Sometimes, Office breaks so badly that reinstalling it doesn’t help. You click “Sign In,” the window flashes white, and then closes immediately. No error code. No loop. Just… nothing.
This is almost always a corruption of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Token Broker, specifically the package Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin.
Since Office 365 now uses Windows 10/11 API to sign in (WAM), if this Windows App is broken, Office cannot authenticate.
Symptoms
- Outlook says “Need Password” but clicking it does nothing.
- Teams shows a white screen on launch.
- Deleting the user profile fixes it to temporary, but it comes back.
The Fix: Re-registering the AppX Package
You cannot fix this from Control Panel. You need PowerShell.
Step 1: Browse to the broken location
Navigate to:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy
If you cannot open this folder (Access Denied), or if it is empty, or if there are 0kb files, it is corrupted.
Step 2: Rename the folder
Rename Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy to Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy.OLD.
Note: If it says “File in Use,” restart the computer and try again immediately before launching any apps.
Step 3: Re-register the plugin
Open PowerShell as Administrator and run the following command to tell Windows to “re-install” this system app from its internal manifest:
Add-AppxPackage -Register "$env:windir\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown
Step 4: Verify
Run:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin
If it returns information about the package, you are successful.
Launch Outlook. It should now be able to pop the “Modern Authentication” window and ask for your credentials.
Why does this happen?
Anti-virus software or aggressive “System Cleaner” tools often flag the token files inside this package as “Junk” or “Suspicious” because they change frequently. Add an exclusion to your AV for the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\ folder to prevent recurrence.