Resolve Issues (FAQs)
BriefCatch 3 Enterprise Onboarding Guide
Below are some known issues that users may encounter, along with suggested steps to resolve them. If the issue persists, please contact our support team for further assistance.
Contents
- Add-in not showing up after deployment
- Reloading the add-in
- Can’t log in with Microsoft SSO
- Can’t create an account (email)
- Can’t login to account (email)
- Can’t access or log in to the BriefCatch Portal
- The BriefCatch icon was removed from the ribbon
- The BriefCatch icon is grayed out and cannot be clicked
- Which version of Word are we using?
- Viewing console or network errors via DevTools
- Clearing Office WEF Cache
Add-in not showing up after deployment
Once deployed, your users will see a BriefCatch icon under the Home tab in the Word ribbon.
Please Note: If the BriefCatch add-in was centrally deployed via Integrated Apps, it can take up to 72 hours for the installation to propagate for all users.
If it’s been longer than 72 hours, ensure that the BriefCatch 3 add-in was deployed to the correct users or groups through the Microsoft 365 admin center. You can reference our Modifying Deployment Options section for more information.
In some cases, users may need to restart Word or sign out and back in to refresh their add-ins. Your users also may need to manually add BriefCatch once it’s been deployed. How this is done depends on the version of Word your organization is using.
Word Versions 2505+
Have your users navigate to Home - Add-ins - See all.
Click on the BriefCatch icon to load BriefCatch and add it to your Home tab.
If BriefCatch doesn't appear in the list, click on More Add-ins. This will open the new Store UI.
From here, click on the “Manage your apps” link in the bottom left. Click on BriefCatch, then on Open.
If you don't see BriefCatch listed here, please close and reopen Word. Then navigate back to the “Manage your apps” section.
If BriefCatch 3 was installed without using admin deployment, it may also appear under Built for your org.
Word Versions Prior to 2505
Have your users navigate to Home - Add-ins - See all.
Click on the BriefCatch icon to load BriefCatch and add it to your Home tab.
If BriefCatch doesn't appear in the list, click on More Add-ins, then on the ADMIN MANAGED tab. Click on BriefCatch, then Add. This will add BriefCatch to their Home ribbon.
If you don't see BriefCatch listed under the Admin Managed apps, please close and reopen Word. Then navigate back to the Admin Managed apps, and click Refresh.
If BriefCatch 3 was installed without using admin deployment, it may also appear under the MY ADD-INS tab.
Older Versions of Word
If you don't see the Add-ins icon under the Home tab in Word, then check Insert - My Add-ins or Get Add-ins.
Please Note: Word 2016 and 2019 are no longer supported. Please review our Supported Word Versions section for more information.
Reloading the add-in
Most simple issues can be resolved by reloading the BriefCatch app. This can be done without restarting Word.
Windows
Click into the BriefCatch side panel, then click the left arrow icon that appears in the top right and select Reload.
Mac
Click into the BriefCatch side panel, then click the Info icon and select Reload.
Can’t log in with Microsoft SSO
If you're having trouble signing in with Microsoft Single Sign-On (SSO), first confirm that you're using the correct Microsoft account and that you're connected to the internet. You can verify which account you’re logged in as by clicking on File, then Account along the left.
If you're receiving errors when trying to Sign in via Microsoft SSO, ensure that the BriefCatch app has all required permissions granted for your tenant.
It can also help to clear your Office cache.
If issues persist, try opening DevTools (explained below) to see if there are any errors shown in the Console or Network tabs.
If there are resources being blocked, your network administrator may need to approve or whitelist the resources to ensure everything loads properly.
You can contact our support team to help work through any SSO issues.
Can’t create an account (email)
If you’re not using Microsoft SSO, your users can create an account with an email address and password by clicking “Sign up for a new account!” when opening BriefCatch for the first time.
This will require that the email address used matches your organization’s domain shown in the BriefCatch Portal.
Please Note: The account creation process doesn’t complete until the email address has been verified. Users must validate their email address to use the BriefCatch 3 application.
If you don’t receive the verification email, please check your spam folder. The verification email will come from help@briefcatch.com with the subject “Activate your BriefCatch account.” There will be a Verify Email link to click.
If you do not see this email, please make sure that you typed your email address correctly, or contact support for further assistance.
Can’t login to account (email)
To sign in with an email and password, click on “Sign in with email” on the BriefCatch welcome screen.
If you receive an error message when trying to login, please confirm your email address and password are correct.
You can reset your password by clicking on “Forget your password?” at the bottom of the app.
After entering your email address, you will receive an email with a link to reset your password.
If you still can’t login after resetting your password, please contact our support team for further assistance.
Can’t access or log in to the BriefCatch Portal
If you’ve already registered for the portal, you can login directly.
If you haven’t registered, check your welcome email for your portal registration link. If you’re unable to find it, please contact our support team.
If you can’t remember your password, you can reset it here.
Please Note: The portal doesn’t currently accept Microsoft SSO and uses separate credentials from your BriefCatch 3 account.
The BriefCatch icon was removed from the ribbon
If the BriefCatch icon no longer appears under the Home tab in the Word ribbon, it may need to be manually added back. This can occur after a Word or Office update, or if you sign out of your Microsoft account.
