Across roughly 4,500 endpoints, users with valid Microsoft 365 licenses are occasionally prompted to sign in when they first open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. If they close the application and launch it again, the app recognizes the user as signed in. Has anyone experienced this, and what resolved it? One detail: OneDrive is not already open when the issue occurs.
2 Answers
I’ve seen similar behavior where the first launch does not immediately pick up the user’s authenticated session. Relaunching the app refreshes the sign-in and license state. Since OneDrive is not running beforehand, I’d focus troubleshooting on Office sign-in tokens, cached credentials, and recent licensing changes rather than OneDrive integration.
This can happen when Microsoft 365 licensing or service assignments have recently changed. For example, moving someone between Business Standard, Business Premium, or Apps for enterprise may require the Office apps to refresh their licensing token. Closing and reopening the application usually forces that refresh, though it would be worth checking whether the affected users recently had license changes.
Is there a reliable way to prevent the first-launch sign-in prompt instead of relying on users to close and reopen the app?