“You’ll need the Internet for this. It doesn’t look like you’re connected to the Internet,” stated Microsoft regarding the sign-in issues affecting users of various applications.
On March 21, 2026, Microsoft released an emergency update, KB5085516, to address these connectivity problems that arose after the installation of the KB5079473 cumulative update on March 10, 2026. Affected applications included Teams, OneDrive, Microsoft Edge, Excel, Word, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Users reported receiving error messages indicating they had no internet connection, despite being connected. Microsoft had previously advised affected users to restart their PCs as a temporary workaround until the emergency update was available.
The out-of-band update is applicable for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2. Microsoft emphasized that no action is required for devices not experiencing the issue or those that have already been updated automatically.
This emergency update was rolled out just 11 days after the March Patch Tuesday, which had already addressed 84 vulnerabilities across Windows and related products. The incident highlights ongoing challenges in balancing security fixes with stability in cumulative updates.
In light of the situation, Microsoft reiterated the importance of installing the latest updates for full functionality. The company has issued multiple emergency updates for Windows 11 in 2026 to tackle various issues.
“This issue was resolved by Windows updates released March 21, 2026, and later updates,” Microsoft confirmed.
Until the fix, Microsoft’s advice amounted to ‘turn it off and on again and hope for the best,’ as noted by an unnamed source. The incident drew attention on forums like Reddit’s r/sysadmin, where IT professionals discussed the impacts on Microsoft 365 ecosystems.
Details remain unconfirmed.
