How to fix "Something went wrong" error tag 7q6ch in Microsoft Office?

The 7q6ch tag marks a failed sign-in in the Microsoft 365 desktop apps on Windows: the account window opens, then shows Something went wrong. [7q6ch] in place of the password box. Your account usually still works in a browser, so the fault sits on this PC. Sign out of Office, restart Windows, then remove and re-add the account that fails.

Facts checked on 14 October 2026. Steps written for Microsoft 365 apps and Office on Windows 11 (25H2 and 26H2) and Windows 10 22H2, read against Microsoft's documentation.

What the error tag 7q6ch means in Microsoft 365 and Office

You open Outlook, Teams, Word or OneDrive, and a small Microsoft window appears where the sign-in page should be. It says Error, then Something went wrong. [7q6ch]. In most reports the address was typed correctly, and the password box never came.

The five characters in brackets are a tag. Microsoft publishes no list of these tags, and we found no Microsoft Learn or Microsoft Support article that defines 7q6ch. What the reports on Microsoft's own forums show is that the same tag arrives with very different codes. So the tag tells you where sign-in stopped, and the code tells you why.

Read the Code under the tag: it names the real fault

The Code line is a Windows result code written as a decimal number. Microsoft does the same in its own article about a sign-in failure, where 80070520, -2147023584 and 2147943712 are listed as one error in three forms. Written in hexadecimal, the codes that users report with 7q6ch match entries in Microsoft's public error tables.

7q6ch in Outlook, Teams and OneDrive: one shared sign-in

Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and OneDrive do not each keep their own sign-in. On Windows they hand the job to Web Account Manager (WAM), a part of Windows. Microsoft states that the WAM plug-ins are used by Microsoft 365 apps for establishing and renewing sign-in sessions. That is why the tag can show up in all of these apps at once.

• Outlook: the tag appears when the app starts or when it asks for the password again. Mail stops syncing until the sign-in succeeds.
• Teams: the sign-in window shows the tag. Users report that it fails on the same day as Outlook.
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint: the tag appears in the activation window, so the apps stay unlicensed.
• OneDrive: the sync app shows the same lines after you enter the address. A Microsoft moderator handled such a case as a problem of saved sign-in data on that one laptop.

What causes 7q6ch, from the most common to the rare

Microsoft has not published a cause for this tag. The ranking below comes from two things: the codes and stories that users post on Microsoft's forums, and the causes Microsoft documents for sign-in failures in the same Windows layer. Treat the order as our reading of those reports, not as a statistic.

Home PC or managed PC: check who is allowed to fix it

The same error has two very different owners. On your own PC every fix below is yours to run. On a PC that an organisation manages, some fixes undo its setup, and the cause may sit on the server. One command tells you which case you are in.

In Command Prompt, opened the normal way (not as administrator)

dsregcmd /status

How to fix the 7q6ch error in Outlook, Teams and Office

The fixes are ordered by how often they end the error and how little they change. Fix 1 is safe on every PC. Fix 2 to Fix 9 are for a PC you own, or for an administrator. After each fix open the app that failed and sign in: when the password box or the approval request appears where the tag was, you are done.

Fix 1. Sign out of Office, restart Windows and sign in again

5 minutesNo riskEveryone, first. It is the only fix that is safe on a managed work PC.

Microsoft's first advice for sign-in errors in Office is to sign out of all accounts in the app, restart it and sign in again, and its support page for the related 1001 error adds that a reboot often clears the fault. A fresh sign-in replaces tokens that no longer match your password or your device.

1. Open Word or any other Office app that still starts.
2. Go to File > Account (Office Account in classic Outlook) and select Sign out. If two accounts are listed, sign out of both.
3. Close every Microsoft 365 app: Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
4. Restart the PC and sign in to Windows again.
5. Open the app that failed and select Sign in.
6. Type the address that holds the licence. For a business subscription that is the work or school account, not your personal Microsoft account.

Fix 2. Remove the work or school account from Windows and add it again

10 minutesLow riskYour own PC with a work or school account, above all when dsregcmd shows WorkplaceJoined : YES.