See Add-in not showing up after deployment above for more information on how to locate and re-add BriefCatch to your Word ribbon.
If this doesn't work, please ensure you're logged in to the correct Microsoft account. Add-ins are tied to specific user accounts, even if deployed to your entire organization.
If the above doesn't help, please try clearing your Office cache, explained below.
The BriefCatch icon is grayed out and cannot be clicked
BriefCatch 3 may appear grayed out if you open a document in read only or protected view mode, or if you have an older format document, such as .doc, rather than .docx. BriefCatch also requires Connected Experiences to be enabled.
Word File Format: .docx Required
Note: BriefCatch 3 works only with Word documents in the .docx format. Older formats, such as .doc, are not supported.
BriefCatch 3 requires that the document is in .docx format. If you open an older format, such as .doc, BriefCatch will not load.
You can easily save any .doc document as .docx by navigating to File - Save As, selecting "Word Document (*.docx)" from the drop down menu, then clicking Save. Once saved as a .docx file, try opening BriefCatch again.
Read-Only View
A document in Read-Only mode cannot be edited. If a document is open as Real-Only, you will see this at the top of the Word window:
To exit Read-Only, at the top right of the Word window, change the Viewing option to Allow Editing:
You can also try opening the document again, ensuring Open as Read-Only isn’t selected.
Protected View
A document in Protected View cannot be edited. If a document is open in Protected View, you will see this at the top of the Word window:
You will also likely see this message:
You can click Enable Editing to disable the Protected View.
Optional Connected Experiences
If you do have a .docx file open and you’re not in read only or protected view, ensure that you have Options Connected Experiences enabled.
Connected experiences that analyze your content are experiences that use your Office content to provide you with design recommendations, editing suggestions, data insights, and similar features. The BriefCatch add-in will not load if this setting is disabled.
Windows
- Open a document in Word.
- Click File, then on Account along the left sidebar.
- Under Account Privacy, click on Manage Settings.
- Check the box next to "Turn on optional connected experiences", then click OK.
If this was disabled, completely close Word, then reopen, and see if BriefCatch now loads.
Mac
- Open a document in Word.
- At the top of your screen, navigate to Word - Preferences - Privacy.
- Check the box next to "Turn on optional connected experiences", then click OK.
If this was disabled, completely close Word, then reopen, and see if BriefCatch now loads.
Which version of Word are we using?
Windows
- Within Word, navigate to File - Account.
- In the right column, click on About Word. This will show your version of Word and build number.
Mac
- Within Word, click on Word at the top of the screen, then on About Microsoft Word.
- This will show your version of Word.
Viewing console or network errors via DevTools
To help diagnose issues, open DevTools in Word by right clicking anywhere in the BriefCatch side panel and selecting Inspect.
If Inspect does not appear in the menu:
- Windows: Click into the BriefCatch side panel, then click the left arrow icon that appears in the top right. In this menu, click Attach Debugger.
- Mac: Click into the BriefCatch side panel, then click the Info icon that appears in the top right. In this menu, click Inspect.
Note: The Inspect option to open the DevTools window may not appear on Macs until it’s enabled within Safari settings. Please see the Microsoft article Debug Office Add-ins on a Mac for more information.
The following keyboard shortcuts may also work, but vary depending your version of Word and Operating System:
- Windows or Mac: F12
- Windows: Ctrl+Shift+I
- Mac: Cmd+Option+I
In the DevTools window, click on the Console tab to see if any errors are reported, such as anything being blocked.
You can also click the Network tab, then press CTRL+R to reload. This reloads the application and lists all of the network traffic being processed.
Reloading the DevTools tab will likely put it behind Word and you’ll have to navigate back to it.
If there are any errors, or if something fails to load, or is being blocked, it will appear in red. You can click into that for more information.
This may be helpful for your own troubleshooting, and also helpful if you need to submit a ticket for our support team who can dig deeper into your issue.
Clearing Office WEF Cache
If a user is experiencing problems loading or using BriefCatch or other Word Add-ins, clearing the Office WEF Cache may help resolve issues.
To clear the Office cache:
Windows
- Close all Office applications (Word, Outlook, Excel, etc.)
- In explorer, navigate to the following folder:
- %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef\
- Delete all contents inside this folder (but not the folder itself)
- Reopen Word and try launching the BriefCatch add-in again
Mac
- Close all Office applications (Word, Outlook, Excel, etc.)
- Open Finder and press Command + Shift + G to open Go to Folder.
- Paste the following path and press Enter:
- ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2/Data/Documents/WeF
- Delete all contents inside this folder (but not the folder itself)
- Reopen Word and try launching the BriefCatch add-in again
Clearing the cache removes locally stored add-in files, which forces Office to re-download them the next time the add-in loads. This can resolve display or loading issues caused by corrupted or outdated cache data. This does not affect documents, user data, or other Office settings and does not remove centrally deployed add-ins, those will reappear automatically.
After clearing the cache, you may need to manually re-add BriefCatch to the ribbon by going to Home - Add-ins - See all, then clicking on the BriefCatch icon. If you don’t see BriefCatch listed here, follow the instructions under Add-in not showing up after deployment.