New Outlook Mac v16.96 - This experience is unavailable

Question

Hello,

Please i need your help on this issue.

New Outlook Mac v16.96 update - at launch popup message.

This experience is unavailable Your org. admin has turned off the service required to use this experience - click the Ok button has another message popup and cycles in a loop.

Outlook is unusable. - Connected Experiences was disabled at tenant level by policy at Apps Admin center.

We re-enabled the Connected Experiences policy and had no effect. Deleted the Policy from Policy Management still no effect - only solution found to get working Outlook app is to downgrade to previous version. - Screenshot attached for reference.

• All users with updated Outlook v16.96 affected
• happens on Fresh installs and updates are affected

The Issue is isolated to macOS to our knowledge – we are macOS only shop

The MAC OS version 14.6.1, 14.7.1 and 15.4 is affected.

it has been 4+ hours since the policy was removed – Outlook, Word and Excel all report Connected Experiences is disabled – Word and Excel do not display any popup message, only Outlook.

Only the 16.96 version of Outlook for Mac affected.

Users are on corporate and home networks

A Force Sync or manual refreshed was NOT triggered. Not using Intune.

Brand new test user signs in has same effect in Outlook Popup message loop starts after sign in process

Uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook has no effect, a Popup message loop remains if using 16.96.  

The only solution is downgraded to earlier version (v16.95.250032931) does Popup message not appear and Outlook is useable.

Answer 1

Hi @Enobong Essien ,

Welcome to our forum!

From your description, I understand that you are having a problem with the New Outlook for MAC v16.96 where you are stuck in a loop with an error message about Connected Experiences being disabled by your admin.

You mentioned that you have re-enabled and deleted it, but it didn’t help, as a far as I know, when policies re changed, it might take time to take effect.

You can also check Known Issues in admin center:

• Search the [M365 Admin Center Health Dashboard] (admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?ref=/servicehealth) for Outlook v16.96 Mac-specific bugs.  
• If Microsoft confirms a bug, request a timeline for a hotfix.

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Answer 2

I had the same problem starting on April 16. Microsoft support suggested I speak with Apple. That's a rabbit hole I knew would go nowhere.

After seeing your post and the hint that an unrequested upgrade may have occurred I checked and found I had the upgrade. I downloaded the April 1st release and the issue went away. Don't know how to stop the upgrade from hurting me again.