IT ISSUES
Start with the problem you can see
Start with the problem you can see. We've listed the issues small businesses call us about, from passwords and Outlook to printers, backups and staff changes.Find a familiar issue
On a good number of these, the useful answer is not the one you came for. Several will tell you to do less, spend less or call somebody who isn't us.
60 of 60 common IT issues
Forgotten password
One password usually opens more than one thing, so a reset in one place doesn't always settle the rest.
MFA prompt not arriving
The prompt is only the last step. Where it went and which method is registered decide the rest.
Authenticator unavailable after changing phones
The phone change was the event. Re-registering was the step that got skipped while the old phone still worked.
Account locked
Something, often an old phone or a saved login, keeps trying an old password and locking the account.
Sign-in blocked
A refused sign-in is different from a wrong password. Something decided this attempt should not proceed.
Departing employee access removal
The last day is not the risky moment. Access does not expire on its own.
Shared mailbox access missing
Access is usually inherited from a group somebody joined years ago, not granted to a person.
Outlook not connecting
It might be Outlook. It might equally be the account, the licence, the device or the service behind it.
Outlook keeps asking for a password
Worth fixing for a reason most people miss: it trains everyone to type passwords into whatever asks.
Email bouncing
A bounce explains itself if anyone reads it, and the answer is often nothing to do with your mailbox.
Email going to junk
Usually not the message. Something else has been sending as your business.
Mailbox full
Rarely full of the mail you can see, which is why emptying the deleted folder changes nothing.
OneDrive stopped syncing
A warning icon points at the person, the device, the account, the storage and the permissions equally.
SharePoint file unavailable
Usually still there. What changed is access, location or which copy you're looking at.
Teams microphone or camera not working
Teams is where it appears, not where it starts. The dock, the driver or another app is holding the camera.
Software installation failed
Two separate questions: can it be installed, and are you licensed to run it?
Licence expired
The renewal notice usually did arrive, just in an inbox nobody checks.
Application stopped working after an update
The update is a clue, not the whole answer. Often two vendors' products have stopped agreeing.
Application running slowly
Often a fast computer waiting politely for a server it does not own.
Provider needs technical information
Most requests are routine. A genuine one and a costly one look identical in an email.
Computer will not start
Three unrelated failures share that sentence, and which one it is decides everything.
Computer running slowly
The delay you can see is on the device. What causes it often is not.
Device storage full
Rarely full of the things the person put there. Deleting to make room is how the only copy goes.
Blue screen or repeated crash
The pattern identifies this, not the code. Same time, same app, always after the dock.
Dock not detecting monitors
One cable carrying power, two screens and a network is usually being asked for slightly too much.
Printer offline
A printer can be switched on and perfectly happy while the computer still cannot reach it.
Scanner not working
Scan to email and scan to folder share a button and fail for entirely unrelated reasons.
Lost or stolen business device
A missing laptop still holds something: files, a signed-in mailbox, saved sessions, an authenticator.
Internet unavailable
Sometimes your equipment has failed. More often the question is who you can get an answer out of.
Wi-Fi weak or dropping out
Wi-Fi trouble and internet trouble feel identical from a desk and are often not the same thing.
Cannot reach the server
The server might be down. It is just as likely that something between you and it is.
VPN not connecting
Four things sit in the path and any of them can stop it. Where it fails tells you which.
Firewall blocking a service
Worth asking whether it should be unblocked. A refusal is often the only part working correctly.
Remote worker cannot connect
The same problems with a longer list of suspects, most of them in a house we have never seen.
Carrier or vendor outage
When the fault is with your provider, the job becomes confirming it and chasing them.
Server offline
Off, unreachable, or running and refusing work are three situations. Only one is improved by power.
Server storage nearly full
A deadline rather than a notice. A server that fills does not slow down, it stops.
NAS unavailable
Bought to solve one problem and quietly carrying three, which is why the first question is what it held.
Shared drive missing
A drive letter is a shortcut, not the data. Who is affected tells you what broke.
UPS or power warning
Often not the equipment at all: a battery at its end, a shared circuit or a building supply.
Ageing server replacement
The hardware rarely forces the decision. Somebody else's support schedule does.
Suspicious email
It imitates something ordinary and wants a password, an approval, a payment or simply speed.
User clicked a phishing link
Clicking does not by itself confirm compromise. What happened in the next thirty seconds does.
Malware alert
Most alerts mean something was stopped. The ones that matter say it could not be.
Ransomware concern
Almost everything that decides how this goes was settled before today.
Compromised account
The account taken over is usually the one nobody uses, not the one everybody does.
Unexpected MFA approval request
Treat it as serious. Usually it means someone has the password and is trying to get past the last step.
Device missing security updates
Some devices fail to update. More often they were never enrolled in the thing that updates them.
Endpoint protection warning
A device reporting a detection is working. A device that has gone quiet is the one to look at.
Backup failed
A failed alert needs context before it needs action, and the alert rarely says which part failed.
Deleted file recovery
Where it was saved and how long ago it went decide whether it can come back.
Restore request
Backups cover what they were set up to cover, which isn't always where your work lives now.
User-profile migration
The files are what everybody worries about. They rarely go wrong. The old computer is the only undo button.
Representative restore test
A green tick says a job ran. It does not say anybody could restore from it under pressure.
New user onboarding
A new employee needs more than an email address, and the setup has a lead time nobody plans for.
Office move
Carrying the equipment goes fine. What decides Monday belongs to other companies.
Microsoft 365 migration
The mail moves easily. The permissions, rules and everything that signs in as a user do not.
Device rollout
The build is repeatable. What one person does that nobody else does is not.
Security uplift
The word suggests buying something. The first useful moves are almost always subtractions.
Technology retirement planning
Rarely blocked by the system. Blocked by not knowing what still points at it.