How to fix: "We couldn't find a work or school account with that email address".

Hi,

This issue usually occurs because:

Work account policies: If Word was signed in with your work account, Azure AD Conditional Access policies may have applied restrictions (like blocking local saves).

Account conflict in Office licensing: Office desktop apps can only be licensed under one primary account at a time. If your work account was previously active, it may still be cached as the primary license holder.

Credential cache and identity tokens: Even after removing work accounts from Windows, Office apps often retain cached tokens in the Identity folder and registry.

Error message “We couldn't find a work or school account”: This happens because the desktop apps are still expecting an organizational account, not a personal Microsoft account, due to the previous sign-in state.

  Here’s what you can try to fix this:

Sign Out Everywhere in Office Apps

Open Word → File → Account → Sign out.

Repeat for Excel, OneNote, and Outlook.

Clear Office Credentials

Go to Control Panel → Credential Manager → Windows Credentials.

Remove any entries related to MicrosoftOffice16_Data:ADAL or your work account.

Delete Identity Cache

Close all Office apps.

Navigate to:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Identity\

Delete all files in this folder.

Repair Office Installation

Go to Settings → Apps → Microsoft Office → Modify → Quick Repair.

If Quick Repair doesn’t help, try Online Repair.

Sign In with Personal Account

After clearing cache, open Word and sign in with your personal Microsoft account.

Ensure your subscription is active at https://account.microsoft.com/services .

Check License Activation

In Word → File → Account, confirm your personal subscription shows as Microsoft 365 Family or Personal.

Let me know how it goes, Happy to help!

To resolve the issue of receiving the error "We couldn't find a work or school account with that email address" when trying to log into your personal Office 365 account in Microsoft Word, you can try the following steps:

1. Ensure You're Using the Correct Account: Make sure that you are logging in with the correct email address associated with your personal Office 365 subscription. Sometimes, confusion can arise if multiple accounts are in use.
2. Sign Out of All Accounts: Open any Office application (like Word), go to your account settings, and sign out of all accounts. Then, sign back in using your personal account.
3. Check for Cached Credentials: Sometimes, cached credentials can cause issues. You can clear these by going to the Windows Credential Manager and removing any stored credentials related to Microsoft Office.
4. Use a Private Browsing Session: Open a private browsing session in your web browser and try signing in to your Office 365 account there. This can help bypass any cached data that might be causing issues.
5. Update Microsoft Office: Ensure that your Office applications are up to date. Open an Office app, go to File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.
6. Check for Azure Policy Issues: Since you mentioned that your work account might have Azure policies in place, ensure that your personal account is not being affected by any organizational policies. If necessary, contact your IT department for assistance.
7. Reinstall Office: If the issue persists, consider uninstalling and then reinstalling Microsoft Office to reset any configurations that may be causing the problem.

If you continue to experience difficulties, it may be beneficial to reach out to Microsoft Support for further assistance.

References:

• Microsoft 365 Apps activation error: "The products we found in your account can't be used to activate"
• Error 0x8004de85 or 0x8004de8a when signing in to OneDrive