A faulty Windows 11 update released on March 10, 2026 broke sign-ins for Teams Free and what Microsoft called “other apps”. Those “other apps” included Microsoft Word, Excel, OneDrive and Edge! If you use a personal Microsoft account and got a fake “no internet” error when trying to open Office apps, even though your connection was fine, update KB5079473 was almost certainly the culprit. Microsoft issued a fix 11 days later. I
In what is surely a totally unsurprising turn of events, there’s been another faulty Windows update which broke the ability to sign in to Microsoft’s own apps using a Microsoft account.
Microsoft’s notice to customers of this problem had a heading that made it look like a minor problem for one of their lesser products:
“Microsoft account sign ins might fail for Microsoft Teams Free and other apps”
The “other apps” are minor Microsoft products like Word, Excel, Office apps, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Copilot and their Edge browser!
Dismissing Office et al as mere “other apps” takes a special amount of corporate hutzpah even for Microsoft.
What happened
KB5079473, released March 10, 2026, managed to break sign-ins for Microsoft Teams Free, OneDrive, Word, Excel, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft 365 Copilot on Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. Users trying to sign in were greeted with the error message “You’ll need the Internet for this. It doesn’t look like you’re connected to the Internet”, even when their internet connection was working perfectly fine, thank you very much.
The problem seems more likely to happen if the computer is started without an Internet connection.
The login problem doesn’t appear to have been widespread, a small saving grace.
Who Is Affected
If you use a personal Microsoft account to sign in to any of these apps, congratulations, you were in the blast radius:
- Word, Excel, and other Office apps
- OneDrive
- Microsoft Edge
- Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Microsoft Teams Free
The one group spared from this particular gift? Businesses using Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) for authentication. So corporate IT departments dodged this one, while other got to enjoy a phantom “no internet” error on a fully connected machine.
The Fix (Such as It Is)
Good news: Microsoft has now resolved the issue with the update released March 21, 2026. If you install that update or anything later, you are done and can move on with your life.
If you haven’t updated yet and are still seeing the error, Microsoft’s official advice is a masterpiece of engineering elegance: restart your computer. While connected to the internet.
Microsoft was careful to note that if you restart without an internet connection, the problem might come back, at which point you would need to restart again, with an internet connection.
What You Should Do Right Now
- Open Settings | Windows Update and check for updates.
- Install anything from March 21, 2026 or later.
- Restart when prompted, ideally while your Wi-Fi is still working, just to be safe in this brave new world where that distinction apparently matters.
The Bigger Picture (It’s Not Pretty)
This is not a one-off. January’s Patch Tuesday caused remote desktop sign-in problems and difficulties saving or opening cloud storage files, which in some cases caused Outlook to hang when PST files were stored on OneDrive. March has now added broken Microsoft account authentication to the list, plus separate Bluetooth problems for enterprise users with hotpatching enabled.
Emergency Office Update: What Every Customer Needs to Know Now
Three New Office Security Patches You Should Not Ignore
Having Microsoft Office Problems? Try These Tips First
Simple ‘One Click’ Force an Update to Microsoft Office
Don’t Get Locked Out: Tips for Microsoft Account Recovery
New Windows 11 Option: Update Both Windows and Office
Revealed: What Is a Service-Side Change in Office and How to Find Them
Microsoft Office Support End Dates Checklist
