Add-ins not working

Hey there,

That sounds incredibly frustrating – especially after already going through two Microsoft support agents and multiple troubleshooting steps.

I've actually seen this exact "{0} catalog server" error pop up in a few other threads recently, and in most cases, it does seem to be something on Microsoft's end rather than a local issue. It's interesting that you mentioned the 502 bad gateway error on the marketplace site – that's a pretty strong indicator that something's going on with their infrastructure.

One thing that worked for someone in a similar thread was clearing the Office cache and resetting the add-in registry keys, but honestly, since you're getting the same error across both desktop and web versions, I doubt that's going to help in your case. It really does point to a server-side authentication or catalog connection issue.

Have you tried checking if the add-in works from a completely different network (like using your phone hotspot instead of home/work WiFi)? I know you mentioned VPN troubleshooting, but just wanted to double-check. Sometimes it's a DNS resolution thing with the catalog servers.

Also worth a shot – if you go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Add-ins, do you see anything blocked or restricted there? Probably not, but worth ruling out.

Definitely following this because I rely on a couple of add-ins for my workflow and I'm worried about this being a broader issue. Hopefully one of the community MVPs or Microsoft folks picks this up soon – they're usually pretty responsive on these technical threads.

Keep us posted if you find a workaround, and I'll do the same if I spot anything helpful elsewhere.

Good luck mate.