Microsoft 365 admin center topics

MCA billing account stuck in "under review" status for 4+ days, no resolution

LanceB1 — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 16:29:19 GMT

I'm the Global Admin for a Microsoft 365 tenant (domain: fortunamg.net) recently transitioned from a GoDaddy CSP reseller relationship to a direct Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) billing account.

After setting up the MCA billing account and adding a payment method, I attempted to make an edit to my billing account address (updating to the new 9-digit zip code format). This triggered an "Account under review" status, which states the review usually takes up to 2 days. It has now been over 4 days with no update or email notification.

This review is blocking me from purchasing a subscription, which I need to do to restore an active Microsoft 365 subscription on this tenant (currently showing as "Disabled" following the GoDaddy detach).

Billing Account ID: 7793dd6e-68c9-5362-c5e2-3fe091b9854c

Domain: fortunamg.net

Could someone help check the status of this review or escalate to the appropriate team? Phone support has been unable to resolve this. Thank you.

Is Office 365 E3 Developer free

JasonYeung — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:37:00 GMT

Hi,

My tenant had a license named "Office 365 E3 Developer" which allowed us to use Outlook / Exchange (among other Microsoft Office products). This license isn't from the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, which come with free licenses.

This license costed CA$11.60 a month per user when we initially purchased it. On May 2, 2026 it still costs $11.60, but when I received my monthly invoice for this tenant, this license was free.

I searched around to see whether this license became free recently, but I couldn't find any info on this. The links I found all say it's a paid license. I was wondering if there's any info on this to see why it became free? Or is it a mistake and Microsoft'll be charging us the next billing cycle?

Jason

Managing Two MSFT Licenses

catherinesjkim — Sun, 17 May 2026 14:16:07 GMT

Hi, I had an old hotmail.com email address but it doesn't exist anymore per MSFT. I purchased an annual Excel annual license several months ago but I can't find an email about it on my Gmail inbox. I just signed up for MSFT 365. How can I find the Excel license subscription so that it doesn't auto-renew?

Inherited group-based license service plan checkboxes are now editable but fail on save

Tom001 — Fri, 15 May 2026 08:59:07 GMT

Hello,

We are observing a possible UI regression in the Microsoft 365 admin center related to group-based licensing.

Environment / scenario:

- Microsoft 365 admin center

- User-level “Licenses and apps” screen

- The user receives the Microsoft 365 license through group-based licensing

- The source group is a Microsoft Entra dynamic security group

- The license and service plan settings are intended to be controlled at the group-based license assignment level

We understand that when a license is inherited from a group-based license assignment, the apps/services for that inherited license should not normally be changed directly at the individual user level. The service plan configuration should be managed at the group/license assignment level.

However, the current UI behaviour is confusing.

Observed behaviour:

1. Open a user in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

2. Go to the user’s “Licenses and apps” screen.

3. The user has a Microsoft 365 license inherited from a group-based license assignment.

4. Some app/service checkboxes appear to be enabled and editable.

5. An administrator can actually clear/uncheck those checkboxes.

6. However, when clicking OK/Save, the operation fails with an error.

In other words, the UI allows an administrator to make a change that cannot actually be committed.

The reason this looks like a regression is that the previous UI behaviour was different.

Previously, when a user’s Microsoft 365 license was inherited from a group-based license assignment, the relevant app/service checkboxes on the user-level “Licenses and apps” screen were greyed out or effectively read-only. Administrators could visually understand that those service plan settings could not be changed directly at the individual user level.

Recently, those same checkboxes appear to be active and editable. The administrator can uncheck them, but the change fails only after clicking OK/Save.

From an administrator UX perspective, this is confusing because the UI appears to allow an unsupported operation and only rejects it at save time.

Expected behaviour:

If service plan settings for an inherited group-based license cannot be changed at the individual user level, we would expect one of the following behaviours:

- The checkboxes should remain disabled/read-only from the beginning.

- The UI should clearly state that these apps/services are inherited from a group-based license assignment.

- The Save/OK button should be disabled for changes that cannot be applied.

- The UI should provide a link or guidance to manage the setting at the group-based license assignment level.

Questions:

1. Has anyone else observed this recent change in behaviour?

2. Was this UI change intentional?

3. Is this a known issue or known UX regression in the Microsoft 365 admin center?

4. Is there any scenario where these checkboxes are intentionally editable for a user who receives the license only through group-based licensing?

5. Does this behaviour differ depending on whether the source group is an assigned security group or a dynamic security group?

6. Is there any recommended administrator workflow when troubleshooting service plan settings for a user whose license is inherited from a group-based license assignment?

