Office 365

glasskuter · Feb 13, 2023

tsmith said:
Add a work or school account

This is used only with 365 for Business. You never have said what type 365 subscription you are working with.Per this article work or school accounts are used only with Ofc365 for business.

What account to use with Office and you need one - Microsoft Support

Learn why you need a Microsoft account, or work or school account to use Microsoft 365, Office 2016, or Office 2013.

support.microsoft.com

Ofc365 Family How to share 365 subscription

Share your Microsoft 365 Family subscription - Microsoft Support

Learn how to share Microsoft 365 Family subscription benefits with up to five people. Manage invitations, devices, and people you've shared Office with.

support.microsoft.com

TBH I don't understand the flow of how you set all this up. It's quite possible this entire issue is not on the computer but on the server if the account(s) were not set up correctly in the first place. I would suggest you contact MS 365 support. If necessary they can remote access into the computer to straighten it out.
If you are in US try one of these numbers
(800) 642 7676
(800) 865-9408
other locations- Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support

tsmith · Feb 13, 2023

glasskuter said:
You never have said what type 365 subscription you are working with

It is Microsoft 365 Business Standard.

glasskuter said:
I would suggest you contact MS 365 support.

Unfortunately, when contacting support, we are directed to our reseller for support. They have stated that because creating a new Windows profile fixes the issue, that the problem is not with Microsoft 365, but with the Windows profile being corrupt. In order to then get support for Windows, the only option is to pay for additional support from Microsoft.

Essentially the issue is this: The user has a laptop, with a local Administrator account. Office is installed and works fine. Then suddenly one day, when he opens Outlook, he notices he is not receiving any email, and notices it says Disconnected in the bottom right, and the other signs shown in the screenshots above. Microsoft Teams also shows this connection issue. The account is still accessible on other computers. It is still accessible in a web browser (Outlook on the Web, Microsoft Teams in a web browser, etc.). It is still accessible if I create a new local user on the laptop, and login to Outlook or Teams with his existing Microsoft 365 account. But if I return to his previous Windows profile, it is broken, and will not connect anymore.

glasskuter · Feb 13, 2023

tsmith said:
It is still accessible if I create a new local user on the laptop, and login to Outlook or Teams with his existing Microsoft 365 account. But if I return to his previous Windows profile, it is broken, and will not connect anymore.

If this behavior is consistent, this would indicate to me that the original main local account is corrupted in some way and the problem is not with the OS nor is it with 365.

cfoster1881 · Feb 16, 2023

I encountered this exact same issue as of yesterday afternoon. We setup a new Windows 11 laptop and connected her to her 365 Business Standard account. It worked for a couple days about a month ago and then the exact same problem above happened. We had to recreate her a new local profile which worked fine except the problem happened again yesterday. I've been racking my brain for a solution and tried everything I can find to no avail. I'm assuming if I open a case with Microsoft Support they will just blame Windows. If anyone has any other advice or a similar circumstance it would be greatly appreciated.

I did notice a Windows Update ran yesterday morning and it failed. I considered that it might be possible that that corrupted something but it just seems unlikely. It is as if the Microsoft services can't tell that the computer has internet connectivity.

tsmith · Feb 16, 2023

Yes, that sounds exactly the same! If you are able to talk to actual Microsoft Support, they may or may not be able to help. In my case, we are redirected to our reseller's support, and they are much less inclined to troubleshoot anything outside of Microsoft 365.

ryryitguy · Feb 24, 2023

tsmith and cfoster1881 how goes the fight? We are having the exact issue to the T. We've got about 20 man hours in trying to find a solution as this has happened to a few users and the only fix is to create a fresh windows profile. We now have a user that only worked for a month and then it went right back to not working. One thing that's weird, we can't run any of the repair executables like sarasetup.exe or SetupProd_Act.exe will not run at all. Either way we are dumbfounded and have not gotten anywhere. Everything you have described, we have gone through.

BruceR · Feb 25, 2023

ryryitguy said:
One thing that's weird, we can't run any of the repair executables like sarasetup.exe or SetupProd_Act.exe will not run at all.

No error messages?

ryryitguy · Feb 25, 2023

No error messages. The user is a local admin. When we log in as a different local admin, go run the file one time, we can then log back in as the user that cannot log in to office and it will now run. But, it did nothing to help getting logged in to Office.

Another thing, I found in a few searches to perfrom these edits in the registry, this also had no effect while some others have said it helped.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity
"EnableADAL"=dword:00000000
"DisableADALatopWAMOverride"=dword:00000001
"DisableAADWAM"=dword:00000001

tsmith · Feb 27, 2023

Someone I know recommended trying some of the steps on this page below. I haven't been able to try it myself yet to see if it fixed anything, but figured I would pass it along in the meantime:

How to Fix a Corrupt User Profile in Windows 10

cvindel · Jun 14, 2023

Did you ever find a solution to this issue?

coldnorth · Jul 25, 2023

Hello
i had the same issue with one user, every two three months o365 no longer connects ( network error, failure, blah blah blah) went through all troubleshooting every time had to resort to creating a new profile.
Looks like a reset the eth to defaults does the trick, we shall see in a couple month!

RUN: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults
reboot

SodaPop87 · Jul 31, 2023

coldnorth said:
Hello
i had the same issue with one user, every two three months o365 no longer connects ( network error, failure, blah blah blah) went through all troubleshooting every time had to resort to creating a new profile.
Looks like a reset the eth to defaults does the trick, we shall see in a couple month!

RUN: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults
reboot

I was working on this issue today for 2 hours trying next to everything. Once I confirmed another account could access the News feed, OneDrive, Outlook etc. from the same PC I knew it was a profile issue. Before recreating the profile I came accross this post, posted YESTERDAY to this one, reset IE Defaults (I also cleared Personal cause why not at this point) and rebooted. After reboot OneDrive, Outlook, Teams and the News feed all loaded successfully. Thank you ColdNorth!

pittsteveoh · Aug 1, 2023

Hello
i had the same issue with one user, every two three months o365 no longer connects ( network error, failure, blah blah blah) went through all troubleshooting every time had to resort to creating a new profile.
Looks like a reset the eth to defaults does the trick, we shall see in a couple month!

RUN: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults
reboot

What SodaPop87 said, thank you coldnorth! I spent 10-15 hours dealing with exactly all the symptoms listed above, one domain user assigned a new win11 laptop with office 365 business account and was using it for about a month.

After we switched to O365 a year ago, I've had to delay Office updates 6 months or we'd have 10-15 users every month with similar Outlook 365 connectivity issues, but the "full repair" usually fixed those. This one was different, and I knew I could just assign a different new laptop to the user, or recreate their user profile on the laptop, but what would I do the next time it happened? Can't keep doing that for multiple or even the same user every month.

Thanks again, the Run command to reset IE was about the 50th thing I tried. I'll be booking marking this site for future use :)

cristianlm · Aug 1, 2023

Hi guys. My problem here was the same. First, check if your users are using a VPN connection, my guy here was using it, and all the time he connects to it, it changes the Internet Properties. So you probably don't need to reset, but just do it... The Automatically detect settings was unchecked, just check it and try again.

fcampanella · Aug 8, 2023

coldnorth said:
Hello
i had the same issue with one user, every two three months o365 no longer connects ( network error, failure, blah blah blah) went through all troubleshooting every time had to resort to creating a new profile.
Looks like a reset the eth to defaults does the trick, we shall see in a couple month!

RUN: RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults
reboot

Many Thanks !! I was looking for a solution for months and always ended up creating a new profile.