Windows keeps a work account in two places outside Office: Credential Manager and the list under Access work or school. Microsoft's activation articles clear both, and its recovery procedure for a device with an added work account is to remove the account and restore it.

1. Close all Office apps and Teams.
2. Select Start, type credential manager and open Credential Manager.
3. Select Windows Credentials.
4. If there are entries for MicrosoftOffice16, select the arrow next to each one and select Remove.
5. Open Settings > Accounts > Access work or school.
6. If the account you use for Microsoft 365 is listed, and it is not the account you sign in to Windows with, select it and select Disconnect.
7. Restart the PC.
8. Open an Office app and sign in with the work or school account.

The path is the same on Windows 11 and Windows 10. One user with this tag reported that the Access work or school page never finished loading. In that case go on with Fix 4 and Fix 5.

Fix 3. Clear the Office identity cache (OneAuth and IdentityCache)

5 minutesLow riskYour own PC, when Fix 1 and Fix 2 did not help, or after a password change, a new address or a move to another organisation.

Office keeps cached accounts and tokens in two folders of your profile. Microsoft's own instructions for a OneDrive sign-in that fails with cached identities are to sign out and remove the folders in these two locations. Office then starts with no memory of the old accounts.

1. Sign out of OneDrive and close it. Close Outlook, Teams and every other Office app.
2. Press Win + R, paste this path and press Enter:

   %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneAuth

3. Select everything inside the folder with Ctrl + A and delete it.
4. Press Win + R again, paste the second path and press Enter:

   %localappdata%\Microsoft\IdentityCache

5. Delete everything inside this folder as well.
6. Restart the PC, open the app and sign in.

If the tag is still there, Microsoft's next step in the same articles is the cached identity in the registry. It belongs to your user account only.

1. Press Win + R, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Go to this key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity

3. Export it as a backup, then right-click Identity and select Delete.
4. Restart the PC and sign in to Office.

Fix 4. Run Microsoft's sign-in troubleshooter and repair the account plug-ins

10 minutesLow riskThe sign-in window is blank, closes at once or hangs, or Fix 1 to Fix 3 changed nothing.

Office signs in through two Windows packages: Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin for work and school accounts and Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost for personal accounts. Microsoft says they can be missing, broken or removed as a side effect of security software, and gives the commands that register them again.

Microsoft's automatic route comes first. The article Fix authentication issues in Microsoft 365 apps opens with a link to the Microsoft 365 Sign-in troubleshooter, which diagnoses and fixes several common sign-in issues by itself. Let it finish, then test the sign-in. The manual route below does the same repair by hand.

1. Press Win + R, type powershell and press Enter.
2. Check whether both packages exist. Each command should print the details of one package:

   Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin
   Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost

3. If both exist, test whether they start. Run each line in Command Prompt. A Work or school account window and a Microsoft account window should open:

   explorer.exe shell:appsFolder\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy!App
   explorer.exe shell:appsFolder\Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy!App

4. If a package is missing or its window does not open, register the work and school plug-in again in PowerShell:

   Add-AppxPackage -Register "$env:windir\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown

5. Then register the plug-in for personal accounts:

   Add-AppxPackage -Register "$env:windir\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown

6. Restart the PC and sign in to the Office app.

A quick progress indicator or a status result, with no error, means the command worked. Microsoft advises watching the PC for 48 hours afterwards. If the plug-ins break again, something keeps damaging them: see Fix 8.

Fix 5. Reset the stored accounts of Web Account Manager

10 minutesLow riskYour own PC, when the plug-ins exist and start but the tag keeps coming back, also after a reboot.

Web Account Manager keeps its own copies of your accounts, apart from the Office cache of Fix 3. Microsoft's activation articles reset them in two ways: by deleting the account files of both plug-ins, and with a small Microsoft script that clears the WAM accounts associated with Office.