To clarify, this is not a question about how group-based licensing works. The concern is specifically about the UI behaviour where inherited license service plan checkboxes were previously greyed out, but now appear editable even though the change fails on save.

If this is not intentional, it would be helpful if the Microsoft 365 admin center could restore the previous read-only/greyed-out behaviour, or clearly explain in the UI why the change cannot be saved.

Thank you.

Why is Microsoft 365 setup (Groups + SharePoint + Domains) still so complex?

corkandclarity — Tue, 12 May 2026 07:40:16 GMT

Microsoft 365 Setup Feedback Summary

Summary of Experience:

Setting up two small business workspaces (Cork & Clarity and Stone Clarity Consulting) in Microsoft 365 required navigating multiple disconnected systems including the Admin Center, Outlook, SharePoint, and an external DNS provider. The process was significantly more complex than expected and not intuitive for a non-technical user.

Key Issues Encountered:

1. Identity and Account Confusion
- Unclear whether to create separate users or use one account with aliases
- Creating multiple users caused login confusion, broken permissions, and access issues

2. Domain and DNS Setup Complexity
- Required switching between Microsoft and external DNS (Looka)
- Instructions were unclear and required manual troubleshooting
- No clear distinction between required and optional DNS records

3. Default Domain Confusion
- New groups defaulted to the wrong domain
- No visible option to change domain during group creation
- Required changing global default domain (non-intuitive)

4. Inconsistent Group Behavior
- Outlook groups and Teams-backed groups behave differently
- No indication of differences or consequences
- Groups appeared in some places but not others

5. Membership and Ownership Issues
- Group creator was not consistently added as member
- Ownership did not always persist after changes
- Groups existed but were inaccessible or invisible

6. Outlook UI Limitations
- Groups not visible despite existing and being correctly configured
- No clear instructions on how to 'activate' or 'follow' groups

7. SharePoint Site Not Created Automatically
- SharePoint sites were not created when groups were created
- Required hidden steps: Outlook → Files → Open in SharePoint
- No indication that the site did not exist yet

8. SharePoint Discovery Issues
- Sites do not appear until manually accessed or followed
- No onboarding or guidance for discovering sites

9. Ghost/Deleted Items Still Visible
- Deleted group (Cork & Clarity Hub) remained visible
- No clear distinction between deleted vs followed sites

10. Fragmented User Experience
- Required switching between multiple platforms
- No single place to manage or understand setup status
- High cognitive load for basic configuration

Conclusion:

While Microsoft 365 is a powerful platform, the initial setup experience is overly complex and fragmented, especially for small businesses. Simplifying group creation, making SharePoint provisioning automatic and visible, and improving UI consistency across apps would significantly improve usability and adoption.

O365 Exchange connectors apply spam filters before checking certificate

IanMurphy48 — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:27:35 GMT

If you have devices like multifunction printers which need to send email the MS solution is to configure an inbound email connector.

You can use source IP to identify the origen of incoming messages and to associate them with the inbound connector. However the best way is to use a certificate in the TLS session.

So far so good. However theres a design problem. MS applies RBL filters seemingly before checking either the source IP or the certificate. If the IP appears in the list MS simply reject the connection.

The makes no sense as they are checking against the spamhaus general rbl. This RBL contains all dinamic IP ranges. I don't know for other countries but where I am even if you contract a fixed IP, the IP address they assign you is still in the dynamic IP range, its just fixed. This means that the reverse lookup on the IP address shows a name with dynamic in it. Spamhaus automatically include these in their RBL.

Most companies will have a normal fiber connection, with a fixed ip or not. Those fiber connections will almost always be included in a spamhaus rbl as they are not going to be running mail servers.

Thus checking the IP against the general spamhaus RBL makes no sense as it is going to automatically block almost everyone who would actually use an inbound mail connector.

Does anyone know how to communicate this situation to whoever controls this in MS?

Ian

MC1269241 - Can't turn off antropic for agentmode

Emiliabergstrom — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:25:06 GMT

Hi,

I’m trying to figure out how to turn off the new feature where Anthropic is enabled by default for everyone in the EU for agent mode in excel and powerpoint, as described in the Message Center news in the title.

It is not possible to press Save when you have unchecked the setting unless you also consent to the terms of use, it is greyed out. Since we want the feature turned off, we do not want to agree to any terms of use.

Has anyone found a solution? This seems to be misconfigured.

The Admin Center offers a uniquely retro approach to licensed group management

Kristin_L_365 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:32:33 GMT

You can see the name of licensed groups from the licensing blade, but you can’t click it or copy the name. Instead, you manually retype it elsewhere—because nothing says “modern cloud platform” quite like a 1997‑era workflow.

