Microsoft fixes nasty Windows 11 bug that breaks Edge, OneDrive, and other apps, but you won't get it automatically — here's what you need to do

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  • There was a nasty bug in the March update that broke a bunch of apps, including Edge, OneDrive, and some Office applications
  • Microsoft has now fixed this glitch with an emergency patch for Windows 11
  • Windows 11 users won't get this fix unless they've enabled a certain option, and most will need to manually download it

Microsoft has rushed out a fix for a recent bug in Windows 11, which broke some important apps, although you'll have to manually download the emergency patch, as it won't install automatically (for most folks).

The glitch, caused by the March update for Windows 11, meant that apps with Microsoft account sign-ins — including Microsoft Edge, OneDrive, some Office apps, and the free version of Teams — would fail with an error telling the user they weren't connected to the internet (which wasn't the case).

Windows Latest reports that the fix has been deployed as KB5085516, rolling out to those on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 who have installed the March update.

As this is an emergency or 'out of band' update — outside the normal pattern of Windows updates — it isn't the case that you'll receive KB5085516 automatically.

You may do so, but only if you've turned on the 'Get the latest updates as soon as they're available' option in the settings for Windows Update, as Microsoft explains in the patch notes.

If you haven't enabled that — and most Windows 11 users won't, as this means the PC gets optional (preview) updates, which can still be buggy — then you'll need to grab the patch yourself if you're suffering from broken apps due to this connectivity error.

To do this, check for updates in the Windows Update panel (in Settings), and you'll see KB5085516, whereupon you can click to download and install it.

After applying the patch, which typically takes about five minutes to download and the same length of time to install, according to Windows Latest, you should be good to go with the mentioned apps.

Analysis: a necessarily swift fix

Happy woman sitting on a bed with a coffee and her Windows 11 laptop

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Yuganov Konstantin)

Microsoft has got this fix out quickly, as the company promised. The software giant said the bug would be fixed in a few days, and that's exactly what has happened — KB5085516 actually started rolling out two days ago, at the weekend.

So, at this point, you should definitely see the patch if you check under Windows Update. You won't see this fix, however, if you haven't installed the March update (KB5079473) yet, as you won't need it (of course). Presumably, Microsoft will have directly applied this emergency patch to the March update, so anybody installing the latter going forward won't encounter the bug.

Are you tempted to switch on 'Get the latest updates as soon as they're available' because this should ensure you get emergency updates like this one automatically? After all, if you don't, it's true that there's a chance you might miss an important fix if you don't read about it in an article like this. However, what you must bear in mind is that enabling this feature means you'll receive all of Microsoft's optional updates, too. These tend to be buggier than the release versions of monthly updates, which, as we see with the March update, can already play host to some troublesome gremlins.

So just be aware of what you might be signing up for, and I'd be wary of doing this unless you're a more confident PC user.



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