Open Files In Desktop App By Default now license based and not functioning within Business Prem

[Randy Nieraeth]

In about a week ago we started to receive notifications of user who cannot open Office files directly in their Desktop App from within Microsoft Teams.

All of these users are licensed with Business Premium subscriptions.

When looking into the functionality and settings within Teams Microsoft links to this article:

Edit an Office file in Teams (microsoft.com)

It states that now every users must have an Office 365 E3 or E5 license to use such a basic functionality like default opening of files within the desktop app.

Anyone also experiencing this behavior within Business environments or does anyone have a clue why Microsoft is changing this and maybe have a solution?

[#2]

Nobody experiencing this? What did you guys communicate to your customers or end-users?

[#3]

I also have an issue with this.
It only occurs on one of my computers (both report @{License=O365ProPlusRetail}).

My opinion is that this is a bug, and that the MS articles currently do not describe the problem correctly. I suspect it might also be linked to what you install when, possibly also to buggy support for multiple accounts,

A small scale, temporary solution might be to sync Teams file folders to OneDrive. Then navigate in and open files from File Explorer.

[#4]

@Randy Nieraeth we are also seeing this issue now. Microsoft support have confirmed the 'feature' is now restricted to E3 and E5. Calling this an Enterprise feature when we're already paying for the Desktop applications is absolutely outrageous. Did you get anywhere with you enquiries into this?

[#5]

Unfortunately not! Hopefully this is in fact a bug but i still havent found any info regarding this. :(

[#6]

I found on the learn page that E3/E5 is required but it does not make any sense. Is there any update on this?

[#7]

@KarthicSharma You are right it makes no sense, but it is not an accident. Somebody somewhere at Microsoft thought that being able to easily open files in the desktop apps that we've paid for, should be an 'Enterprise' feature.

When I complained to Microsoft they directed me to their feedback forum but I have refused that route and asked to register it as a formal complaint. My view is very clear that any reasonable person would expect this to be part of the desktop application capability that Microsoft sells as part of its Business licenses. It is a simple preference switch, not a special feature or enhanced functionality.

[#8]

Thanks for your reply Tim and I am completely aggreing with you. I´d understand if it is a new feature which is not in combination with Office Online. All my customers with Business Standard/Premium used to like those function and suddenly it went away from some of them. I hope Microsoft will see it as a mistake and correct it. Or at least give a proper and useful information for what reason it is only available for E3 licenses.

[#9]

It will need more people to complain otherwise the simply won't care.

[#10]

Reading this makes me wtf ... srsly? Where do I officially complain? If I'd want to use office aps in browser, I'd use basic version and not pay premium?!

[#11]

I've created a post on the feedback portal. Please vote!

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/4e586618-40a2-ed11-a81b-002248519701

[#12]

There remains no proper resolution to this issue but there is a workaround of sorts though I'm reluctant to post it here in case Microsoft move to block it. I'm happy to share details with anyone if you message me.

[#13]

Tim, same issue in my organization:
The Teams configuration "Open by default in desktop app" for Microsoft 365 Business Users does not work and shows as Read-Only for the documents.

Please reinstate this feature, doing anything more than viewing and minor editors requires the App. Browser and Teams have limited functionality and responsiveness, increases time and frustration when completing tasks.

We do have 2016 and 2019 MS Office installed in standalone machines and use Office 365 Business Basic for collaboration in Teams.

Should'nt the Open in Desktop app work properly then as the Office 2016 and 2019 are activated, please advise how to solve this issue. How to get rid of Read-Only?
Please help.
Thank you very much

[#14]

This is so sneaky and underhand. The change has not been announced in the message centre to my knowledge and I have wasted 3 hours trying to find the answer to this. 
This is why I have so much trouble selling cloud software to customers, because vendors can just turn things off at will or make them premium - which was never an issue with a perpetual copy of office.

[#15]

@TimD Can you please share the work around for this issue that you mentioned? The only thing we have found is to sync the Teams files with OneDrive Sync and open them in file explorer.

[#16]

And now im curious to see what will happen when this feature becomes available:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=124813

[#17]

@dbrock 

I have two solutions.

1. Close Teams

1.2. WIN + R , %temp%\Microsoft , remove the folder "teams"
1.3. Start teams. 

If option still not there wrong version of Office is installed.

Solution number 2:
Go to config.office.com and create a XML config file that installs Proplus and removes all the other office installtions.

like this one:

<Configuration>
  <Remove>
    <Product ID="O365BusinessRetail" />
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail" />
    <Product ID="O365BusinessEssentials" />
    <Product ID="O365BusinessPremium" />
    <Product ID="O365HomePremRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="O365HomePremRetail">
      <Language ID="da-dk" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="O365HomePremRetail">
      <Language ID="fi-fi" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="O365HomePremRetail">
      <Language ID="nb-no" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="O365HomePremRetail">
      <Language ID="sv-se" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="fr-fr" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="nb-no" />
    </Product>
  </Remove>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="sv-se" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
</Configuration>

download an office setup file, start powershell with admin rights, paste:

*officesetupfilename*.exe /configure yourconfigfile.xml

restart pc after fidling with the office pakage or restart teams. 
Should do the trick.

[#18]

@skylitewilliam - thanks for this info. Will give it a try.

[#19]

I dont know if there has been a change of policy, but the release notes for the new teams says

"Choose where files open
Teams will now honor the settings you’ve set for how to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files."

taken from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-the-new-microsoft-teams-03f99a8a-0ba9-477c-...

however if I try to set the default it says "switch to class Teams and open the link? This link is not supported in the new teams. Select continue to switch to classic teams and open the link.

Typical Microsoft !

[#20]

Update: As far as i can see there has been no policy change - so I do not understand what the above announcement is actually referring to.