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Troubleshooting

A signature is not showing

Work down this list in order. It separates the four or five causes that account for almost every case.

  • Last updated
  • 7 minute read
  • Troubleshooting
  • Outlook

Start by finding out which half of the system is at fault. If the signature renders on the deploy page, Signed is fine and the problem is in Outlook. If it does not, the problem is data.

The first test

  1. Open Outlook add-in and use Check someone's signature with the address that is failing.
  2. If a signature appears, skip to the Outlook checks below.
  3. If nothing appears, work down the data checks. The message there is usually more specific than a blank box.

Signed has nothing to serve

Why Signed might return no signature
CheckWhat to do
Is the person in Users?If not, add them, import them or run a sync. Signed matches on the From address exactly
Is their record active?People disabled or removed in Microsoft 365 are marked inactive and stop getting a signature on purpose
Is the From address the one on their record?A different address, including an alias or a second mailbox, is a different lookup
Is a design set as the default?Something must be the fallback. Set one on the Signatures page
Is the organisation's plan active?Signatures stop being served when a plan lapses. Check Billing
An inactive person appears greyed out in the list with their signature stopped, so this check takes seconds.

Outlook is the problem

If the deploy page renders a signature but nothing lands in a message, the add-in is not running for that person.

  1. Ask them to open a new message and look for the Signed button in the ribbon. If it is missing, the add-in is not deployed to them.
  2. Check the assignment in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Deploying to a group and leaving someone out of it is the most common cause.
  3. Wait. Microsoft takes up to 24 hours to roll an add-in out, and it can arrive on the web before it arrives on the desktop.
  4. Ask them to quit Outlook completely and reopen it. Closing the window isn't enough.
  5. On the web, hard refresh the Outlook tab.
  6. Check the mailbox requirement set. It needs 1.13 or later, which rules out very old desktop builds.
The Signed button in the ribbon of a new message is the quickest way to tell whether the add-in reached someone.

It is only one person

If everyone else is fine, it is nearly always one of three things:

  • They are a guest or external account. The sync skips those, so they were never imported.
  • They have two mailboxes and are writing from the one Signed does not know about.
  • They were disabled in Microsoft 365 and the last sync correctly stopped their signature.

Tip: Read their record before you change anything. The answer is usually visible on it, and it saves a round of guessing.

Common questions

The signature appears and then disappears when I send.

That is Outlook replacing the body with its own message format. Check the signature renders in the preview and that the add-in is assigned by an admin; a self-installed add-in does not run the automatic handling.

It works on the web but not on the desktop.

The desktop build is older than the mailbox requirement set, or the add-in has not reached that machine yet. Close Outlook fully and reopen, then check the requirement set version.

Related articles

Something here out of date, or a step that did not work? Tell us and we will fix the article. Every page is checked against the running product, so corrections are welcome.