Troubleshooting Office 365 Desktop Sign-In Issues
Office 365 subscription users may encounter problems signing into the desktop software. When attempting to sign in, the ‘Sign In’ button prompts for a username. After entering the company email address and clicking ‘Next,’ the expected password prompt does not appear, and the dialog box closes unexpectedly.
Initial Observations
The issue was first noticed after moving an SSD from one laptop to another. The Office application indicates that the product is activated, and clicking ‘Manage Account’ redirects to office.com, where the user is already signed in with a company Microsoft account. Uninstalling and reinstalling Office 365 applications multiple times did not resolve the issue.
Affected Products
Web-based Office 365 apps and Microsoft site logins are unaffected. All desktop Office 365 applications, including OneNote 2016, are affected. However, ‘OneNote for Windows 10’ and the OneDrive desktop application are not affected.
Possible Causes
The problem could be related to swapping the SSD to a new laptop. Rebuilding the local Windows profile has not been attempted due to its complexity but might be necessary.
Additional Information
After rebuilding the Windows profile, an error stating ‘Your computer’s Trusted Platform Module has malfunctioned’ with error code 80090034 appeared. Updating the BIOS did not resolve this issue. The solution was found in a Microsoft article about DPAPI MasterKey backup failures when a read/write domain controller isn’t available. It suggested that DPAPI keys couldn’t be backed up when logging in remotely without a corporate VPN connection.
Solution
The solution involved setting a registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Cryptography\Protect\Providers\df9d8cd0-1501-11d1-8c7a-00c04fc297eb\ProtectionPolicy = 1 (DWORD)
