Brand new installed office (30 minutes ago on MacBook Air, keeps hanging in the dialog which email account do you want to use to open this file

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Brand new installed office (30 minutes ago on MacBook Air, keeps hanging in the dialog which email account do you want to use to open this file

frans 0

Downloaded a few MS office files from a Sharepoint environment. These files fail to open with numbers (MacBook Air running on Tahoe26.5.2), and in openoffice they are garbled. (interesting point: in Sharepoint the file is 67K, in on my laptop 200K. However, when I sent the downloaded file via mail to someone in the org who runs the Sharepoint he can open the file; so file is not corrupted !). So decided to take out an office license (first via apple; did not go easily; then via microsoft itself) . Installed everything fresh. I am logged in via safari to microsoft office, once I open an application it shows me logged in, but when I try to open the downloaded file , it keeps going round in the which which email account do you want to use for opening the file then passkey eand then after some thinking back t to the email question. Searching on that it shows this happens with office 2016/2019.. version installed from PPT is 16.111 (and showing as up to date..)
Spent 3now 2 hours just to get office working and this is supposed to enhance productivity?

Any solution before I delete everything again..

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Answer 1

Anonymous

Hello frans,

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I understand how frustrating it is to encounter a repeated account-selection loop immediately after installing Office.

One possible cause is that old or conflicting Office credentials are stored in macOS Keychain Access, especially since you initially attempted the purchase through Apple and then subscribed directly through Microsoft. Please try clearing the relevant Office credentials as follows:

Completely close Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Teams, and OneDrive.
Press Command + Space, search for "Keychain Access", and open it.
In Keychain Access, select the "login" keychain and then "All Items".
Select and delete entries related to Microsoft Office, Microsoft 365, MicrosoftOffice, and OneAuth. Please avoid deleting unrelated certificates, Apple credentials, Wi-Fi passwords, or other items.
Close Keychain Access and restart your Mac.

Please try the steps above and let me know whether the issue persists after restarting your Mac and signing in again. I’ll be happy to continue assisting you based on the results.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Anonymous

2026-07-25T14:31:18.7866667+00:00

Hi frans,

Just checking in to see if you need any further assistance. If you have any follow-up questions or new updates, feel free to let me know. I'm here to help!
frans 0 Reputation points

2026-07-27T08:08:08.1666667+00:00

Did as you said (but left the certificates or should those have gone too?). But still the same issue. However good for you to know: MS teams opens up and logs me in; Home made excel file opens up.. So clearly the issue is with the downloaded excel file from Sharepoint.. Where Microsoft itself states there is an issue with office 2016/2019..
frans 0 Reputation points

2026-07-27T08:09:13+00:00

Sorry for late response and things appearing twice. Still working out how this forum works seemingly you need to refresh to see an answer..
Anonymous

2026-07-27T14:39:00.01+00:00

Hi frans,

Thank you for the update. Please do not delete any certificates from Keychain Access, as they may be required by macOS or your organization for authentication.

Since regular Excel files open normally and the issue appears to affect only files downloaded from SharePoint, could you please try opening the document directly from Excel instead?

Open Excel, then go to File > Open and select the relevant SharePoint site from the available locations or the Quick access section. Browse to the affected workbook and open it directly from its original SharePoint location.

If the workbook opens successfully, go to File > Save a Copy, save the workbook under a new name, and then check whether the newly saved copy opens normally without the account-selection loop.

Kind regards,
frans 0 Reputation points

2026-07-27T15:24:45.3866667+00:00

Demi, Actually the file was on a Sharepoint site where my only option is to download from that site to my local laptop. sSo to be very clear problem file.xlsx (73K on Sharepoint) downloaded from Sharepoint to laptop (downloaded problem file.xlsx is 200 kb. If I send the downloaded problem.xlsx file to someone in the organisation that owns the Sharepoint site, it opens. If I try to open it on my laptop, it keeps asking for email account. Note I'm not a member of the org that owns the Sharepoint site, but they provided me access in order to download these microsoft documents.

Hope this makes things clearer..
Anonymous

2026-07-28T14:54:26.98+00:00

Hi,

Thank you for clarifying the situation.

Could you please confirm whether other users in that organization can also download the same file from SharePoint and open the downloaded copy normally on their local computers?

It would also be helpful to know whether another external user, who is not a member of the organization, experiences the same repeated account prompt after downloading the file. This comparison may help determine whether the issue is specific to your account or device, or whether the downloaded file requires an account belonging to the organization that owns the SharePoint site.
frans 0 Reputation points

2026-07-29T14:33:41.9233333+00:00

Other users can (they can even open the file I cannot open after mailing it to them. whether other users not belonging to the org have the same problem will be impossible to test. But I'm also busy with the org to find the problem point
Anonymous

2026-07-30T13:58:08.54+00:00

Hi,

Since the issue appears to occur only on your Mac, please try resetting Excel’s local preferences and cache.

First, close Excel and all other Microsoft 365 applications completely.

Open Finder, select Go > Go to Folder, and enter: ~/Library/Preferences

Locate com.microsoft.office.plist and move it to the Trash.

Next, return to Go > Go to Folder and enter: ~/Library/Containers/

Locate the com.microsoft.Excel folder and temporarily rename it to com.microsoft.Excel.old. Restart your Mac, open Excel, sign in again if prompted, and test the affected file. Please keep the renamed folder until we confirm whether the issue has been resolved.

I also recommend opening Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, selecting the system drive, and running First Aid to check for file-system issues. Once the process finishes, restart the Mac and test Excel again.

Please let me know whether the repeated account prompt continues after completing these steps.

Kind regards,