Why does the "Restart Office to apply privacy settings" not go away

Dear RennieSchmid

We received a response from a user who was able to get back to normal after rolling back Office to version 16.0.17328.20142. We are currently testing this method, but we have received feedback from a user that it resolved the issue, so we suggest you try it.

1. Close all Office software, search for "Command Prompt" (or "cmd") in the "Start Menu", and right-click the mouse and select "Run as administrator";
2. In the command prompt enter the following code: cd %programfiles% \Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun, and then press Enter;
3. And then enter: Officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.17328.20142

17328.20142 is the internal version number of the version you want to install, you can also choose an earlier version. Please refer to this link for the specific version number:

Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn (In English)

We hope you find the above information helpful. Whether or not it works, please let us know by replying. Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hello everyone,

Same - and extremely annoying! - issue has appreard on one of my two laptops today.

Looked for online help, including here - and this message just keeps appearing.

Btw - I had a windows update installed earlier today. I wonder if it has something to do with this privacy issue...

Hi Tracy,

I uninstalled MS 365 and then rebooted the computer.

After rebooting, I opened WORD. The same "Restart" message appeared.

I opened the privacy setting and the associated window launched. This was unusual. I checked that everything was enabled and then closed the window.

I launched WORD. This time it launched without the error message!

So this proved that the problem is associated with the privacy settings.

I re-enrolled in the Insider Program. After the latest Insider version was installed, I again launched WORD, and the "Restart" error returned. I attempted to open open the privacy setting and the error appeared again. The privacy window did not open. The error remains.

To summarize, I have completely uninstalled MS Office 365 on two separate computers. I have installed via the downloaded full Desktop installer. The error remains.

The error fully manifests in the Insider editions.

Rennie

Dear RennieSchmid

I need to add a few more things:

At this point we are speculating that the situation is not system related and are concerned that it is an Office profile issue, so there is one more step that we would like you to assist us in testing:

You can try to uninstall Office, use the offline installation package to install offline, and then check the status of Office.

Offline installer for Microsoft 365:Click here to download

This operation may not solve your problem, but we hope that you can help us test it to find the most convenient solution.

Best Regards,

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Dear RennieSchmid

Thank you for your reply.

We have received some feedback from users in other regions who are experiencing the same issue.

As you mentioned that you have already reinstalled your system, there is no need to test other operations.

We are currently investigating this issue and will need to submit it to the development department. We also recommend that you submit your feedback on the feedback platform (please provide as much detail as possible if convenient, including images, replicated videos, etc.), where a dedicated developer will pay attention to it and comment on your feedback.

After sending in your feedback, you can share the feedback link on this forum so that other users with similar issues, including me, can vote for your feedback, and the more votes you get, the more likely you are to get the attention of the development team, so thank you for your cooperation.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we will continue to follow up on this issue and contact you as soon as we have any new developments. We hope this issue can be resolved as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist