MS Office security alert for Plex reports
Article ID: 253960
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
We are experiencing an issue in existing Plex generated reports after changing Office (Word) versions. End users are getting security alerts which they want no to be displayed:
The message states "This document contains fields that can share data with external files and websites. It is important that this file is from a trustworthy source."
Environment
CA Plex 7.21
Cause
The warning indicates that the document has fields, such as linked images, which is pulling information from external sources. Warning message is meant to confirm that the content is safe or trusted, to prevent malicious data retrieval from untrusted sources.
The message may present after a recent upgrade is made for MS Office.
Resolution
The warning message can be suppressed by creating an entry in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Security
- Use registry editor (regedit) to access the registry
- Navigate to the location "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Security"
- Create a new DWORD (32 bit) value and name the value "DisableWarningOnIncludeFieldsUpdate" as shown in the above screencap.
- Double click on the above entry and under Value data field, enter "1" to disable the message.
- Click OK to save the changes.
Additional Information
Additional information can be found here - How do you disable the hyperlink warning in excel (Office 365)
Examples of how this message may arise outside of Plex generated reports:
At present, Office 16, or Office 2016, is EOS as of October 14, 2025 per Microsoft. While you may continue to use Office 16 with Plex, Broadcom Support does not provide assistance for non-Broadcom products.
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