[Maybe Solution] Microsoft Office iOS/iPad Authentication Hell with 2FA 

Are you one of those who ended up with this nice banner every time you use a Microsoft Office product on an iOS/iPad device?

Most likely, you ended up in one of those threads in the Microsoft forum:

Well, after reading those threads, you get the impression that not even Microsoft knows what the problem is.

The solution could be pretty simple:

  1. Stop reauthenticate in OneNote/Word/Excel/… and close it
  2. Open OneDrive – Most likely, you have that app as well on your iOS/iPad device
  3. Well, it will ask for authentication, and you should do it
  4. After reauthenticate in OneDrive, go back to your app (OneNote/Word/Excel/…)
  5. If there is no banner, you are good to go. If not well … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A possible explanation of the issue:

There seems to be data exchange from the OneDrive app to any other Office app on iOS/iPad devices. That includes authentication information but no exchange back to OneDrive.

At the time the validity of the authentication credentials in the OneDrive app runs out, it breaks the authentication in the other apps as well because they somehow pull the expired token every time from the OneDrive app even if you reauthenticate in another app and don’t push it to the OneDrive app.

Disclaimer: The solution is not guaranteed to work. At least you don’t send a log export to Microsoft.


Previous Twitter Post on this issue: