Managing Microsoft 365 Apps with Intune and the Apps Admin Center
Managing Microsoft 365 Apps with Intune and the Apps Admin Center
Once you’ve deployed Microsoft 365 Apps, the real work starts: monitoring and troubleshooting.
Two main tools help you do this:
- Microsoft Intune
- Microsoft 365 Apps admin center
Each one gives you a different view of what’s happening with your apps.
1. Using the Microsoft 365 Admin Center for Usage Reports
Before you even open Intune or the Apps Admin Center, it’s useful to see if users are actually using the apps.
In the Microsoft 365 admin center:
- Go to Reports → Usage.
- Look at overall activity for:
- Microsoft 365 Apps
- Teams
- Teams apps
- Other Microsoft 365 services
You’ll see information such as:
- Activations of Microsoft 365 Apps
- Active users
- General usage trends
In a production tenant, this gives you a quick feel for:
- Are people adopting the apps you deployed?
- Is usage going up or dropping off?
- Do you see apps that nobody uses and could be de-scoped?
2. Managing Microsoft 365 Apps with Intune
Intune is your main tool for:
- App deployment status
- Success/failure statistics
- Device-level troubleshooting
- Extra insights through Endpoint Analytics
2.1 Spotting Problems from the Intune Home Page
On the Intune home page, you often see tiles such as:
- Client app install failures
- Other high-level app issues
If you see something like “Client app install failures: 1”, you know there’s at least one app that failed to install and needs a closer look.
2.2 Device-Centric View: Start from the User’s Device
This is useful when a user calls the help desk about a problem.
- Go to Devices → All devices.
- Select the user’s device (for example, Alex’s device).
- Review:
- Installed apps
- Shows OS apps and Intune-installed apps
- Includes version numbers
- App configuration policies (if any are applied)
- Managed apps (apps targeted by Intune)
- Installed apps
You’ll see:
- Which apps are targeted
- Which are installed
- Which have failed
Example:
- The app Network Speed Test shows a failed install.
- Failure details say: “The application is not available in the store for this region.”
Action: remove or replace that app with one that is available in your region.
This view is perfect for troubleshooting one user or one device.
2.3 App-Centric View: Start from the Apps Node
Sometimes you don’t know which user is affected. You just want to see which apps are failing overall.
- Go to Apps.
- Look at summary tiles on the right, such as Apps with failures.
- Click into a problematic app (for example, Network Speed Test).
You can see:
- Number of devices targeted
- How many succeeded vs failed
- Failure details per device
You can also check apps with successful deployments (e.g., Microsoft Whiteboard) and review:
- Device install status
- User install status
This helps you validate that your deployments are working the way you expect.
2.4 Reports and Endpoint Analytics
Under Reports in Intune you’ll see several sections:
- Device management
- Endpoint security
- Analytics
- Intune Data Warehouse
- Azure Monitor
For app health, focus on Endpoint Analytics under Analytics.
Endpoint Analytics can show:
- Startup performance
- Work from anywhere readiness
- Resource performance
- Battery health
- And most importantly here: Application reliability
In a live environment you’ll see:
- A reliability score
- Trend against a baseline
- Details per app, per model, and per device
You can drill into:
- Which apps crash or hang
- Which devices are affected
- Whether specific models or builds are problematic
This makes it easier to find patterns instead of chasing isolated tickets.
3. Using the Microsoft 365 Apps Admin Center
The Microsoft 365 Apps admin center (config.office.com and related portal) gives you a dedicated view of Office apps health.
From here you can:
- Review app health
- Check security update status
- Investigate OneDrive sync issues
- View service health and advisories
3.1 Notifications
When you sign in, always check the Notifications area.
Example:
- A message about Apps Health and Update Validation retirement.
- It may say Not applicable for your tenant, but it’s still worth reading.
3.2 Health and Metrics
On the Home or Health blade, you can see:
- Metrics by app
- Metrics by update channel
- Insights and diagnostic issues if something is wrong
If users are experiencing slow, crashing, or unstable Office apps, you may see:
- Health scores dropping
- Specific versions or channels flagged as problematic
- Advice or insights about known issues
In a busy tenant, this becomes a central place to:
- Spot widespread problems
- Confirm whether issues are local or global
- Align your update channels and versions with stable baselines
4. Putting It All Together
When users report issues with Microsoft 365 Apps, a simple workflow looks like this:
- Check usage in the Microsoft 365 admin center
- Are people actually using the app you’re worried about?
- Check deployment and install status in Intune
- Device-centric view if a specific user has a problem
- App-centric view for broad install failures
- Check Endpoint Analytics for application reliability
- Look for patterns in crashes and performance
- Check Microsoft 365 Apps admin center for app health
- View app metrics, per channel health, and advisories
- Confirm if a version or channel is known to have issues
- Remediate
- Replace broken apps (e.g., no longer available in the store)
- Adjust app configuration and update channels
- Use remote actions (Remote Help, PowerShell, etc.) if needed
