Office 365 cloud features do not work when using a privacy VPN

Anonymous
2016-07-27T20:31:21+00:00

When I have a privacy VPN active (such as Private Internet Access - PIA) I can't access the cloud features on Office 365 (such as online templates, OneNote sync to the cloud, Excel or Word saving to OneDrive directly, etc). I have tried 3 different VPN solutions: PIA, NordVPN and VPNArea and they all exhibit the same issue. Is there a way to solve this or to tell Office to bypass the VPN?

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-01-05T03:58:44+00:00

    Changing to TCP in PIA worked for me. OneNote is now syncing. 

    I turned off the cyber sec setting and changed to tcp from udp, as suggested in a prior post. My office apps were able to autosave on One Drive. Based on this post, I re-enabled  the cybersec setting and kept the tcp option. I'm still able to autosave. I'll keep testing, but it's nice to have the cybersec enabled.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-12-05T17:21:59+00:00

    Changing to TCP in PIA worked for me. OneNote is now syncing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-04T07:14:30+00:00

    I recently found a get-around which works for my situation. It may be helpful to others.

    I turned OFF the setting that allows for collaborative editing (see picture) and the annoying "UPLOAD BLOCKED" / "you need to be online.." stopped.

    Documents still get uploaded by OneDrive from my laptop, and the updated document shows the new version as expected from my phone, or from Word and Excel Online etc., but unchecking this setting will remove the ability to collaboratively edit a document with others. A kludge, therefore, not a solution.

    The dialog is launched from OneDrive's settings. Hope this helps someone.

    Of course the question remains as to why the OneDrive app is happily connecting, whereas the Office apps are not.

    The Microsoft Store app on my Windows 10 machine still does this (sigh).

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-12-03T15:39:06+00:00

    And that's not really a solution either, since one of the best reasons for using a product like NordVPN *is* the CyberSec functionality; web pages are night and day with their ad-tracking and identification services disabled... likely to be even more important given the assault on net neutrality!

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-12-03T14:31:41+00:00

    Eiren O'Keeffe's recent response triggered me to respond further on this thread.

    I had previously indicated that switching OFF CyberSec and switching to TCP in advanced settings solved my "problem" with the Office connection issues using NordVPN.   Well, come to find out that's only true for ONE of my computers, both on the same home network, same internet connections, etc.   So, making these changes DID fix the issue with NordVPN using a new HP Spectre laptop with a fully updated Windows 10 OS and updated NordVPN app.   However, using my old Lenovo T530 with fully updated Windows 7 and fully updated NordVPN app, AND using the same settings (no CyberSec and TCP instead of UDP) I still have connection issues, i.e., Office products to NOT connect with their server while using the VPN.

    Anyway, hopefully someone from Microsoft will try to fix this -- you should be able to use any VPN and have it work with Microsoft products.

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