1. Close all Office apps and Teams.
2. Open File Explorer and put this location in the address bar:

   %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\AC\TokenBroker\Accounts

3. Press Ctrl + A, right-click the selected files and choose Delete.
4. Put the second location in the address bar, select all files and delete them:

   %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AC\TokenBroker\Accounts

5. Restart the PC.
6. Run the Microsoft 365 Sign-in troubleshooter from Fix 4 once more, then sign in to Office.

If that is not enough, use Microsoft's script. The article Reset activation state for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise offers the download signoutofwamaccounts.zip under the heading about automated scripts.

1. Download signoutofwamaccounts.zip from that Microsoft article and extract it.
2. Run signoutofwamaccounts.ps1 in Windows PowerShell with administrator rights, as the article says.
3. The script prints nothing when it is done. Open Outlook or Word and sign in.

Fix 6. Turn the Windows sign-in services back on (code -2147023838)

5 minutesLow riskThe Code under the tag is -2147023838, or the PC was trimmed with a tool that disables Windows services.

The code -2147023838 is 0x80070422, which Microsoft's error table describes as a service that cannot be started because it is disabled. Two services carry the sign-in: Web Account Manager, which provides single sign-on to apps, and Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant, which signs in Microsoft accounts.

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc and press Enter.
2. Find Web Account Manager in the list and look at the Startup Type column.
3. If it says Disabled, right-click the service and select Properties.
4. Set Startup type to Manual and select Apply, then OK.
5. Do the same for Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant.
6. Restart the PC and sign in to Office.

Microsoft's service reference gives Manual as the startup type of both services, so Automatic is not needed. The full procedure with every screen: Check and restart Windows services.

Fix 7. Deal with a TPM code (2150105345 or 2150105250)

10 to 30 minutesRead the warningThe Code is 2150105345 or 2150105250, or the error began after a firmware update, a hardware repair or a BitLocker recovery screen.

Windows protects your work credentials with a key that the TPM chip guards. Microsoft explains that when the TPM falters, the device cannot prove possession of that key, cannot use its sign-in token, and Microsoft Entra ID invalidates the token. New keys, made by registering the account again, end the error.

1. Open Command Prompt the normal way and run dsregcmd /status.
2. Under Device Details read TpmProtected and DeviceAuthStatus. Under SSO State read AzureAdPrt.
3. Open Event Viewer and go to Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > AAD > Operational.
4. Look for errors at the time of your sign-in whose code has the pattern 0x?028????, 0x?029???? or 0x?009????. Microsoft names these patterns as the mark of a TPM problem.

Microsoft adds two things. Since Windows 10 version 1709 the system detects a TPM failure and should start this recovery by itself. And to stop it from happening again, Microsoft recommends updating the TPM firmware, which arrives with the BIOS or UEFI update of your PC maker.

1. Only if the re-registration above did not help, and the PC is yours: open Windows Security from the Start menu.
2. Select Device security, then Security processor details.
3. Select Security processor troubleshooting.
4. Select Clear TPM and restart when asked. During the restart the PC may ask you to press a key to confirm.
5. After the restart Windows prepares the TPM again by itself. Set up your PIN again, then run Fix 2 and sign in to Office.

Fix 8. Rule out security software, VPN and proxy

10 minutesLow riskThe error began after you installed or updated an antivirus, a firewall or a VPN, or it comes and goes with the network you use.

Microsoft's activation articles state that some antivirus, proxy and firewall software blocks the process Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin, and a second article describes security software that damages or removes the account plug-ins. One short test without that software shows whether it is the cause.

1. Open Microsoft Edge and go to https://login.microsoftonline.com. You should land on office.com or on your organisation's start page.
2. Repeat it in an InPrivate window and sign in. If either visit fails, Microsoft's verdict is the network, a local firewall or the antivirus.
3. Disconnect the VPN, or switch to another network such as a phone hotspot, and try the Office sign-in again.
4. Pause the antivirus for this one test and try the Office sign-in once more. Steps for Microsoft Defender: Turn off Microsoft Defender protection for a moment.
5. Turn the protection back on straight after the test, whatever the result.

