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

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