Microsoft 365 family sharing not working.

Use these checks and steps to get the sharing working.

1. Confirm the correct subscription

• On the father’s account, go to the Microsoft account Services & subscriptions page and verify that the active subscription is Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Premium.
• Sharing is not available for Microsoft 365 Basic or Personal subscriptions, so the Share / Start sharing button only appears for Family or Premium.

2. Make sure the invitation was accepted correctly

• When the invitation email or link is used, it must be accepted with the same Microsoft account that should receive the benefits.
• After selecting Get started in the email, the flow should add the invitee to the father’s Microsoft family group and then let the father share the subscription.
• On the father’s sharing page, open the Share subscription section and check the status next to the invitee:
  • If it shows Pending invite, the acceptance did not complete. Use Resend invite and accept again.
  • If the invitee is already in another family group, they must leave that group first; otherwise sharing cannot complete and the dashboard will stay at “Start sharing”.

3. Verify family‑group membership

• After the invitee clicks Join now, they must appear as a member of the father’s family group.
• Sharing only works while the invitee remains in that family group. If they leave it, the subscription cannot be shared and the invitation will effectively stop working until they rejoin.

4. Check for other shared subscriptions

• If the invitee is already part of another shared Microsoft 365 Family or Premium subscription, the father’s subscription cannot be shared with that account. In that case, the invitee would need to be removed from the other shared subscription first.

5. Allow time for provisioning

• Once the invitation is fully accepted and the sharing status is no longer pending, it can take up to about 2 hours for the subscription and OneDrive storage to appear on the invitee’s Services & subscriptions page. Refresh the page after waiting.

6. Install Microsoft 365 after sharing works

• When sharing is successful, the invitee will see Microsoft 365 on their account dashboard with an option like Install Microsoft 365 on all your devices. Use that to download and install the apps and access OneDrive storage.

If, after confirming that the father has an active Family/Premium subscription, the invitee is only in this one family group, and the status still shows Pending invite even after resending and re‑accepting, this indicates an account‑side issue that requires direct Microsoft support to correct on the backend.

References:

• Share your Microsoft 365 Family or Premium subscription
• How to share your Microsoft 365 Family subscription
• Troubleshoot sharing a Microsoft 365 subscription
• Microsoft 365 subscription sharing FAQs
• Family 365 account subscription error - Microsoft Q&A
• how to download microsoft office 365 from subscription with multiple installs - Microsoft Q&A