Can't sign in to Office 365 Personal: Mac, new installation

Anonymous
2019-03-08T23:31:53+00:00

Problem: When I try to sign in, I get a spinner forever saying "Loading..."

Details: I installed Office 365 Personal on a Mac. When I start Word, it asks for my email, which I entered successfully. But then the window shows just the spinner and "Loading..." and never asks for the password. I tried rebooting. I tried Word and Excel. I can log in successfully with this id on office.com on the same computer, so the network and account work. I tried Ethernet (which is very slow) and WiFi. No error messages show up, just the spinner for minutes. The only unusual factor I can think of is the Mac previously had Office 2004 installed.

Any suggestions? I'm kind of stuck. I searched the web for solutions but didn't come across anything that helped.

Thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2019-04-11T10:29:07+00:00

Hi All,

I did some further testing with this and was able refine the process. I was able to sign out and back in half a dozen times. Each time when I signed out and then signed backed, the “loading” window would still appear, so this doesn't fix that error.

[Note1] Turn off Two-step verification if it is enabled. In a browser go to your Microsoft account, and then to the security menu to disable it.

Steps are as follows:

  1. Open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
  2. Select the Sign in or Activate button.
  3. Enter info in "Sign In" field [Email, phone, or Skype] if not already populated.
  4. Press 'Return' Key or 'Next' Button. The loading window will then appear with the spinner.

5. Click the mouse in the windo~~~~w. I found this step was unnecessary.

  1. Just type your password, followed by pressing the 'Return' Key. After a few seconds, your office should be activated or signed-in.

[Note2] Turn off Two-step verification back on if desired. In a browser go to your Microsoft account, and then to the security menu to enable it.

I hope these instructions are clear enough to follow.

-Mike-

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Anonymous
2019-03-09T07:49:21+00:00

Hi All,

Sorry for the inconvenience the issue causes. And we really appreciate all your effort and time for reporting this issue. We are aware of the issue now. Here we'd like to share a summary for the issue here which will benefit other community members.

We have been receiving multiple threads having similar issues caused by sign in issue on Office for Mac.

Users may not be able to sign in to Office applications, or meet error message when you want to save changes for files stored in OneDrive for SharePoint Online locations within from Office apps.

The possible scenarios:

 You may see a spinner forever saying “loading” when you try to sign in.

Issue Environment:

The issue happens to any latest OS version 10.12.6/10.13.6/10.14.3  

The issue happens to both the latest 16.16.8 and 16.23.

Workaround:

Thanks for Mike's reply and other community members confirming that the issue should be caused by the stuck sign in window not showing page content well. If you type password when you see the loading window then press enter, and wait for a little, then you should be able to sign in well. For detailed information, please check Mike's reply as another mark answer post.

Assessment:

Thanks for all your effort and time on this issue. Several customers have confirmed that updating to the latest 16.24 version can fix this issue. In the meantime, I am informed from the related team that the latest 16.25 insider version should fix the issue.

Please aware that the insider version is best for Insiders who want to use the very earliest builds to identify issues and provide feedback about new features still in development. Insider is ideal for those who don't mind the bit of risk involved in using unsupported builds. 

If you don’t mind, you can go to Help > Check for updates > tick the join the insider version option and update to 16.25 to see the result.

Any updates will be appreciated. Sorry for the inconvenience the issue causes again.

Thanks,

Rena

[Updated by Rena Yu MSFT, 21:33 May 2, 2019(UTC)]

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-19T19:40:06+00:00

    Hi All,

    We redirect all the related threads to this primary thread so that you can monitor the latest updates conveniently here. All the latest updates will be updated in the summary post.

    As the issue only happens to specific users, and we can't reproduce the issue, we just got issue log provided by one of the affected users, we have been reporting this issue with the log for further investigation since Mar 16, 2019. We really appreciate your understanding to allow us more time for the related team for a fix. And we will post any updates here as soon as possible.

    For affected users to get rid of the issue, please check the workaround we mentioned in the summary post: Several community members mentioned that Installing 15.41can get rid of this issue. Affected users can choose to install this previous version or use Office Online temporarily before the final fix released. 

    Sorry for the inconvenience again.

    Thanks,

    Rena

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-03-19T20:51:38+00:00

    if you want more data (a log ?) to understand and fix the problem for the community why dont you ask to view some Mac of affected users at distance ,as apple care frequently do, and guide the extract of the data you need .

    I'm volunteer if it can help , provided a decent hour at europe continental time . (OK till Midnight to day and starting 7 AM to morrow paris time).

    what do you think of this proposal in order to go ahead ?

    regards

    yves

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-03-20T05:56:53+00:00

    The workaround of installing the previous version 15.41 (link) fixed the problem for me. For anyone else on this thread who is stuck on the "Loading" spinner, I give this workaround a thumbs up.

    The only issue is Word keeps telling me to update, presumably to the bad version 16. So I'd appreciate a message when it's safe to update.

    Thank you Rena for your help with this. I hope you can encourage Microsoft to find a permanent fix.

    Ken

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