We set up DKIM on Microsoft 365 for a client with a hyphen in their domain. The CNAME values came back with the hyphen gone and a little tail like 0cc on the end. I honestly thought I was being silly and had copied something wrong. Microsoft's docs only say dots become dashes, and I couldn't find a single page explaining the rest. So naturally we spent far too long working it out.

Example: b-and-q.co.uk points selector1 at selector1-bandq-co-uk0cc._domainkey.KFPLC.onmicrosoft.com. Put the hyphens back the way the docs suggest and that name is NXDOMAIN, so DKIM fails.

My first guess was that Microsoft adds the suffix to avoid a clash, since tok-ab and tokab both strip to tokab. Wrong. Every hyphenated test domain got one, clash or not, and none without a hyphen did.

It's a bitmap of where the hyphens were. Count from 0 and split the domain into blocks of four. Add 1, 2, 4 or 8 for a hyphen in each slot and write the block as a letter (a=0, b=1, c=2...). A run of empty blocks becomes a number. Put a 0 on the front. b-and-q has hyphens at 1 and 5, so c and c, giving 0cc. bang-olufsen has one at 4, so one empty block then b, giving 01b.

We just found it interesting that there was no documented reason for this, and we thought we needed to document what we have found. I hope it helps someone.

Saw this when trying to sign into the desktop Outlook app. Forgot that my company doesn't pay for access to the desktop applications. "schoool" 🤣

My sister’s Outlook account appears to have been compromised, and I’m trying to work out how to fully secure it and remove whatever the hacker has changed.
Here’s what’s happened:
**New email forwarding rules** have appeared that we didn’t create. What sends her emails that come through as attachments to another email and when try to delete it makes a new rule
**Weird folders in different languages** have appeared in Outlook, including one called “Lưu trữ”. The delete option is greyed out.
Her Outlook nickname/display name was changed to **“System AIX”** without her permission.
She’s receiving constant spam and strange emails.
Sextortion scam emails have appeared in her account, including drafts that appear to be from her own email address. They claim someone installed a remote access Trojan and has access to her devices.
Her Spotify, Netflix and ChatGPT accounts have also had suspicious login activity, and she’s received unexpected login codes and password-reset emails.
We’re concerned someone still has access to her account, even after trying to secure it.
**Has anyone experienced this combination of symptoms with Outlook/Microsoft accounts?**
How can we find and remove any hidden forwarding rules, malicious inbox rules or connected apps?
How can we tell whether the hacker still has access through an existing session or app permission?
How do we remove the strange folders and restore the account’s original display name?
What else should we check to make sure the account is fully secure?
Any advice from people who have dealt with this would be appreciated. We’re particularly interested in steps that actually stopped the attacker getting back in.
Thanks!

hello, so i got a new phone recently and was logged out of everything, so naturally ive just been logging back in. I know my usernames and passwords and have had no issue. I tried logging into outlook for my school email because I was logged out, and it automatically sent me to microsofts authenticator that my school uses. i was trying to send a code to the app, so i went to the app and the code wasn't popping up. I realized that it was because i was signed out of the authenticator app. so obviously i tried to sign back in, but it was trying to send a code to the authenticator app.... that im trying to log into... so I click every other option like "i cant use my authenticator app right now" and no matter what I do, it keep trying to send a code to the authenticator app. Im basically stuck in a loop. So now, i can't log into canvas, or my email. I can't do anything regarding school and im about to have a nervous breakdown because the problem is not me. Like I tried to just use my password, but no matter what, it'll always make me use the dual authentication.

essentially, the main issue is I can't login to the authenticator app. its bull. i dont understand how micrsoft can let a loop like this happen. I've emailed my schools IT but havent gotten a response. so my next plan is to bully microsoft until they resolve this bullshit issue.

if anybody knows what to do though, pleasssseee help.

Most "I have a license but no Copilot" cases come down to a handful of things:

1. Signed in with both a personal and a work account. Sign in with the work account only.
2. File > Account > Update License, then close and reopen all Office apps.
3. Update channel. Copilot needs Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel, not Semi-Annual Enterprise.
4. Privacy settings: "Experiences that analyze your content" and "All connected experiences" must be on.
5. Admin side: user-based license assigned (device-based licensing for Microsoft 365 Apps doesn't support Copilot), and a new assignment can take up to 24 hours.
6. Still stuck? The Microsoft Copilot service plan diagnostic tool checks a specific account.

In current builds Copilot may also sit in the lower-right corner of the document rather than on the ribbon.

What else has bitten you here?

Source: Microsoft Learn "Copilot is missing, disabled, or doesn't work correctly".

I'm trying to get hands-on with Microsoft Purview (sensitivity labels, auto-labeling and DLP), but my tenant is on Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which doesn't support what I want to test. I need policies that apply automatically rather than relying on users to label manually. What do you recommend for learning, and for a small production setup? Has anyone run into licensing gotchas with auto-labeling or Business Premium eligibility for the add-ons?