If the sign-in works with the software paused, do not leave it off. Ask its maker, or your administrator, to exclude the sign-in parts that Microsoft lists in Can't sign in to Microsoft 365 desktop applications.

• Packages: Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy and Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy, with their folders under %windir%\SystemApps and %localappdata%\Packages
• Folders: %localappdata%\Microsoft\TokenBroker, %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneAuth and %localappdata%\Microsoft\IdentityCache
• Processes: Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin.exe and %windir%\System32\backgroundTaskHost.exe

Fix 9. Update Office, then repair it

15 to 40 minutesLow riskNothing above helped, Office was installed over a preinstalled trial, or colleagues on the same Office version got the error on the same day.

Microsoft has shipped fixes for failed sign-ins inside Office updates: its support page for the related 1001 error names version 2310 of the Current Channel. A repair replaces damaged program files. Neither touches the sign-in data in your profile, which is why this comes last.

1. Open Word and create a blank document.
2. Go to File > Account (Office Account in classic Outlook).
3. Under Product Information select Update Options > Update Now. If you only see Enable Updates, select that first.
4. Wait for the message that updates were installed or that you are up to date, then close it.
5. Restart the PC and try to sign in.

If only About is there and Update Options is missing, the company manages the updates. For the repair, Microsoft's page for Something went wrong at startup recommends Online Repair, which repairs the entire suite.

Start with Quick Repair, which only replaces damaged files and needs no internet. Run Online Repair if the tag is still there. Every screen of both: How to repair Microsoft 365 or Office.

If 7q6ch is still there: where the real cause is written

When all fixes fail, stop changing things and collect evidence. The error window hides the reason, but Windows records it in three places that an administrator or Microsoft support can read. Send them together with the lines copied from the error window, as text.

• Test with a second Windows account. The plug-ins and caches are per user. If Office signs in from a new account, your profile holds the fault and the PC does not. Steps: Create a new user account to test a problem.
• Start Office the normal way. Microsoft states that Run as administrator, Run as different user and elevation tools break the sign-in of Microsoft 365 apps and are not supported in most cases.
• For a support ticket, record the failure. Microsoft's tool MSOAID collects Office logs, the Windows sign-in logs and screenshots while you repeat the error. It is described in Use MSOAID for authentication issues.
• System files, as a last local check. One user reported that System File Checker found damaged files and ended his 7q6ch case. It is a single report, and the scan is harmless: Run DISM and SFC to repair Windows system files.

For administrators: what to check when users report 7q6ch

A user who sends you Correlation Id, Timestamp and Code has given you enough to find the attempt. Microsoft's documentation offers these checks, in the order that costs the least time.

1. In the Microsoft Entra admin center go to Entra ID > Monitoring & health > Sign-in logs and filter by Correlation ID. If no event matches, the attempt may have failed on the device before it reached the service.
2. If an event exists, open its Conditional Access tab. It shows which policy interrupted the sign-in, for example a rule that requires a compliant or hybrid joined device.
3. Check the device under Devices. A disabled device can be enabled again. A deleted device has to be registered again.
4. On the device read dsregcmd /status. For a hybrid joined device with a failed TPM key, Microsoft's recovery is dsregcmd /leave in an elevated prompt and a restart.
5. On virtual desktops and remote desktop servers, check what the profile tool roams. Microsoft does not support roaming any data under %localappdata%.

• Never roam or migrate: %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy, %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy, %localappdata%\Microsoft\TokenBroker, %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneAuth, %localappdata%\Microsoft\IdentityCache.
• Where several users share one computer and sign in with their own accounts, such as on Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft requires shared computer activation.

How to keep 7q6ch from coming back

The tag returns on PCs where the stored sign-in data and the real state of the account drift apart again. Most of the prevention is about not creating that gap.

