Ran into odd issue with a non-Azure AD joined computer (in this case, it was an RDS server) and signing
in to Microsoft Apps on just ONE user's profile would not work, I couldn't figure out why. When trying to
sign in to Outlook it would fail with this error "Something went wrong and outlook can't open", and
when Teams launches at startup it was showing this error: 80090016
NOTE: this issue is specific to an RDS server but I saw this same/similar issue with other computers for
other Microsoft Office 365 tenants as well, this fix may work as a general fix for the “can’t sign in” issue
seen in different environments/scenarios.
Nothing I found was working. (I tried the basics, clear any cached credentials in windows credential
manager, sign out of any office apps, repair office apps) I even created a new windows profile on that
RDS server for the user, and at first the office apps worked but then they broke again after a few weeks
and the user started seeing the same error. As a note, since this was a machine wide install for a Remote
Desktop Server, everyone on the server was using the same office apps so I could not attempt a reinstall
easily, and no one else’s apps were broken like this.
Here is what finally fixed it, I am not positive which item exactly worked but I took the below actions and
something from the below or maybe all of it, resulted in it working again:
1. DELETE this whole registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity
Reboot the computer
2. Open registry again and look for these keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity\ServiceAuthInfoCa
che\CredStoreKeyToAuthScheme
Expected: https://autodiscover-s.outlook.com REG_DWORD Value: 40 (hex)
Expected: https://autodiscover-s.domain.com REG_DWORD Value: 40 (hex)
Add the above keys in manually if missing
3. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/something-went-wrong-and-outlook-couldn-t-set-
up-your-account-b2d5e011-f801-489f-a908-e0318e172767
In case autodiscover was causing a problem I added in the keys documented in the article from
Microsoft above. Since this was a machine wide installation, the Microsoft Click-to-Run
Autodiscover keys were in a different spot than what that Microsoft article says for the common
installation locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\REGISTRY\MACHINE\Software\Micros
oft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
Keys added:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\REGISTRY\MA
CHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
DWORD: ExcludeSrvRecord
Value: 1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\REGISTRY\MA
CHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
DWORD: ExcludeHttpsRootDomain
Value: 1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\REGISTRY\MA
CHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
DWORD: ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl
Value:1
4. I also noted that in this section for current user:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
There was no Autodiscover record for the user, which I think would auto-populate once
successfully signed in but I also tried manually adding it (compared to expected output from
other users successfully signed in)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
String Value (REG_SZ): usersemail@usersdomain.com
VALUE: usersemail@usersdomain.com
5. I also signed out of the windows profile, then signed back in with an admin user and navigated
to the USERS app data folder:
C:\users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy
C:\users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.AccountsControl_cw5n1h2txyewy
DELETE completely the above folders, reboot computer then sign back in
6. Ensure MFA is not enabled (it wasn’t for this user, so this had no effect)
7. One of the last things I did before another reboot of the RDS server is in Azure, I navigated to
the Users then found the effected user and looked under devices. The RDS server showed as a
registered device and also had a red “Not Compliant” symbol. I compared this to other users on
the RDS server, the RDS server also was registered but for other users it said compliant. (This
really is a non-situation as the RDS is not azure AD joined and not using Intune or any MDM for
this tenant) So, I removed the device (RD Server) from Azure (deleted it).
CONCLUSION/RESOLUTION:
After all of the above, I rebooted again, and this time Teams did not automatically try to sign in – I.e.
when signing in to Windows I was prompted to sign in to teams. Before, Teams seemed to store some
cached credential or identity that auto signed in and that kept failing.
IMPORTANT: The first time I signed in to teams after completing all the above troubleshooting, it asked
if I wanted to sign in to all apps or just Teams. I said OK to all apps. This seemed to be what cause things
to break.
I deleted the identity folder again, unregistered device from Azure, basically repeated all the
aforementioned steps and then was prompted to sign in again – this time, I said NO SIGN IN TO THIS APP
ONLY and after all that it finally worked.