Add ins in excel

Question

Add ins in excel

Kevin 0

Hello,

I used Claude AI in excel on my mac last week without any issues. Since a couple of days I can't use it anymore. When I click on the add in icon in excel, it says that add ins are disabled by the administrator.

However, this is a personal account so no administrator and I have no issue using claude ai in Powerpoint nor in excel online.

I have tried uninstalling the app and installing it again and it doesn't change anything. I have also tried to log out of my account 365 account in excel. Than I can't log back, I have an error message 'Network has expired, try again 2602". To log back, I need to delete the licence and log from powerpoint...

Setup:

Subscription Microsoft 365
Mac 15.6.1
Excel desktop version downloaded from apple store

Any ideas?

Thanks

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2 answers

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Answer 1

Norah-L 6,430 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Have a nice day Kevin!

Thank you for joining the Q&A forum

From what you described, Claude AI add-ins were working previously in Excel desktop on your Mac, but now it shows that add-ins are “disabled by the administrator" even though you’re using a personal Microsoft 365 account. The add-in still works in PowerPoint desktop and Excel Online.

First, try clearing the Excel cache on your Mac:

Quit all Office apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.).
In Finder, go to Go > Go to Folder… and paste: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office
Delete the WEF and Microsoft Web Addins folders (if present).
Go to Go > Go to Folder… again and paste: ~/Library/Containers/
Delete com.microsoft.Excel.
Then go to Go > Go to Folder… and paste: ~/Library/Group Containers/
Delete UBF8T346G9.Office and UBF8T346G9.ms.
Restart the Mac, open Excel, sign in, and test the add-ins.

If the issue continues, could you let me know whether you’ve ever signed in to Office on this Mac using a work or school account? In some cases, remnants of a prior work/school sign‑in can cause Excel desktop to think add‑ins are administrator‑restricted.

I look forward to your reply so we can look into this further!

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Norah-L 6,430 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-17T08:06:19.49+00:00

Hello Kevin!

Have you had the chance to check my answer yet?

Please do keep me updated.
Kevin 0 Reputation points

2026-04-17T16:02:57.71+00:00

Hello @Norah-L ,

I followed the steps, but no changes.

However, I previously used a school account to log in. I had to change my subscription to my gmail account to be able to use claude ai since my school account was restricted. How do I solve this?

Thanks
Norah-L 6,430 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-19T09:01:58.54+00:00
Hi Kevin!

Thanks for the clarification, that helps explain the behavior. Since a school account was previously used on this Mac, Excel may still be holding on to cached credentials or account policies from that account.

As a next step, please try removing Microsoft entries from Keychain Access. This clears cached sign‑in tokens and policies tied to the old school account and forces Excel to refresh its credentials using your current personal account.

Note: As a result, Microsoft apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneDrive, etc.) will ask you to sign in again after this method.

Open Keychain Access

Select Login keychain

Search for and delete all entries related to:

Microsoft

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Identity

ADAL

MSAL

com.microsoft

After that, restart the Mac, sign in to Excel again, and test the add-in.

Please let me know how it goes!
Kevin 0 Reputation points

2026-04-20T15:52:05.1733333+00:00
Hello @Norah-L

Thanks for you reply but it didn't solve the issue. I was not forced to sign in.

Now I restarted the whole procedure but I also deleted Powerpoint and Word, + the following:

WEF, I had no Microsoft Web Addins folders

com.microsoft.Excel. +com.microsoft.Word +com.microsoft.Powerpoint.

UBF8T346G9.Office and UBF8T346G9.ms.

Downloaded & installed excel

However it still doesn't work, for example I have a blank sign in page (which I also had before).

Thanks

Kevin
Norah-L 6,430 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-21T09:02:23.47+00:00

Hi Kevin!

Thank you so much for posting back to update this.

In this situation, I’d suggest signing out of all Office apps, restarting the Mac, and if possible, testing Excel from a new Mac user profile. If it still fails, it may also be worth contacting Claude support to check whether this is a recent issue with the Claude Office add-in rather than with your Microsoft 365 account.

Best regards.
Kevin 0 Reputation points

2026-05-07T13:11:01.46+00:00
Hi @Norah-L
I everything once again and also to create another mac profile without any success. It loops back to:

When I sign in excel either I have a white screen and can't type my credentials or I can type my password and it says "error 2602"

When I log into word or powerpoint it works, the addins are available for these apps AND it manage to log in excel (some kind of cross log in) but still no addins in excel.

Claude supports says it comes from msft

I am starting to lose hope to find a solution :/

Thanks
Norah-L 6,430 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-10T07:53:44.17+00:00

Kelvin, thank you for updating me that information and I apologize that these did not resolve the issue.

Since this is an open forum, let’s see if other community members may have additional ideas or suggestions.

Yours sincerely.

Answer 2

AI answer

The behavior points to an Excel-for-Mac–specific problem with add-ins and/or the local Office profile on that Mac, not to the Claude add-in itself or to tenant admin controls.

Try these steps in order:

Confirm Excel add-ins are enabled in Excel for Mac
On macOS, Excel add-ins are managed inside Excel:
1. Open Excel.
2. On the Tools menu, select Add-ins.
3. In Add-Ins available, make sure the relevant add-ins are checked and click OK.
  If the add-ins are not listed, they may need to be reinstalled (see step 3 below).
Repair the local Office profile by fully removing and reinstalling Office apps
The sign-in error and add-ins-disabled message together indicate a corrupted Office installation/profile. Use the same clean-removal approach that resolves other Mac Office issues:
1. Quit all Office apps.
2. In Finder → Applications, Command-click to select all Microsoft 365 for Mac apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote).
3. Ctrl+click the selection and choose Move to Trash.
4. In Finder, select Go → Go to Folder… and open ~/Library/Containers/.
5. Move to Trash the folders starting with:
  - com.microsoft.Word
  - com.microsoft.Excel
  - com.microsoft.Powerpoint
  - com.microsoft.Outlook
  - com.microsoft.OneNote
6. Go back to ~/Library and open Group Containers.
7. Move to Trash (if present):
  - UBF8T346G9.ms
  - UBF8T346G9.Office
8. Empty the Trash (optional but recommended after confirming nothing else important is in it).
9. Reinstall Office for Mac from the Microsoft account services page and sign in again.
This resets the local Office configuration and often clears unexplained add-in and sign-in issues.
Reinstall the Claude add-in in Excel for Mac
After Excel is reinstalled and signed in:
1. Open Excel.
2. Go to the Insert tab.
3. Select Store (or Get Add-ins depending on UI).
4. Search for the Claude add-in and select Add to install it.
5. If it appears under Insert → My Add-ins, open it from there.
If Excel still reports add-ins are disabled
Because add-ins work in PowerPoint and Excel Online, the account and service-side configuration is fine. If, after a clean reinstall and profile reset, Excel alone still blocks add-ins, contact Microsoft Support using the Excel for Mac support options listed in the “Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Excel for Mac” article so they can collect logs and check for a product bug specific to Excel 16.x on macOS 15.6.1.

References:

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