Account Switch Detected

Question

We recently upgraded to Office 365 Family version. However, when a Family member (on a Mac) tries to sign in to Word or any other Office app, he receives the following error message "Account Switch Detected". It responds as though we need to sign in using the Family host account which is not what we want to do and precisely why we upgraded to the Family account so that the Family member account is separate from the Family host account.

We have spent hours trouble-shooting this with various MS support agents and Apple support agents only to result in no solution and each group blaming the other for the problem and telling us that we have to go back to them. It appears to be Office 365 issue, the bottom line is that it will not allow this Family member to sign in to Office 365 apps on his Mac. It does not seem that complicated of a problem. Please help!

Thanks,

frustrated Office 365 subscriber

Answer 1

Thank you to all above that have responded with suggestions. I believe that we FINALLY have resolved the matter. We were on the phone with MS Tier 2 Support for over an hour last night and after uninstalling Office for at least the 4th or 5th time, we also ran the following licensing removal tool as well. That finally seemed to do the trick (untethering the addl family account from the host account on the Mac). Here is a link for more info on removing an Office license on a Mac....

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-remove-office-license-files-on-a-mac-b032c0f6-a431-4dad-83a9-6b727c03b193

Thanks again to everyone for your help, much appreciated!

Answer 2

Is this a Family member using a different Mac/PC or another user on the same Mac?

Answer 3

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. My name is John and I’d be more than happy to help you with your query.

The "Account Switch Detected" error message occurs when there is a change in the Microsoft account being used to sign in to Office 365. To resolve this issue, the Family member can sign out of the Office app, then sign in using their own Microsoft account associated with the Office 365 Family subscription. If the issue persists, try clearing the cache and cookies in the browser or reinstalling the Office app.

Please don't hesitate to post back for further questions. Best regards, John

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Answer 4

The host of this Family account is using a windows laptop. The Family member that is having the issue is using a Mac laptop.

Answer 5

Thank you for your reply. We have tried all of the suggestions that you mentioned (signing out the host account, uninstalling and reinstalling the subscription and apps, clearing cache cookies, etc.,). I just spent another hour on the phone with an MS support agent this morning, still no resolution. She upgraded the issue to Tier 2 support but they're not available to call us back until late Tues night (after 9:30pm). Ugh.