• One licensed account per Office. Mixing a personal and a business subscription in the same Office appears in several reports. Sign in to Office with the account that holds the licence.
• On your own PC, think before you let the organisation manage it. When the sign-in asks about all apps on this device, choosing the app only keeps the work account out of Windows.
• After a password change, sign in to Windows and Office once while online. Microsoft notes that a changed password invalidates the old sign-in token, and the new one is issued at the next sign-in.
• Install BIOS and firmware updates from the PC maker. Microsoft recommends current TPM firmware to avoid lost device keys.
• Leave Windows services alone. Tools that disable services for speed can switch off Web Account Manager and Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant.
• Keep Office and Windows updated. Windows 10 left support on 14 October 2025, and Microsoft's sign-in advice for Windows 10 assumes version 22H2.

Frequently asked questions

What does error tag 7q6ch mean?

It means that a Microsoft 365 desktop app on Windows could not finish signing you in, and it says no more than that. The tag marks the step where the sign-in stopped. Microsoft publishes no definition of it. The reason is in the Code line under the tag: for example 2150105345 is a TPM failure and -2147023838 is a disabled Windows service. With no useful code, the usual cause is stale sign-in data, which Fix 1 to Fix 3 replace.

Why do I get 7q6ch in Outlook when my e-mail works in the browser?

Because the two sign in by different routes. Outlook for Windows asks Web Account Manager, a part of Windows, for a token, and that route depends on cached accounts, two Windows plug-ins and sometimes the TPM chip. Outlook on the web signs in inside the browser and needs none of them. A mailbox that opens in the browser proves that your account and password are fine and that the fault is on this PC.

What is the Code under the tag, such as 2150105345 or -2147023838?

It is a Windows result code in decimal form, and it is the most useful line in the window. 2150105345 equals 0x80280101 and 2150105250 equals 0x802800A2: both are TPM errors in Microsoft's tables, so start with Fix 7. The code -2147023838 equals 0x80070422, a disabled service, which is Fix 6. The code 2147500037 equals 0x80004005 and only means an unspecified error. We could not find a Microsoft description for 3399745538.

Are 7q6cd, 7q6ck, 7q6cl and 7q6ca the same as 7q6ch?

No, they are separate tags from the same sign-in window, and Microsoft documents none of them. What is known comes from reports. The tag 7q6cd was posted by a OneDrive user together with the message "The operation attempted is invalid." 7q6cl appears in a developer discussion about Outlook add-ins that request a token, where missing consent for the add-in was the cause. We found nothing reliable about 7q6ck and 7q6ca. For all of them the Code line and Fix 1 to Fix 3 are a sensible start.

Should I disable WAM or modern authentication in the registry to get rid of 7q6ch?

No. Forum answers name registry values such as DisableADALatopWAMOverride and DisableAADWAM. Microsoft's article on the topic says that disabling ADAL or WAM is not supported as a solution for sign-in problems and can adversely affect your environment. It puts Office into a legacy state, and future sign-in features are built on WAM only. Users also report that these values no longer help. Repair WAM with Fix 4 and Fix 5.

Will reinstalling Office or resetting Windows fix 7q6ch?

Usually not, and it should not be an early step. The sign-in data that causes the tag lives in your Windows profile, in Windows services and in the device registration, not in the Office program files. Users on Microsoft's forums describe full reinstalls after which the tag was still there. Deleting Office registry keys by hand adds risk without touching the cause. Update and repair Office once (Fix 9), and spend the time on Fix 2 to Fix 5.

Is "Se ha producido un error. [7q6ch]" or "Microsoft Fehler 7q6ch" the same error?

Yes. Office translates the sentence and keeps the tag, so Spanish, German, Italian and French users see the same 7q6ch after their own wording. This page is in English, and the steps are identical in every language. Only the labels of menus and buttons differ. The paths, commands and codes are the same in every language.

I am a student or employee. What do I send to IT about 7q6ch?

Send the lines from the error window as text: Correlation Id, Timestamp, DPTI, Tag and Code. Add the app, when it started, whether office.com works in the browser, and whether the PC is your own. With the Correlation Id the administrator can find the attempt in the Microsoft Entra sign-in logs and see whether a policy or the device state stopped it. Keep in mind that a school or employer closes accounts when you leave, and then no fix on the PC helps.