Mac: Microsoft Wants to Use Confidential Information

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It makes us cringe to think that tech companies could access and use our private and confidential data without us knowing, so it’s important for giants in the tech industry to become more transparent about their purpose and how they collect data from users, especially during times of change.

I decided to dig a little deeper into this mysterious alert, as it sums up my findings pretty well. However, I did become suspicious when I first got the alert, so I wanted to use confidential information about Microsoft to guide you about your Mac alerts. Nevertheless,

Check Your Office for Mac Location

If you are constantly prompted for access keychain, the usual culprit is Mac for Office. To avoid getting these repetitive alerts, make sure to check the location of your Office. Most likely, the Office has been moved to a new location. It could be that another user accidentally moved the Office installation folder, or maybe you did, but the default location is usually the /Applications folder. In case this is the situation, click “Allow Always” when prompted.

Remember that you might receive these notifications a maximum of three instances for each application. Whenever the dialogue box appears, select “Always Allow.” Your Office applications should now begin successfully.

Now you should always click on the Restart button in the Mac alerts. Then, when the dialog window pops up, click on “Always allow” to launch each Office application in Safe mode and restart your Mac. In order to allow access to the Office keychain information, some users had to boot their computers into Safe Mode first.

If you continue to receive those notifications, proceed to the following stage. Please sign in again and verify the outcomes, then logout from your Office account and reboot your Mac if the messages continue to appear.

Lock Keychain Permissions for Office

Resolving this problem can be achieved by restoring the keychain permissions for Office for Mac.

Close all your Office applications (Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote).

Go to Applications and choose Utilities.

Open the Keychain Access application.

Next, select the Login keychain entry (left panel).

Navigate to the File menu, and click Lock Keychain “login”.

Start any Office application you desire.

Your Mac should ask you for permission to access the keychain.

Please input your password and log in to your Office account.

Afterwards, exit the application and relaunch it once more. The notifications should no longer be present.

Empty the Kind Box

To put an end to bothersome messages, one can eliminate any content associated with Microsoft. Many users reported that the problem was resolved by clearing the Kind field in Keychain Access.

Shut down all of your Office applications

Launch Keychain Access

Go to Log in and choose all the MicrosoftOffice products.

Then locate the Kind box and remove everything from that section.

Save the modifications. Open your Office applications and verify if the problem continues.

Clear the App Cache

Clearing all those temporary files stored in the cache folder of the app may help solve this issue. The cache might be interfering with your current Office session.

Exit Microsoft Teams.

Navigate to “~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft

Choose the Office application that is triggering the notifications.

Remove all the files from that directory and restart the application.

Moreover, if you have not yet upgraded to the most recent macOS version on your computer, contemplate updating your system.

Change Your Keychain Password

Changing your keychain password might assist in preventing the bothersome notifications.

Open the Keychain Access application.

Choose login from the selection of keychains (located on the left panel).

Hit the Edit menu and select Change Password for Keychain ‘login.’

In the New Password field, type in the new password, then enter the current password. Enter the password in the Verify field.

Click OK, close Keychain Access, and open one of your Office applications to verify the outcomes.

Create a New User Account

Creating a new user account solely to utilize your Office applications is not particularly convenient. Nonetheless, for certain users, it proved to be the sole viable option.

Navigate to System Preferences, and choose Users & Groups.

Click on the Add button and choose the kind of account you would like to make.

Enter the details, set a password for the new user profile, and hit the Create User button.

Open your Office applications and verify if the notifications have disappeared.

Conclusion

If you encounter a problem with your new user account, we recommend creating another account to find a potential solution. In Safe Mode on your Mac, you can enable the “Always allow” option when prompted to access the keychain. If you continue to receive repeated requests to access the keychain for Office on your Mac, try restarting your Mac.

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