CODEWITHSUNDEEP
office-jsoffice-addins
Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard

Reputation: 91

"sorry, we can't load add-in" Office Word add-in

On MacOS, I'm developing an Office Word add-in. All has been going well until this morning when I woke up myself and my laptop, fired up the add-in (npm start), and clicked on the add-in in the ribbon at which point I got the message:

"sorry, we can't load add-in. Please make sure that you have network and/or Internet connectivity . . ."

This occurs not only with the add-in I'm developing but also with the test add-in that comes with yeoman.

Things I've tried (on both my add-in and the Yeoman-supplied one):

  1. npm run dev-server – compiles successfully, reporting "Project is running at https://localhost:3000/"
  2. reboot of computer
  3. netstat -vanp tcp | grep 3000 – reports nothing.
  4. restart my XAMPP server
  5. npm run validate – successul validation of manifest.xml
  6. https://localhost – produces the dashboard of XAMPP
  7. https://localhost:3000 – produces 'Unable to connect' although at one point I did get a listing of files and their icons in the add-in (but still the error message in Word).
  8. npm start – (several times including shutting down Word beforehand).

EDIT: I have, just after posting the above, noticed that if I do the following:

  1. 'npm run dev-server' (while Word is running and the add-in is in the ribbon), the add-in will load correctly and function. https://localhost:3000 in the web browser now displays the files and icons.

  2. If I follow 'npm run dev-server' with 'npm start' (while Word is running and the add-in has been loaded from 1. above), I can continue to use the add-in. If I close the add-in and attempt to open it again, I get the error message.

  3. If I close Word and run 'npm run dev-server' then 'npm start', I get the error message when clicking on the add-in the ribbon.

  4. Running 'npm run dev-server' and trying https://localhost:3000 in the web browser works, then 'npm start' and https://localhost:3000 no longer connects.

'npm start' reports: [email protected] start office-addin-debugging start manifest.xml Debugging is being started... App type: desktop Sideloading the Office Add-in... Debugging started.

For the past few weeks, from the terminal I have been just running 'npm start' with no problems until this morning. It appears that 'npm start' is suddenly shutting down its own server.

All help and advice gratefully received.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1754

Answers (2)

Deepanshu Sharma
Deepanshu Sharma

Reputation: 1

In short 2 solutions are there.

  1. Upgrade the Outlook version.
  2. Enable the Internet Explorer

I was also getting this error for my outlook add-in “Sorry, we couldn't load the add-in because Internet Explorer is disabled. Click "See Details" for more information.”. I investigated the issue and found out that it's an Internet Explorer issue. Older Outlook versions require Internet Explorer to show the add-in and we can see in the error that the Internet Explorer is disabled for this machine.

[Image showing browsers used by office web add-ins][1]

you can check this Microsoft link for the same or which version to use :- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/concepts/browsers-used-by-office-web-add-ins

Based on information in above image, we can conclude that Microsoft Office 2019 with volume licensed and older versions require Trident+ (Internet Explorer) to display add-in.

Upvotes: 0

Vash Juan
Vash Juan

Reputation: 29

Awkkk: You got to have Internet Explorer enabled! Excel (& others?) use it as the display engine...

https://support.clio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037265034-Why-am-I-getting-the-error-ADD-IN-ERROR-Sorry-we-couldn-t-load-the-add-in-Internet-Explorer-Disabled-when-using-Clio-s-Office-365-Outlook-Add-in

Upvotes: 0

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