Unable to remove Office Store applicaitons in admin center:

CGXD — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:52:56 GMT

Hi!

Yesterday I changed the settings in the screenshot below and it worked. It showed that IT blocked access when clicking on the Add-Ins button in Word and Excel. Today it shows the list off add ins and nothing was changed in the settings. Users can install add ins again:

Google shows results of an Org setting in M365 admin panel that doesn't exist anymore. Any help would be appreciated.

M365 only admin locked out MFA error 53003

techycap — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:47:41 GMT

I am learning this the hard way....so here it goes.

Currently I am locked out of as the only admin on the tenant with error 53003.

I was updating some Microsoft MFA default policy settings in Entra and mistakenly deleted the admin user from the exclusions list, and got locked out.

Thankfully I have another tenant, not as big the one locked out. Initiated several support tickets for which everyone calls, and despite of subline mentioning the issue says that they have to assign this ticket to Entra. Then the ticket gets updated and noone has been assigned every since. I have initiated severity A support tickets from Azure portal but no one has called in last 24 hours to help. We area business with Business Premium licenses with over 20 users, and now completely locked out.

I have looked almost everywhere online. There is no phone number that takes you to a support agent - PLEASE HELP........

Onedrive sharing not working for one user

Nutmegman28 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:25:48 GMT

There is only one user who cannot share with anyone external or internal. I have checked everything, they are a site owner, a site admin, a site member, we have no restrictions on sharing, it works for others. I made a new site just for them as the only admin, they still cannot share. They have been removed and re-added 5 times. We have a microsoft support ticket and they don't even seem to know the issue. What can I do?

APP Android Excel 365

PPL — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 13:12:28 GMT

Hallo und guten Tag,

wird möchten mehrere Android Tablets anschaffen um eine auf einem W11 Laptop (mit VBA und Macros) erstellte Excel 365 Anwendung zu nutzen. Hat jemand Erfahrung mit Excel 365 für Android. Insbesondere geht es mir um die herauszubekommen, inwieweit VBA und Macros auf dem Tablet ausführbar sind.

Gruß

Peter

Microsoft Feedback Portal account issue

bobbyeagle — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 12:39:10 GMT

I changed my Microsoft email a year ago, and it updated everywhere other than the Feedback Portal. As a result, I get an error when I try to login, or do anything on the page.

Microsoft account support's suggestion was to login to the Feedback Portal which is insane given I'm having issues accessing it.

How can I get this issue resolved? I've got three separate support tickets now and they keep asking me to wait 24 hours to get the issue resolved.

Can someone from the Feedback Portal team please contact me to resolve this?

This is what Microsoft Support have said:

"understand your frustration, and yes—this is an account‑related issue because the Feedback Portal is still tied to your old alias, which causes login conflicts and forces you out. Your Microsoft account itself signs in correctly, but the Feedback Portal is pulling outdated identity data that you cannot update on your own. Since you cannot access the Portal to submit feedback, directing you back there is not a workable solution. What you need is for Support to escalate this to the internal Identity/Feedback Platform engineering team so they can manually correct the outdated alias mapping on the backend. In this situation, the Feedback Portal and Tech Community teams are the ones who manage and maintain that specific platform. Because the issue appears on the Feedback Portal side—even though your Microsoft account is working normally—only their dedicated team can make the necessary corrections on their end. That’s why we are guiding you to connect with them through the links provided: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/ or https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback. They will be able to review the portal‑specific account data and assist you further. I understand why this is frustrating. Since you’re unable to stay signed in to the Feedback Portal, I completely see why posting there isn’t possible for you. However, I do need to be transparent: I’m not able to escalate this issue directly to the Feedback Portal team, as they don’t provide internal escalation channels for us and only accept requests through their own platform."

People Skills Not Enabling – Possibly Due to Tenant Being Marked as “EDU”

ZemDe — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:10:20 GMT

Hi everyone,

We’re trying to roll out People Skills across our organisation, but the feature never becomes active in our Microsoft 365 tenant. After a lot of investigation, it looks increasingly likely that the root cause is that our tenant is classified as an Education (EDU) tenant. Which is correct, we are a mixed tenant accurately so for licensed purposes, but Education tenants don't get People Skills.

Service plans updated and all initially looked out just no configuration appeared.

Anyone else having issues with People Skills?

MC1060842 – (Updated) Microsoft 365 Copilot: People Skills will be available starting in May

MC1060845 – New Service Plan: People Skills

Announcing People Skills general availability and new Skills agent | Microsoft Community Hub

Distribution List & Security Group

JuJuB — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 19:10:13 GMT

I need a group that is a distribution list (so we can send emails to members of the group) & a security group (so I can assign the group to intune policies). How do I accomplish this?

