diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f09d4d638..719f5ba7d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -483,4 +483,7 @@ webapp/node_modules/
 webapp/public/.well-known*
 
 # Auto-generated solution file from Visual Studio
-webapi/CopilotChatWebApi.sln
\ No newline at end of file
+webapi/CopilotChatWebApi.sln
+
+# Tesseract OCR language data files
+*.traineddata
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/webapp/src/App.tsx b/webapp/src/App.tsx
index 6fc5f0f5b..c89bffefe 100644
--- a/webapp/src/App.tsx
+++ b/webapp/src/App.tsx
@@ -7,16 +7,12 @@ import * as React from 'react';
 import { FC, useEffect } from 'react';
 import { UserSettingsMenu } from './components/header/UserSettingsMenu';
 import { PluginGallery } from './components/open-api-plugins/PluginGallery';
-import BackendProbe from './components/views/BackendProbe';
-import { ChatView } from './components/views/ChatView';
-import Loading from './components/views/Loading';
-import { Login } from './components/views/Login';
+import { BackendProbe, ChatView, Error, Loading, Login } from './components/views';
 import { useChat } from './libs/hooks';
-import { AlertType } from './libs/models/AlertType';
 import { useAppDispatch, useAppSelector } from './redux/app/hooks';
 import { RootState } from './redux/app/store';
 import { FeatureKeys } from './redux/features/app/AppState';
-import { addAlert, setActiveUserInfo, setServiceOptions } from './redux/features/app/appSlice';
+import { setActiveUserInfo, setServiceOptions } from './redux/features/app/appSlice';
 import { semanticKernelDarkTheme, semanticKernelLightTheme } from './styles';
 
 export const useClasses = makeStyles({
@@ -51,6 +47,8 @@ export const useClasses = makeStyles({
 
 enum AppState {
     ProbeForBackend,
+    SettingUserInfo,
+    ErrorLoadingUserInfo,
     LoadingChats,
     Chat,
     SigningOut,
@@ -70,21 +68,24 @@ const App: FC = () => {
 
     useEffect(() => {
         if (isAuthenticated) {
-            let isActiveUserInfoSet = activeUserInfo !== undefined;
-            if (!isActiveUserInfoSet) {
-                const account = instance.getActiveAccount();
-                if (!account) {
-                    dispatch(addAlert({ type: AlertType.Error, message: 'Unable to get active logged in account.' }));
+            if (appState === AppState.SettingUserInfo) {
+                if (activeUserInfo === undefined) {
+                    const account = instance.getActiveAccount();
+                    if (!account) {
+                        setAppState(AppState.ErrorLoadingUserInfo);
+                    } else {
+                        dispatch(
+                            setActiveUserInfo({
+                                id: account.homeAccountId,
+                                email: account.username, // username in an AccountInfo object is the email address
+                                username: account.name ?? account.username,
+                            }),
+                        );
+                        setAppState(AppState.LoadingChats);
+                    }
                 } else {
-                    dispatch(
-                        setActiveUserInfo({
-                            id: account.homeAccountId,
-                            email: account.username, // username in an AccountInfo object is the email address
-                            username: account.name ?? account.username,
-                        }),
-                    );
+                    setAppState(AppState.LoadingChats);
                 }
-                isActiveUserInfoSet = true;
             }
 
             if (appState === AppState.LoadingChats) {
@@ -143,10 +144,16 @@ const App: FC = () => {
                         <BackendProbe
                             uri={process.env.REACT_APP_BACKEND_URI as string}
                             onBackendFound={() => {
-                                setAppState(AppState.LoadingChats);
+                                setAppState(AppState.SettingUserInfo);
                             }}
                         />
                     )}
+                    {appState === AppState.SettingUserInfo && (
+                        <Loading text={'Hang tight while we fetch your information...'} />
+                    )}
+                    {appState === AppState.ErrorLoadingUserInfo && (
+                        <Error text={'Oops, something went wrong. Please try signing out and signing back in.'} />
+                    )}
                     {appState === AppState.LoadingChats && <Loading text="Loading Chats..." />}
                     {appState === AppState.Chat && <ChatView />}
                 </div>
diff --git a/webapp/src/components/views/BackendProbe.tsx b/webapp/src/components/views/BackendProbe.tsx
index 266963b86..f160ed859 100644
--- a/webapp/src/components/views/BackendProbe.tsx
+++ b/webapp/src/components/views/BackendProbe.tsx
@@ -2,13 +2,15 @@
 