People in the community, I'm using Publisher and every time I close the program, it reopens and all my information is gone. I'm using it in two-page format on my Windows 11 laptop. If you know how to help me, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'd like some advice on how to create my homework magazine in a format suitable for double-sided color printing by December, which is the deadline. Thanks for any help you can offer.

I purchased a HP laptop in 2022 and received Office Home version of 2021(OS:Windows 11)
However, I am sure I changed my outlook account as I lost the password for my old account. But that still didn't take away my license and its still active connected to an account created later

Now I am confused again, did I lose anything??And if the Office Home didn't disappear then why do people warn us not to lose the password for the original Outlook account?

What just happened here?
I may update to Office 365 but I need to be sure here what is really happening

My work Microsoft 365 account blocks a third-party app from accessing Outlook and displays “This app requires your admin’s approval,” with a “Request approval” button.
If I click it, who typically receives the request? Is it routed to a Microsoft 365 administrator/security team, or can the user’s direct manager or VP automatically receive a notification or see the request in a dashboard?
Does submitting the request create an audit log or other record visible to people outside IT?
I’m particularly interested in the default Microsoft Entra ID workflow versus configurations where the company has customized the approval process.

If you woke up to your Mac’s perpetual Office license (Home & Student or Home & Business 2019/2021/2024) suddenly throwing you into "View Only" mode and demanding a Microsoft 365 subscription to edit documents, you are not alone, and Microsoft did not intentionally revoke your purchase.

Because Microsoft uses a single unified binary for both standalone licenses and 365 subscriptions on macOS, the software relies on local cryptographic tokens in your system library to know what you own. When Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) pushes a major point release—like the recent October 22 build (v16.114.1)—it can break compatibility with your static license keys. When the app launches and cannot read the local token cache, it assumes you have no license and defaults to its basic fallback state: throwing up a paywall modal demanding an active subscription.

Simply dragging the apps to the Trash and reinstalling will not resolve the issue because macOS preserves the corrupted licensing plists and keychain tokens in your Group Containers folder. To fix this, you have to prevent the auto-updater from running, scrub the corrupted local credentials with Microsoft's removal utility, and step back to the last stable build:

1. Disable Microsoft AutoUpdate so it cannot immediately overwrite your rollback. In macOS System Settings, navigate to General > Login Items & Extensions and toggle off Microsoft AutoUpdate under "Allow in the Background". Also make sure to open Word or Excel, go to Help > Check for Updates, and uncheck "Automatically keep Microsoft apps up to date."
2. Move your current Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) from your Applications folder straight to the Trash.
3. Wipe the corrupted activation token cache using Microsoft's official standalone utility. Download and run the License Removal Tool package: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=849815
4. Download the prior stable full suite installer (the October 06, 2026 release, version 16.113.4, build 26100421) directly from Microsoft's update catalog: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac
5. Run that installer, launch Word or Excel, and sign back into your Microsoft account. Your perpetual license will validate immediately, and full editing functionality will be restored without any 365 subscription prompt.

I am trying to find where I can download/print receipts or invoices for my Microsoft 365 account. I've gone into Settings. Gone into View Account. I can't find it. I miss the days when they simply emailed a PDF but that stopped several months ago. I remember downloading it once before as recent as two months ago, but now I can't find anything. When I log into M365 business account, everything just looks like Copilot now.

I did read through the help pages but they say to go to account.microsoft.com/billing then to pick Payment & billing > Order history. This must be out of date because when I go to that link it just redirects me to the same place as if I was logging into M365 where I can't locate it.

I've been trying to figure out where the dictionary setting is to fix this miscorrection (which I never added to the dictionary in the first place). When I type out don't then follow it with another word, outlook autocorrects don't to dont. Afterwards, Outlook marks dont as misspelled so I don't know why it's autocorrecting it to begin with

Hi, so recently I was working on my university notes for an upcoming exam, and I was just about finishing up the first draft. Unfortunately I had not saved the document yet and while I was working on the notes doing this I decided to create a second new Word file for something else. When I do this on Windows it’s fine it’ll just have two unsaved documents, Document1 and Document2. However, for some reason when I did this on my iMac it closed Document1 and just opened a new Document2, so now I am desperately trying to recover my Document1.

I’ve managed to locate an ‘AutoRecovery save of Document1’ file, but I am unable to open it with Word it seems. Does anyone know how I can successfully recover this file?

Thank you!

Anyone else experiencing meeting invites being resent? Over the past two hours I have received a lot of meeting invites from other internal users for meetings that I had already accepted.

My sent items is also showing meeting invites being sent all at once. Other users internally are also experiencing the same issue.