How to solve “Contacting the server for information” in Microsoft / Office 365 apps

On some occasions Microsoft 365 Office applications might open a popup with “Contacting server for information” and preventing interaction while active.

To try and sort this annoyance, here are some of most common procedures that should help sorting this issue.

1. How to close the popup

If you need to close the popup, you can follow the steps below to terminate the application. Open data and documents might be lost by doing so.

1. Press CTRL+Shift+ESC to open Task Manager.
2. Select the application that is currently blocked
3. Press End Task.

2. Repair Office installation

Head to Start > Settings > Applications, find and select your “Microsoft 365” or “Microsoft Office” application suite entry and press “Modify“.

Though it will take a while, you should select “Online Repair” and hit “Repair“. Don’t forget to close all your open applications.

3. Outlook – Disable HTML images download

A common cause for this issue within Microsoft Outlook is HTTP images downloading, when opening or forwarding emails.

To prevent this behavior you’ll need to edit the Windows registry as follows:

1. Press Windows key
2. Type regedit.exe
3. Right Click on regedit and run as administrator
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\{VERSION MAY VARY}\Common
5. Right click on Common > New > DWORD (32-bit) > enter BlockHTTPImages and set the value to 1
6. Restart the computer

4. Disable Office files sync setting in OneDrive

Find the OneDrive icon in your taskbar’s system tray and right click it.

Press Settings and in the menu select Settings.

Open the “Office” tab and uncheck the sincronization option.

If any of these helped or if you found any other way to sort this issue, let us know in the comments!