Access denied when trying to remove Outlook Add-in

Question

I have an Outlook Add-in that has been approved by my organisation. I can add it. However, when I removed it within outlook it says there was difficulty removing the Add-in. The actual response I can see is a 403 access denied error. Is it possible that admin could have set up an add-in to make it available to add, but not remove? It seems odd to me. The remove button sends a request to a resource on teams.microsoft.com which also seems weird. I can actually remove the add-in using the URL https://aka.ms/olksideload, although this takes around 30mins to take affect. Any idea why the remove menu in outlook (web and desktop) might give error messages?

Answer 1

Hi @John Moore ,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Based on your description, you are experiencing a few different issues when using Outlook add-ins. Let's analyze them:

1. 403 Access Denied Error: This error usually means that you don't have the permissions required to perform the action. Your organization's administrator may have set permissions that allow users to add add-ins but not remove them. This is done to ensure that certain add-ins are still available to comply with regulations or improve productivity.
2. The Delete button sends a request to Teams: This seems unusual. The Delete button in Outlook should usually handle the deletion process internally. However, if the add-in is integrated with Microsoft Teams, it may send a request to Teams for some reason. This may be part of the add-in's functionality or a configuration error.
3. Delete the add-in using the URL: The URL https://aka.ms/olksideload is a known method for sideloading and managing add-ins. The delay you are experiencing may be due to the time it takes for changes to propagate on Microsoft servers.

You can try the following solutions to resolve the issue:

1. Check with your IT administrator to see if there are specific permissions set that prevent the removal of add-ins.
2. Sometimes, clearing the Office cache can resolve add-in issues. You can do this by closing Outlook, pressing Windows + R, entering %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook, and deleting the cache files.
3. If the problem persists, try repairing your Office installation. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, find Microsoft Office, right-click, and select Repair.

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Please feel free to contact me for any updates. And if this helps, don't forget to mark it as an answer.

Best,

Jake Zhang