Why do I always see the yellow triangle with the exclamation point next to my name at the top of the ribbon telling me there is a problem with my account?

Hello again,

I think I have found the problem. I have a personal Microsoft 365 subscription and a work Microsoft Subscription. When I tried the solution by George posted above it worked but only for a while. The yellow triangle would return and I couldn't figure out why until one day I noticed what appears to trigger it's appearance.

When I am at home I use my desktop pc for personal stuff and I am signed into my Microsoft office apps using my personal email address. But every so often I would use the desktop PC to check my work emails. I would do this using my browser to log onto my work portal and from there onto the web version of outlook to view my work emails. When I signed in I would get a prompt saying 'Would I like to remain signed in on this PC?'. I normally reply yes. I noticed this was causing the yellow triangle to appear. Solution: make sure and sign out of your work account even if it is through a web browser.

It's blows my mind how software has become so complex and software companies provide no instruction or technical support to help users figure out the programs they develop.

Hi Maximma,

Yes, I feel your pain. It is clear Microsoft has abandoned it's personal customers to their fate and left them floating on the raft of the Medusa when it comes to technical support.

Anyhow, the only thing I would suggest is to double check that you have not signed in to your private Hotmail/Outlook email account on ANY of your work PCs/Laptops/Tablets through any internet browser- Edge/Chrome/Safari etc. You may have done this and forgotten about it and that is what is causing the conflict and appearance of the yellow triangle.

Do the same with your personal PC/ Laptop and Tablets. Make sure you have not signed into your work outlook account on any of them… Either through Microsoft Apps like Office etc or your work email through a browser.

What I believe Microsoft is doing without explaining is this:- Engineering the software so that only ONE Outlook account can operate on only ONE piece of hardware at any ONE time. 

I hope this works.

Following steps provided by Microsoft help team never works. What they suggest and what I see on my display are totally different things. I have same problem with the yellow triangle in my company PC. I do have a personal Microsoft Office but I am not using Company PC for personal use so crash of two accounts in my company PC is not an issue. It doesn't seems there is any problem with my account but the triangle is really annoying.

Any other suggestion how to get rid of it? Since Microsoft dominates in office software usage they don't care about the end customers so maybe there is somebody else out there who can help.

Hi William,

Thanks for posting in the community. We are happy to help you.

Generally, the yellow triangle icon indicates a problem with this account, and you need to log in to your account again to fix it. This can be caused by many reasons. In this case, I suggest you try the following steps to remove all cache files and register the device. After that, check if it appears.

1. Please sign out your accounts from Office applications, then close all Office applications.
2. Open File Explorer, and go to the following path. If you can go to the following path, please delete all files and folders in these locations.

    %localappdata%\Package\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy

    %localappdata%/Microsoft/OneAuth

    %localappdata%/Microsoft/IdentityCache

3. In the Windows search bar, search for "Access Work or School" (Windows settings> Accounts> Access work or school)
4. Check if you can see your business account in "Access Work or School".

• If you don't see it, please select Connect and add your business account.
• If you can see it, please select it and select Disconnect. After that, please click "Connect" and log into your account again to register the device.

If the icon appears again after trying the above steps, since multiple users are experiencing the same situation, I suggest you report this to your tenant admin or IT team and ask them to raise a support ticket via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center> Support> New service request. The support team there has the correct channel and resources to help you investigate more and find what exactly the reason has caused this at the backend.

Appreciate your understanding and patience.

Sincerely, 

George | Microsoft Community Moderator

Thank you George! I had the same problem and I have been trying various solutions that I have found on the Microsoft Forums - Repair tools / reinstalling Office etc.. none of which worked.