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Known issues with automatically applying or recommending sensitivity labels

Applies To

Excel for Microsoft 365 Word for Microsoft 365 Outlook for Microsoft 365 PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 Outlook.com

This document details the known issues with automatic and recommended sensitivity labeling in Office.

Known issues

Issue	Affected applications	Temporary workarounds
Labels are not automatically applied or recommended for users that have the Azure Information Protection Premium P2 license assigned.	All	Assign Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 licenses to your users. Note: Labels should be automatically applied or recommended for users who have Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E5, or Azure Information Protection Premium P2. Currently, however, Microsoft 365 applications only enable the feature for Microsoft 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 users.
If your organization has sublabels configured, the outcome might not be as you expect. For example, a sublabel is never automatically applied or recommended when a document is already labeled with a sublabel from the same parent.	All	To understand how sublabels are automatically applied or recommended, see How multiple conditions are evaluated when they apply to more than one label. To ensure that sublabels with the highest sensitivity are always automatically applied, ask your admin to use auto-labeling policies for sublabels rather than label settings.

Issue	Affected applications	Temporary workarounds
Automatic sensitivity label policy doesn't work in PowerPoint when language isn't en-us.	PowerPoint Win32 and Mac	To understand more about this issue, see Automatic sensitivity label policy doesn't work in PowerPoint for PC when language isn't en-us and Automatic sensitivity label policy doesn't work in PowerPoint for Mac when language isn't en-us.
If you've signed in to Microsoft 365 with multiple accounts, the policy corresponding to the primary signed-in account is used. If the primary account doesn't have an automatic labeling policy, Microsoft 365 will not automatically apply or recommend labels at all. If the primary account has an automatic labeling policy, but you open a file in the context of another account (for example, if you open a file from your personal OneDrive using a personal account), Microsoft 365 might automatically apply or recommend labels from the primary account for that document. When you compose mail, Outlook for Windows uses the primary account for scanning, without consideration of the account on the From line.	All	Switch your primary Office accountto the work account that has the automatic labeling policy you want to use, then restart Microsoft 365 applications. Or, Sign out of all accounts you aren't using except the one you want to use, then restart Microsoft 365 applications.
If your organization has configured a "message displayed to the user" for an automatic labeling policy, that message isn't displayed to the user. Instead, the tooltip for the automatically applied or recommended label is shown.	All	None
If a user manually applied a label, Microsoft 365 might automatically apply a label of higher sensitivity. (Manually applied labels should not be overwritten by automatic labeling).	All	None
If you dismiss a recommended label Policy Tip, the same recommendation might appear again in the same session if you edit the document.	All	None

Issue	Affected applications	Temporary workaround
Labels won't be automatically applied or recommended if cross-site cookies are turned off.	Word, Excel, PowerPoint for the web	Turn on cross-site cookies.
Labels won't be automatically applied or recommended if WebSockets are blocked.	Word, Excel, PowerPoint for the web	Unblock WebSockets. Sometimes WebSockets are actively blocked by network appliances or aren't supported by older network appliances. Check with your IT administrator.
If your organization has configured a "message displayed to the user" for an automatic labeling policy, that message isn't displayed to the user.	All	None
Labels won't be automatically applied in Safari 12 if Intelligent Tracking Protection is enabled.	All	Disable Intelligent Tracking Protection in Safari.

See also

Automatically apply or recommend sensitivity labels to your documents and emails in Office

Apply sensitivity labels to your documents and email in Office

Known issues with sensitivity labels in Office

How sensitivity labels work in Office apps