 import { Body1, Spinner, Title3 } from '@fluentui/react-components';
 import { FC, useEffect } from 'react';
+import { useSharedClasses } from '../../styles';
 
 interface IData {
     uri: string;
     onBackendFound: () => void;
 }
 
-const BackendProbe: FC<IData> = ({ uri, onBackendFound }) => {
+export const BackendProbe: FC<IData> = ({ uri, onBackendFound }) => {
+    const classes = useSharedClasses();
     useEffect(() => {
         const timer = setInterval(() => {
             const requestUrl = new URL('healthz', uri);
@@ -31,7 +33,7 @@ const BackendProbe: FC<IData> = ({ uri, onBackendFound }) => {
     });
 
     return (
-        <div style={{ padding: 80, gap: 20, display: 'flex', flexDirection: 'column', alignItems: 'center' }}>
+        <div className={classes.informativeView}>
             <Title3>Looking for your backend</Title3>
             <Spinner />
             <Body1>
@@ -45,5 +47,3 @@ const BackendProbe: FC<IData> = ({ uri, onBackendFound }) => {
         </div>
     );
 };
-
-export default BackendProbe;
diff --git a/webapp/src/components/views/Error.tsx b/webapp/src/components/views/Error.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..13c53c629
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webapp/src/components/views/Error.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+// Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved.
+
+import { Subtitle2 } from '@fluentui/react-components';
+import { ErrorCircleRegular } from '@fluentui/react-icons';
+import { FC } from 'react';
+import { useSharedClasses } from '../../styles';
+
+interface IErrorProps {
+    text: string;
+}
+
+export const Error: FC<IErrorProps> = ({ text }) => {
+    const classes = useSharedClasses();
+    return (
+        <div className={classes.informativeView}>
+            <ErrorCircleRegular fontSize={36} color="red" />
+            <Subtitle2>{text}</Subtitle2>
+        </div>
+    );
+};
diff --git a/webapp/src/components/views/Loading.tsx b/webapp/src/components/views/Loading.tsx
index de36a3057..3a9640206 100644
--- a/webapp/src/components/views/Loading.tsx
+++ b/webapp/src/components/views/Loading.tsx
@@ -2,17 +2,17 @@
 
 import { Spinner } from '@fluentui/react-components';
 import { FC } from 'react';
+import { useSharedClasses } from '../../styles';
 
 interface ILoadingProps {
     text: string;
 }
 
-const Loading: FC<ILoadingProps> = ({ text }) => {
+export const Loading: FC<ILoadingProps> = ({ text }) => {
+    const classes = useSharedClasses();
     return (
-        <div style={{ padding: 80, alignItems: 'center' }}>
+        <div className={classes.informativeView}>
             <Spinner labelPosition="below" label={text} />
         </div>
     );
 };
-
-export default Loading;
diff --git a/webapp/src/components/views/index.ts b/webapp/src/components/views/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5fcc763a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webapp/src/components/views/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+export * from './BackendProbe';
+export * from './ChatView';
+export * from './Error';
+export * from './Loading';
+export * from './Login';
+export * from './MissingEnvVariablesError';
diff --git a/webapp/src/styles.tsx b/webapp/src/styles.tsx
index 54e964334..e6374aad0 100644
--- a/webapp/src/styles.tsx
+++ b/webapp/src/styles.tsx
@@ -74,6 +74,17 @@ export const SharedStyles: Record<string, GriffelStyle> = {
     },
 };
 
+export const useSharedClasses = makeStyles({
+    informativeView: {
+        display: 'flex',
+        flexDirection: 'column',
+        ...shorthands.padding('80px'),
+        alignItems: 'center',
+        ...shorthands.gap(tokens.spacingVerticalXL),
+        marginTop: tokens.spacingVerticalXXXL,
+    },
+});
+
 export const useDialogClasses = makeStyles({
     root: {
         height: '515px',