Microsoft says the March Windows 11 update breaks sign-ins with Microsoft accounts across multiple Microsoft apps, including Teams and OneDrive.
These sign-in issues appear after installing the KB5079473 cumulative update Microsoft released last week as part of this month’s Patch Tuesday, and, according to a Windows release health dashboard update published on Wednesday, will trigger warnings that the impacted devices are not connected to the Internet.
The list of affected applications also includes Microsoft Edge, Excel, Word, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, which will display the same error message for features that require a Microsoft account sign-in.
“As a result of this issue, sign in attempts will display an error message with text similar to ‘You’ll need the Internet for this. It doesn’t look like you’re connected to the Internet.’ This appears even if the device is connected to the Internet,” Microsoft said.
“Please note that this issue occurs only with sign in operations involving Microsoft accounts, which are commonly used for Microsoft Teams Free. Businesses using Entra ID (previously known as Azure Active Directory) for app authentication will not be affected by this issue.”
While working on a fix for this issue, Microsoft also provided a temporary workaround for those affected, which requires them to restart their PCs in the hope that the internet connectivity issues will resolve on their own.
“This issue occurs when the device enters a specific network connectivity state, and may resolve on its own. If you encounter this issue, restart the device while keeping it connected to the Internet. This should repair the device connectivity state and prevent the issue from occurring,” Microsoft added.
“However, please note that if the device is restarted without an active internet connection, it might return to a connectivity state where the issue can occur again.”
Since this month’s Patch Tuesday Windows updates were released, Microsoft has also issued two emergency out-of-band (OOB) updates for hotpatch-enabled Windows 11 Enterprise devices that address a Bluetooth device visibility issue and several security flaws in the Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) management tool.
Microsoft has also shared guidance to fix C:\ drive access issues and app failures on some Samsung Windows 11 laptops, which are triggered by a buggy version of the Samsung Galaxy Connect (or Samsung Continuity Service) app.
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