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?

Please let us know if this solution continues to work for you after a few days of use or if the problem reoccurs. When I have this issue simply opening and closing the app causes "Help" to work again but it is not a permanent fix.

Thanks!

I did a variant of the original answer which seems to work so far.

i.e.: after doing this:

* Open the Excel app> go to File > options> select trust center> select trust center settings> Click on Privacy Option> Click on privacy settings > Check all the connected experiences including "Turn On experiences that download online content" and "Turn on experiences that analyze content" *

Close and reopen Excel

which didn't work, I then unchecked:

Optional diagnostic data

Personalized offers and discounts for Microsoft products

Close and reopen Excel

and help was working again!

This worked for me, but originally the *Optional diagnostic data was unchecked, so I checked it. Close and reopen excel and help was working again. Thanks!

Same problem, in both Excel and Word. The error message appears totally inappropriate to the problem. Now that printed manuals are not (usually) part of software packeges, it is more important than ever that in-program help should work. Why does Microsoft not provide downloadable help files, and why do they ignore all the complaints about basic bugs?

Same problem, in both Excel and Word. The error message appears totally inappropriate to the problem. Now that printed manuals are not (usually) part of software packeges, it is more important than ever that in-program help should work. Why does Microsoft not provide downloadable help files, and why do they ignore all the complaints about basic bugs?

Not sure what to say. It is frustrating for sure. It seems to be a low-level problem. It comes and goes for me. I am seeing it happen more often in Word and Excel now and less so in Outlook. But in any case, the Help function remains unreliable for some people, and it's been that way for over a year or more now.

Thank you, Jim, for your calm and reasoned reply. I have suffered with this "feature" for months. It's as if no one has seen it before, and most of the recommendations I have followed have either not worked or worked only for a couple of weeks. This is the Help menu we are talking about. Where people go when they need help, it also screws up other 'features.' But there is no resolution that I have seen that gets to the root of the problem. I wish you luck.

Curtiss