Trying to connect message when Saving in Excel 365

I assume if this issue is fixed in Beta, it'll be rolled out to us civilians at some point shortly, without the need to change the Office update channel?

If so, I will probably wait for a main channel release, to avoid upsetting our security officer.

I validated on 3 systems that the Beta 2211 version does indeed fix the issue... finally! I've been rolling it out only to those who need it. The switch can be made by either allowing the user to switch it manually or via command line:

Update the following registry keys (cmd line entry method):

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officechannelexposure /v betachannel /t REG_DWORD /d 1

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officechannelexposure /v currentpreview /t REG_DWORD /d 1

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officechannelexposure /v current /t REG_DWORD /d 1

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officechannelexposure /v monthlyenterprise /t REG_DWORD /d 1

For some reason, when I add: Enterprise SemiAnnual and SemiAnnualPreview to the registry, it does not show up as an option in the steps below. This must be done manually.

Change Channel in Office:

Open any office app (Word, Excel, etc.)

Select File > Account > Update Channel

Check the fox for I will manage my Office update channel

Select the channel in the dropdown

Check the **Check for and apply updates for Office,**then OK

Office will download and install the newly selected version.

Manually via command line:

To change to another channel, enter one of the following lines:

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunOffice\C2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=BetaChannel

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunOffice\C2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=CurrentPreview

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunOffice\C2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Current

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunOffice\C2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=MonthlyEnterprise

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunOffice\C2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=SemiAnnualPreview

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunOffice\C2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=SemiAnnual

Seal the deal (this will initiate an update and install of the new Office version):

1

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user

Similar experience for us too. Adding the traverse and execute permission that a spiceorks forum user mentioned, he wiresharked the problem and found it was being denied access, this seems to help but doesn't completely remove the problem. Found references to needing to do something in group policy but haven't fully investigated it yet

"Restricting Access to Folders using Traverse Folder Permission" https://www.techcrafters.com/portal/en/kb/articles/restricting-access-to-folders-using-traverse-folder-permission#:~:text=The%20Traverse%20Folder%20permission%20is,in%20the%20Group%20Policy%20settings.

It is a little annoying, but it gets us out of the "Waiting" zone. When the Window pops up with "trying to connect", our users discovered if we click Cancel, then click the second Cancel, we get access to the DFS Tree. From there we can click the Greater Than sign "<" to expand our folders.

Our options: (1) Wait until the connection completes (15 to 20 seconds can seem like an eternity). (2) We click the Cancel button a couple of times and we get to where we need to be within 5 seconds.

It's not just DFS. We aren't running DFS only redirected folders and are still having the problem. Mainly Excel and Outlook and saving files. Any attempt to access a unc \fileshare as the default location causes it. The workaround of setting the default location to a folder on the local hard drive and putting network shortcuts inside that seems to solve the problem.

Somebody else posted that giving everybody traverse permission on the root of the folder containing the network shares cures the problem but we found this only makes it less frequent.