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

What worked for me was to sign out of all accounts except mine. I didn't realise that I was signed in with 3 different accounts (we share email accounts on multiple computers.

I went to each app. Clicked file-> Office account-> Switch account (Chose any account not mine) and signed out. I had to close 3 accounts before this worked.

Repeated on other office apps.

Problem solved!!!!

AGREED! There silence, secrecy, and lack of support SUCKS.

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.

Unfortunately, these steps cannot solve your problem, we need to confirm the version of Office in your computer, you can open any Office file, click " File " - " Account ", check the product information, what version is displayed.

You can also view the computer itself, the resolution and zoom v are how much, if possible, you can choose a smaller resolution, and then open Office to view the recognition.

In addition, we have found that other users have encountered the same problem, so we also need to submit this issue to see if it is a certain version of the problem.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Dear lubeman66

Welcome to the Microsoft Community, we are glad to assist you.

We understand that you are experiencing an issue with repeated prompts for privacy settings in Office, usually this is due to changes in the privacy settings, which we can review.

1. Open Excel.
2. Click File -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings.
3. Under "Privacy Options", look for the "Turn on optional connection experience" box and uncheck it if it is checked. If it is unchecked, uncheck it, and if it is unchecked, check it. Then click "OK".
4. Restart your computer and open any Office component again to see if the message appears again.

If it doesn't work, you can try to reset Word to restore it to its default settings.

1. Exit all Office programs;
2. Make sure there are no files in the following folders:
   1. Locate to C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP and press Enter to see if the file exists, if it does, delete it, if it does not, close it;
   2. Locate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\STARTUP or C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\STARTUP to see if there is a file professional knowledge, if there is, please delete it likewise, if not, close it;
3. hold down the Windows key + R at the same time, type regedit and press enter;
4. locate the following keys in turn and rename the word folder (right click on it and select rename, for example rename word to wordold);

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\word

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\word

5. Click Start, type %AppData%\Microsoft\Templates in the search box and press Enter;
6. Backup and delete files with a .dotm extension, such as Normal.dotm;

Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, clickHow to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Supportto view the article.

I hope the above information is helpful to you. If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply.

Best Regards,

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist