[ms office - o365] Powerpoints in o365 show black window when opened in browsers

[loxford01]

Users are having issues with opening Powerpoints in Chrome and Edge browsers through o365. When they for e.g. open a Powerpoint from OneDrive or Sharepoint directly from within a browser to Present, the screen goes black. Nothing happens or after a long while the Powerpoint will load in Presenter mode.

 

If they end the Presenter mode to fix the black screen the Powerpoint would crash with another black screen in the tab. The only solution is to then close the tab and open the Powerpoint again and it would work and load as normal with Presenter mode working fine. It has been happening randomly but cant figure out what the cause is.

 

Powerpoints open fine in the desktop application so assuming its a problem within o365.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by loxford01

[Mako]

We've been having the same issue - as I didn't see anything on EduGeek about it, I was assuming something was amiss on-site here.

 

As a workaround I've told them to use the desktop application and open the file in that, or download it from OneDrive. Seems to have killed the reports but I think the issue is still there.

[robintech]

Same issue, have a ticket open with Microsoft, thought it was MSQUIC HTTP3 at first as its intermittent like hitting a certain server for us. "Open in the Desktop App" from the browser is our workaround

[cburrows]

Same issue here too

[loxford01]

Good to know its not an isolated problem with o365. Its still affecting our users today this morning so the issue is still ongoing. I will also log a ticket with Microsoft but doubt they will have a straightforward answer to the black screen appearing when loading powerpoints.

[ThomL]

We've got this issue too - raised it as an incident with Microsoft. Has anyone heard anything back from them yet?

[Frodo_Baggins]

I have a ticket open for this as well with MS, will update If we hear anything!

[loxford01]

I got a response from Microsoft support and they even provided a quick assist session but couldn't provide any fix or solution and just saying its an intermittent problem at your end which I don't agree with!!

[loxford01]

I have just had a another 30 minute Quick Assist with Microsoft support and they have also replicated the problem at their end and agree that there is an issue with files crashing within browsers. They tested in Incognito mode and had the same issue. My session was recorded as evidence and just need to sit back and await their response as they don't have a solution at present.

[loxford01]

Response from Microsoft o365 support:

 

I tried to check on a different account and it looks like this is already a normal behavior with Office web version. The issue is also happening on my colleagues accounts. This is one if disadvantages of Office web versions. I'm so sorry about that.

The work around that you're doing is what also advised to me.

[aac]

Same issue here too...

[Oaktech]

Have you guys tried switching 'use hardware acceleration when available' to 'off' on Chrome or Edge Chromium? Fixes it for me. Does make certain transitions a bit blocky, but that's a small price to pay!

[ThomL]

Have you guys tried switching 'use hardware acceleration when available' to 'off' on Chrome or Edge Chromium? Fixes it for me. Does make certain transitions a bit blocky, but that's a small price to pay!

Just tried this - still get the issue. Less consistent failure when first opening a PowerPoint and first clicking the Present button, but always getting the black screen and crashing tab if I esc a successful presentation full screen and click the present button a second time.

[robintech]

Last update was this morning for my ticket saying "internal team are still checking the issue"

[loxford01]

Latest response from Microsoft Support:

 

 

Our support engineers are already aware about this issue and they're starting to develop it. It will be deploy automatically once it is already done. But as of now we need to use the Workaround. I'm so sorry about that.

[Frodo_Baggins]

Latest response from MS for us was that it was with the product team but that they did not have an ETA for the actual fix... sucks as we've just rolled out OneDrive and have been telling staff about the benefits only to have this issue.

[sideone]

Ah, we're having the same issue but only isolated cases so far. Workaround of using the desktop app is OK at the moment.

[Bradcooper]

Latest response for us is a senior engineer is looking into it (no ETA), and have asked for multiple session IDs after reproducing the issue. Desktop app does work fine.

[Steve21]

Some Reddit folks were saying it seems an issue with subtitles, if they’re disabled it loads fine when starting powerpoint (not tried it myself as use desktop apps but might be worth a play if someone’s got a test)

 

Steve

[Frodo_Baggins]

Anyone had an update from Microsoft regarding this? Just chased our ticket up to see If they have an eta for a fix from the product team (thought this was resolved over half term but was eventually able to replicate again)

[robintech]

Last update we got was on the 14th April

"Please be informed that my internal team are still working on the issue, and I will revert with update soon as it is a known issue. "

[robintech]

Please be informed that our product group has deployed a fix for the issue, it should reach production in 2 weeks, until 5th of May, i recommend you start testing from the 1st of may because it might get fixed sooner than expected

Update from today,

[karenf]

Has anyone received an update regarding this? We were having the same issue but can't seem to replicate the issue this morning.

Thanks

[robintech]

I've not been able to reproduce the fault in Build: 16.0.16425.40503 (so far)

[ThomL]

I've not been able to reproduce the fault in Build: 16.0.16425.40503 (so far)

Same here