Microsoft 365 Customers Locked Out of Outlook, Teams, and Other Apps

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If you have recently encountered issues accessing Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 apps, you’re not alone. Several IT admins detailed on Reddit and Microsoft support forums that the problem started affecting customers worldwide on June 19 (via Bleeping Computer).

Specifically, IT admins received reports that some Outlook users are unable to access the app or experienced delayed email delivery. Microsoft Teams users also encounter an error message that says “You’re missing out! Ask your admin to enable Microsoft Teams for.” The ongoing issue also appears to be affecting Microsoft Word, OneDrive for Business, and Excel.

“Have a few users who are unable to sign in and authenticate with desktop apps. Some connection to Microsoft appears completely down for them… even the defender scan when installing new software reports it is not able to connect. The weather widget is down. OneDrive, Teams, Word… all down. But they can use browser versions,” an IT admin wrote on Reddit.

Microsoft Customers Locked Out of Outlook, Teams, and Other Microsoft 365 Apps
Image credit: Petri/Rabia Noureen

Workaround to fix sign-in issues in Microsoft Teams and Other Microsoft 365 services

As of this writing, Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the problem and deploy a fix to address it across all Microsoft 365 tenants. In the meantime, some administrators have suggested a couple of workaround solutions to help customers resolve the issue in their organization.

First, IT admins should ensure that Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook and SharePoint are enabled for users in their Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenants. It’s also recommended to remove and then add back Microsoft 365 licenses for all affected end users.

Additionally, IT admins can try turning off the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) setting in the network adapter properties of the workstation. Customers also reported that uninstalling EDR security software could help to address performance issues, though it’s not recommended. Keep in mind that the aforementioned workarounds didn’t work for everyone. In this case, it’s advised to switch users to the Microsoft 365 web apps until a fix is available.

Earlier this week, Microsoft acknowledged a new bug that causes freezing and crashes when launching the Outlook desktop app. The company has also provided a temporary fix, and you can check out our separate post for more details.