Powerpoint not syncing despite efforts to fix

Question

For the past week or so, my PowerPoint has not been showing me where others are in the slideshows I am working on. I can see that they are in the deck, but not what slide/item they are working on. This is also the case for Excel/Word. They also cannot see what I am working on. This has been a surprisingly annoying impediment and I have tried various things to try to fix it - restarting computer, signing in and out of PowerPoint, etc. These items are connected to OneDrive, which is synced. If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know

Answer 1

Hi @Patrick,

Based on your sharing, all Office apps (PowerPoint + Word + Excel) is missing the live location indicators. For further assistance and to narrow down the issue, I suggest checking these steps first:

Firstly, if you are currently using PowerPoint (or Word/Excel) Desktop app, try opening the file in PowerPoint web version to see if you can see the collaboration behavior or not.

• If browser works, you can proceed to the below steps for further checking
• If browser also doesn't work, this is a permission/policy issue. In this case, you need to contact the file owner or your IT help desk for further troubleshooting process.

If collaboration presence works in the browser, your client Office settings is the issue and there are two important settings your need to verify:

• In PowerPoint, go to File > Options > Advanced > Display > ensure "Show presence flags for selected items" is checked. (For reference: Work together on PowerPoint presentations - Microsoft Support)
• Next, go to File > Account > choose Manage Settings under Account Privacy > ensure "Connected experiences" are enabled. If it is disabled, co-authoring presence can stop working. Please note that if you cannot enable it yourself, please contact your IT help desk since it is blocked by a privacy or policy setting.

Please understand that my initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to find a solution.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.    

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

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