Proper error message shown when Skype is not able to connect due to claims rule restrictions

I often end up cursing at the Skype for business client developers for making my life harder after every patch Tuesday, but this time I’d like to express my gratitude. I was just playing with my AD FS lab, preparing a new blog post, when I noticed the following error message in SfB client:

Error message thrown by Skype for Business client

Yes, it reads “Can’t sign in to Skype for Business. We can’t connect to the server to sign you in. Please ask your admin to check the issuance authorization rule in the active directory”. While it could have been worded a bit better, the message is excellent in providing just the right amount of details to quickly understand what the issue is. This was definitely not the case with previous versions, so kudos to the team for taking the time to make this small, but helpful change. The Outlook team has also started a project to rework all the meaningless error messages we were seeing, so hopefully this is a new trend now!

3 thoughts on “Proper error message shown when Skype is not able to connect due to claims rule restrictions

  1. Manjunatha.v says:

    Could You Please tell me what is the Cause of this Issue and Resolution for the Same. Thanks in Advance.

    Reply
    1. Vasil Michev says:

      In my case, it was exactly as the message says – a claims rule was configured on the AD FS server that prevented access. But as David indicated above, there might be other causes/resolutions.

      Reply
  2. David Sampson says:

    This can also be caused by not having Modern Auth enabled for Skype for Business Online. Enable it and wait 10 mins and try again.

    Reply

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