I don't want to just create the security group as our memebers don't like to go to groups in Outlook to check for email, they rather have it in their inbox...

TIA,

Regarding Microsoft Support for Partners

harpreet-singh-him — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 12:24:57 GMT

Hi Everyone,

As per our review of Microsoft documentation for Advanced Support for Partners (ASfP) and Partner Support (PSfP), Microsoft has introduced changes to the support coverage. Going forward, partners can create a maximum of 20 support requests under ASfP and 30 support requests under PSfP. Additionally, there is no option to purchase additional support requests beyond these limits.

Any Suggestion or thoughts on the same.

Thanks

Microsoft 365 admin center support

Abyssinia — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 05:58:55 GMT

I am extremely disappointed with the customer support experience associated with Microsoft 365 Business. As a business customer, I expected a reliable support system. Unfortunately, the reality has been the opposite, and I feel compelled to caution others to carefully consider their options before committing their hard-earned money to a Microsoft 365 business subscription.

After purchasing Microsoft Business licenses and transitioning my services from GoDaddy to Microsoft, I lost access to my global admin credentials. This should be a straightforward issue for support to resolve, yet it has turned into a prolonged and frustrating ordeal. For the past two weeks, I have been trying to obtain assistance without success.

I contacted Microsoft support over ten days ago and received a ticket, with the assurance that someone would contact me within 24 hours. No one has reached out to me—not in 24 hours, and not in the ten days since. I attempted to escalate the issue, but even then, no meaningful support was provided.

This level of customer service is unacceptable for any business solution, especially one that organizations rely on for critical operations. It is unreasonable to expect customers to run their businesses effectively without access to timely and competent support.

At this point, I am requesting a refund for the service that has not been delivered, and I strongly urge Microsoft to address the shortcomings in its support system. The support I received from GoDaddy in the past was significantly better.

I hope no other business has to experience this level of frustration, and I sincerely urge Microsoft to acknowledge and fix these issues.

tenant completely unreachable after update PLAID number on partner portal

Roberto_Noord — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 10:02:29 GMT

Hi, i'm a reseller in Italy. I have a partnership with a local distributor to resell Office 365 product from many years.

On the license side (my panel at vendor) i see my license available yet, like other customers.

In these days we have changed the PLAID as requested to enable again our partnership.

I've opened the ticket as suggested and after that we have lost completeley the access with any admin of our domain (@noorduffici.com and onmicrosoft.com)

I can't login even in the partner portal of microsoft that reply with ( the mail doesn't exists)

I've tried to call any number of support but anytime I go on with a virtual caller without a solution .

Someone could hel about this issue ?

The domain is not corrupted because i've access and i change the MX record to work temporaly with mail NOT microsoft.

Leadership of Outlook Newsletter

leonelomovie — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 03:06:52 GMT

I’m requesting the ability to become the full administrator of Outlook newsletters not just in my organization, but across Microsoft 365. I want to manage templates, delivery settings, analytics, and permissions. My goal is to have broader control over how newsletters are created, customized, and distributed. I’m passionate about communication and want to help shape how newsletters work in Outlook. Please consider adding a role or feature that allows users like me to take ownership and lead newsletter strategy across organizations.

I’ve seen cases where people used newsletters to share inappropriate content, including profanity and offensive language. Without proper moderation tools, this can damage professional communication and create serious issues. I want to help prevent misuse by having the ability to moderate, approve, or restrict newsletter content before it’s sent. I also want to contribute to improving the overall design and performance of the newsletter experience, making it more intuitive, professional, and reliable. Giving users like me full control over Outlook newsletters would improve communication quality, prevent abuse, and empower responsible leadership across organizations. If exclusive admin control isn’t granted, at minimum there should be a designated Admin role because without clear ownership, misuse and poor communication will continue unchecked. I’m ready to take on that responsibility and help shape the future of Outlook newsletters.

Need Help Escalating Microsoft 365 Billing Case – Unresolved Since 8/27

JMcCord — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 22:01:55 GMT

I have had a problem getting a ticket resolved TrackingID 2509240040013394. I have not been able to pay my business standard licenses and my tenant is locked down. I have worked with support several times and they have not been able to resolve the issue. When looking at the logs during one of the troubleshooting steps I found TenantLockedForAbuse. I reported that to them and I have not gotten anything resolved and this has been going on sense 8/27/25 if you have any information on how you can help that would be greatly appreciated.