disable the AIP add-in to use built-in labeling for Office apps - but its not working

Question

Hi,

This article talks about disabling the AIP add-in to use built-in labeling for Office apps:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/sensitivity-labels-aip?view=o365-worldwide#how-to-disable-the-aip-add-in-to-use-built-in-labeling-for-office-apps

We followed this article to configure this feature: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/sensitivity-labels-office-apps?view=o365-worldwide

• Navigate to User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Microsoft Office 2016/Security Settings.
• Set Use the Sensitivity feature in Office to apply and view sensitivity labels to 1

We can now see the AIP COM Add-in is disabled in MS Word - even though we are using Office 365 (with an E5 license).

However, where on the MS Word ribbon do we now find AIP labels?
Where is this built-in labeling option for Office apps we are supposed to be using now?
Because it looks like when we disable the AIP COM add-in, it also removes AIP from MS Word.

Also, our AIP Policy default is to auto-label every new document as "General" - and this also is no longer working.

Are we meant to enable something AIP related somewhere else?

Thank you

Answer 1

@Shim Kwan

Thank you for your patience, did a repro at my end with the issue mentioned above, here are my findings.

With the AIP UL Client enabled, Sensitivity icon appears like this in the app

With AIP Native Labelling, Sensitivity icon appears like this in the app

In AIP UL Client vs AIP Native Labelling, labels do get applied, only the interface gets changed.

To answer this query ""looks like when we disable the AIP COM add-in, it also removes AIP from MS Word"" -

After making the changes, did you restart all the office apps ? Below is the word application right after disabling the AIP COM add-in without restarting the app, there is no sensitivity icon

Also make sure office apps are updated with the latest versions to achieve the desired results related to AIP functionality.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Please remember to "Accept Answer" if answer helped, so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution.

Answer 2

Hi @GirishVaryani

May I just start by thanking you, as you have been MOST helpful in all my questions - thank you for taking the time to reproduce the problem and attend to my queries!

I have once again repeated the steps, so let me run you through what I am seeing, if I may:

The version of Office we are using is: 2204 (just tried an update and everything is up to date)
And we have E5 licensing.

When the COM Add-in is active, the toolbar looks as expected:

When we configure the GPO, the COM Add-in becomes disabled, again, this is expected behavior:

And this is where my problem still exists. I have even restarted the Windows 10 client (twice)...but we still cannot see any 'Sensitivity' option on the Office ribbon (as per your screenshots):

So do you think its the version of Office that is the problem?
Or is it some other setting we did not enable?

And here is another interesting finding:
We opened Office Online, and can see the 'Sensitivity' option in Word, HOWEVER, we are seeing AIP labels that we actually do not have - like the 'Highly Confidential' label...we dont have this actually created - so where is it coming from?

Also, we have a single AIP Policy that is publishing ONLY 2 AIP labels, so why are we seeing 4 labels in the above screenshot??

This is all somewhat confusing ;)

Thank you,
SK

Answer 3

Hi,

I am having the same issue moving from ULC to Office built-in label client.

Did you found any solution?

BR

Harald