Fix: Office 365 No Internet Connection Error
Office 365 combines the various software from Microsoft that is used in our day to day life. Since MS Office combines them into one installation, users do not really have to worry about installing individual software one by one which is really convenient. One of the issues that is faced by users while using Office 365 is the No Internet Connection error message. The error can be seen when a user tries to go to the File menu inside Word, Excel, or any other MS Office application. Now, this would make sense and could be ignored if the user didn’t have an internet connection. However, that is not the case.
As it turns out, the error message appears even when users have an active internet connection. Although you are still able to use the application and do whatever you want, there are still some features that do not work when you do not have an internet connection. For example, if you turned on OneDrive syncing so that your files are automatically synced to the cloud, the error message prevents that from working. Now, why is this error message displayed even when you have an internet connection? As it turns out, there are some nuisances that can cause the said issue and we will mention down below. So, let us get into it.
- Third-Party VPN — As it turns out, the most obvious cause of the error message happens to be a third-party VPN. In some cases, the VPN that you have installed and MS Office do not work properly together and thus it prevents Office from establishing an internet connection to its servers. As a result, the said error message is displayed. This can be easily fixed by disabling the VPN that you are using.
- Ethernet Adapter — In some cases, the error message can also appear due to your system’s ethernet adapter. Turns out, your ethernet adapter might malfunction in some scenarios due to which Office is not able to connect to the internet. This can be easily rectified by simply restarting the adapter.
- Network List and Location Services — Finally, another cause of the error message can be two network services that can be found in the Windows Services window. Similar to the ethernet adapter, you will just have to restart the mentioned network services to get back up and running.
Now that we have been through the possible causes of the issue, let us get into the methods that you can use to resolve the issue. Before we begin, it is important to note that in some cases, Office just launches in offline mode due to which you see the error message. To fix this, what you have to do is go to the File menu and then go to the Account tab. There you will see an option to connect to the internet at the bottom-left corner. Do that and see if that fixes the issue. In case it doesn’t, follow the methods down below.
Method 1: Disable Ethernet Adapter
The first thing that you should do when you face the error message is to disable your primary ethernet adapter. Once you do that, you can turn it on again and then launch MS Office. This can often solve network connectivity issues and it might solve your MS Office connection issue as well. This has been reported by several users facing the same problem. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:
- First of all, right-click on the network icon located on your taskbar at the bottom-left.
- Then, from the menu, just choose Open Network and Internet settings.
- From there, click on the Change adapter options option. This will take you to a new window with your network adapter.
Network Settings - Find your primary network adapter and right-click on it. From the drop-down list, choose Disable.
Disabling Ethernet Adapter - Once it has been disabled, right-click on it again and then choose Enable from the drop-down list.
- Finally, open MS Office again to see if that fixes the issue.
Method 2: Disable Third-Party VPN
Another way that you can solve this issue is by disabling your third-party VPN. As it turns out, if you are connected to the internet through your third-party VPN, MS Office might not be able to establish a connection. Such issues are pretty common with third-party VPNs and happen pretty often. Therefore, in order to fix your issue, you will have to turn off your VPN and then try opening MS Office. Once you have turned off your VPN, make sure that you have an active connection or the issue will persist.
If that fixes your issue, what you can do is whitelist MS Office applications on your VPN. Once you have done that, you can try checking if the issue is solved even with the VPN turned on.
Method 3: Restart Network Services
Finally, if the above solutions do not work out for or are not applicable to you, your issue may very likely be caused by two of the network services. Network List service is used to identify the network to which your computer is connected and then if anything changes, it notifies the applications. Network Location Awareness service almost does the same thing. The difference being it collects configuration information for the network. Now, if these services are stopped, the configuration information may not be available to the applications which can cause network connectivity issues such as this one. Therefore, you will have to make sure that the services are running and if they already are, you will have to restart them. Follow the instructions down below to do this:
- First of all, press the Windows key + R to open up the Run dialog box.
- There, type services.msc and then press Enter.
- This will open up the Services window.
- From the list of the services, press the N key to be taken to the services starting with N. Now, search for the Network List and Network Location Awareness services. They are listed together often.
Windows Services - Double-click on the services one-by-one and then start them up by clicking the Start button.
- In case they are already running, click the Stop button and then click Start to restart them.
Network List Service Properties - See if that fixes your issue.
