In excel, when I click the help (?) icon, I get "Sorry, something went wrong. Please check your network connection and try again." My network connection is fine. How do I correct this error?

In short, to get Help to work one has to share a bunch of extraneous information? Why? What value does it deliver for your users?

Candidly, it seems coercive - give us information we can employ for marketing the product you have purchased (leased in this case) or kiss any help goodbye.

A google search has always been a more effective way of getting help than MS's offerings - unless you are seeking help on getting Word to support its own built-in help without strings attached.

I have the same problem using Microsoft 365 It's about time Microsoft answered the question instead of allowing their customers to fumble about in the dark.

Solution:

Log into your Microsoft account and keep it open in another window, close Excel, and open Excel, Help is working. Pain in the backside. Thanks, Microsoft NOT.

It turned out that I had to sign in to Microsoft. With that done, the error went away.

I am signed into my account. I've tried signing out and back in, repairing Office, creating a new profile. This is an intermittent issue that comes and goes. I wouldn't be surprised if you see the problem sometime again. If not, you are lucky. There are many of us that are having this issue. In any event, thanks for your reply.

It turned out that I had to sign in to Microsoft. With that done, the error went away.

I was unable to find this issue documented at the Microsoft Feedback Portal, so I just posted at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/db1e9bdb-488d-ee11-a81c-0022484f9f6d

If anyone wants to vote on this at the Feedback Portal, it might be helpful to get Microsoft to look at it more closely and correct it.

Thanks for doing this Mark. I upvoted your submission and added a comment.