Problem with microsoft account

Question

Hi All

I've been having a problem with using microsoft office for about a month now - it started suddenly for no apparent reason.

I switched subscription from microsoft 365 family to microsoft 365 personal a while back. There was no problems with that. This problem began a good few months after switching and according to my account details, my microsoft 365 family is valid until august 2025.

On any of the microsoft office apps (word, pp, excel etc.), I'm getting a "sign in required - we can't upload or download your changes because your cached credentials have expired."

I follow the sign in prompts and nothing happens, still says "sign in required"

I have looked on the microsoft community help and tried all suggestions I can, uninstalling and reinstalling, tried the report and recovery assistant, chatbot help.. When I switched subscription, I wasn't given a product key, but I don't understand why I would be given this as my current subscription doesn't run out until Aug next year.

I'm at my whits end with this and just can't understand why this is happening. If anyone can offer any assistance or point in the direction where I could perhaps speak to an actual person, I would be really grateful.

Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Dear Jessica Ho2

Thanks for raising your concerns in Microsoft Community.

We understand that you are encountering the problem of [cached credentials expired] in Office. We understand that this can be frustrating, especially affecting the use of Office.

Unfortunately, we've recently received feedback from users in other language areas who have had similar issues to yours. Some users have reported that the problem can be solved by editing the registry, restoring to the original Office version, or reinstalling using the offline installation package. You can perform operations one by one to troubleshoot.

1. Press Windows + R, type [regedit], click OK, open the registry, find the following registry subkey, right-click Identity and delete it.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity

Disclaimer: Typically, editing registry or workgroup subkeys is intended for power users, administrators, and IT professionals. It can help fix some issues, but serious problems can arise if you edit the registry incorrectly. Therefore, be sure to follow these steps carefully. For additional protection, back up the registry before modifying it. You can then restore the registry if there is a problem. For more information about backing up and restoring the registry, click Backup and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support to view this article.

2. Rollback of the Office version

• Close all Office software, look for "Command Prompt" (or "cmd") in the "Start Menu", right-click and select "Run as administrator";
• At the command prompt, type the following code, and then press Enter.

    cd %programfiles% \Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun
  

• And then type:

    Officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.17328.20142
  

17328.20142 is the internal version number of the version you want to install, you can also select an older version. You can find the specific version number at this link:

Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn

3. Uninstall and re-download Office using the offline installation package

• Microsoft 365 offline setup packages: Click here to download

In either case, you'll need to disable Office updates after the process: Open any Office file and click File - Account - Product Information - Update Options - Disable Updates.

You can refer to the above steps first, I hope these solutions are helpful to you. We also look forward to your reply and will continue to provide you with assistance. If there is anything unclear, you can reply at any time.

Your understanding and patience will be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Tracy - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist