Office Client app (ex. SharePoint Designer) can't connect to Office Live site

Question

If SharePoint Designer or other Office Client app can’t connect to your Office Live site, then it could be because of how Windows manages multiple Passports (Windows Live IDs).  If you have multiple Office Live sites, and use multiple sets of Live ID credentials to log in to these different sites, your credentials from one site may be cached by Windows.  When you try to open a document, spreadsheet or the site itself using SPD, the first thing you should see is a prompt to input your credentials.  If you do not see this, it probably means you are using cached credentials.  You may see an error message saying that it can't open or connect.  It may not explain that you are logged in as the wrong ID.

 

First make sure you are inputting your URL in SharePoint Designer as https://.  If that doesn't resolve the problem, follow the steps below.

 

1. On your machine, navigate to the Control Panel, open User Accounts.  
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Manage Passwords.
3. In the list, select any item with (Passport) in its title, click Remove, and then click OK.

Note: if you're on a Windows 2003 Server machine, you can do this by navigating to Control Panel --> Stored User Names and Passwords.

 

Also, keep in mind that when you do access your site with SharePoint Designer that you need to add your Top level domain to the URL.

E.g. if your domain is "northwindtraders.com" then your login will be https://northwindtraderscom.officelive.com

**** SharePoint Designer will only work with sites that are on the release version of Office Live.  If your site is still on the beta version of Office Live, please wait for it to be migrated.

Answer 1

I tried this and still cannot access my Office Live site from Office 2007 apps. When using SharePoint designer I try to access my OL site and it prompts me multiple times with my username and password. I use the same ones I used to browse to the site but eventually I get this error:

The folder 'https://live-qdabracom.officelive.com/ isn't accessible. The folder may be located in an unavailable location, protected with a password, or the filename contains a / or \.

Would it make a difference for Office Live if I'm using Office 2007 Beta 2 TR vs. RTM?

Thanks, Shiraz

Answer 2

You probably did this, but make sure to close all of your Office 2007 apps including SharePoint Designer (if you want to be super paranoid, you could also close all of your browser windows too)

Then follow the steps to delete the accounts, reopen and attempt to connect using SPD.

Yes, it is possible that using the Beta 2 TR version of SPD will prevent things from working.  Beta 2 TR is supposed to work against final WSS v3, but you never know.  I would recommend trying the above modified steps first before hunting down the final version of SPD.

Answer 3

There seems to be an securi´ty issue in our case.

When we try to connect to office live with share point designer, a certification error is shown.

The url of our (german) dev-site is http://maximagogmbh.medien.officelive.com/. Could the "medien" be the problem?

 

Best regards, Daniel Greitens [MVP Expression]

 

Answer 4

Hey,
I was struggling with the same problems as you and found this solution worked. as I was putting the incorrect path name... maybe because my website ends in a .org. 

I suggest getting the correct path from your office live website and copy paste that in.

step 1
load up your office live.

step 2
go to business applications

step 3
Go to the address bar and copy everything but the "business applications" bit....

step 4
paste this in to sharepoint designer and you are away. 

good luck if it works, sorry if it doesn't.