Monday, September 23, 2019

Bitch!

Yes she is the fucking bitch! Updated in 2020 - Glad to report the bitch has left the company!

Friday, June 21, 2019

"Contacting the server for information" and "upload blocked" in Office365 WORD

This has been a frequent seen issue in our environment. The common symptoms are:

  •  After a Word or Excel file open, or when trying to save it, the program will be stuck with a "Contacting server for information" window and needed be killed in the Task Manger.



  • "Upload Blocked" will display and asks for "Sign In". However it would become a log-in loop and eventually got into the TPM error, "Something went wrong. Your computer's Trusted Platform Module has malfunctioned. If this error persists, contact your system administrator with the error code 80090030"



Possible fixes:
  • I usually start with checking if TPM is bad by going to BIOS to confirm if the TPM is still available in the Security category. I have seen few times its missing even the BIOS is up-to-date on our Dell Latitude laptops. This case motherboard needs to be replaced. When TPM is bad, we cannot suspend bitlocker in Windows and bitlocker would prompt for the bitlocker key randomly when the laptop boots up.
  • If the TPM is good, then I will perform this step: Close all Office apps, disconnect user's account from "Access work or school" in the Settings/Accounts". Open Word or Excel to sign in the first time and allow device to be registered. 
  • Another quick checkup to try is go to File/Account in Word, usually there's a "Fix it" button next to the user profile in most of cases, click on it. In the same window, also click Update now in Office Updates options.
  • I also have seen the similar issue that user could not log in Office app due to the license of older versions of Office still present in the system. The fix is at this link

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Few issues after changed Office 365 subscription from E3 to Business Premium

After changed subscription from E3 - Office 2016 to Business Premium - Office 2013, I ran into all kinds of problems. 

The first issue is the Office apps such as Word shows expired ProPlus license has expired even ProPlus has been uninstalled.


The 2nd issue is after the license issue has been fixed, I could not save files to SharePoint or Onedrive for Business in Word or Excel. It would keep prompting for login even I typed in correct credential.

Solution to 1st issue:

1. Run cmd as the admin
2. CD C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15 (Office 16 for Office 2016) or CD C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15  and press Enter.
3. Run cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus and press Enter (copy the last five digits of the product key for Office 16O365ProPlus).
4. Run cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:xxxxx

Solution to 2nd issue:

Make sure "Modern Authentication for Office 2013" is enabled (Office 2016 is enabled automatically).

Check the registry and make sure those two keys below present.


Registry keyTypeValue 
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\EnableADAL REG_DWORD 
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\Version REG_DWORD 
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/security-and-compliance/enable-modern-authentication?view=o365-worldwide

Friday, January 4, 2019

After mailbox migration to O365, the mailbox did not move to disconnected mailbox

We have been migrating mailboxes from on-prem Exchange 2010 to O365. All was good except two mailboxes. After migration was successful, these two mailboxes did not move to 'disconnected mailbox' status as they should be. Therefore, all external emails and O365 went to O365 that users can view them in OWA and on-prem emails went to their Outlook because Outlook is connected to on-prem Exchange automatically instead of O365.

Solution: (by Awesome MS support)

1. Disable the mailbox in Exchange Management Console on Exchange 2010 or use the command below. My case I use GUI.
Disable-Mailbox -identity -<user_identity_email>
2. Issue the next command
Enable-RemoteMailbox "<user_identity_email>" -RemoteRoutingAddress "<user@mydomain.mail.onmicrosoft.com>"
3. Run a Azure delta sync - (or full sync)
Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta
Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Initial
4. Create a new Outlook profile which should connect to O365.

Azure MFA NPS extension stopped working due to expired certification

 Users complained they were unable to log in VMware Horizon Client portal and the logon stuck at "Authenticating...." screen. So I...