Windows and office refusing to allow access to software we've paid for

Question

My wife and I have computers in our home office, which belong to us and are registered with our personal MS email addresses.

I have a family copy of office, which is installed on all computers, under my account, and shared with them.

We also have work related teams/office accounts, and we work from our home computers.

"Work" is a loose term, as nothing works...

If we log in to our work office account in the browser, and download a word document to edit in local app, the local app says we do not have permission and need to sign in. This is despite the avatar showing at the top of the word application that we are signed in, however it has an exclamation mark on it.

Re-verifying in office app, we are then unable to access the work based accounts online.

Every. Single. Day. We are screaming/shouting and pulling our hair out.

I have seen so many adverts from MS saying "home, work, business - made simple..." yet nothing we do seems to resolve the issue that we are not allowed to use a home computer for work... As a teacher, the schools do not provide computers, and we're left unable to work properly.

Can someone at MS please sort this out, as this issue has been going on far too long now.

Answer 1

It sounds like you are experiencing issues with accessing Microsoft Office applications due to account conflicts or permissions. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Check Account Permissions: Ensure that the account you are using to sign into the Office applications has the necessary permissions to access the documents. If you are using a work account, verify that it has been assigned the appropriate licenses in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
2. Remove Office Credentials: Sometimes, old or conflicting credentials can cause issues. You can remove Office credentials by following these steps:
   • Open Credential Manager from the Start menu.
   • Select Windows credentials.
   • Look for any entries related to MicrosoftOffice16 and remove them.
   • Restart your device and try signing in again.
3. Sign Out and Sign Back In: Sign out of all Office applications and then sign back in with the correct account. This can help refresh the session and resolve permission issues.
4. Check for Multiple Accounts: If you have multiple Microsoft accounts (personal and work), ensure that you are logged into the correct account in the Office applications. You may need to disconnect any accounts that are not being used.
5. Reinstall WAM Plug-ins: If the issue persists, it may be due to a broken or tampered Windows Authentication Manager (WAM) plug-in. You can reinstall the WAM plug-ins using PowerShell commands provided in the troubleshooting documentation.
6. Contact Support: If none of the above steps resolve the issue, consider reaching out to Microsoft Support for further assistance. They can provide more tailored support based on your specific situation.

These steps should help you regain access to your Office applications and resolve the permission issues you are facing.

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References:

• Can't sign in to Microsoft 365 desktop applications
• Microsoft 365 apps activation error "Another account from your organization is already signed in on this computer"

Answer 2

Are you saying that you and your wife share a Microsoft 365 Family subscription? Using that subscription, you have installed Office on your home computers?

Your description indicates that you are the "owner" of the subscription. If you sign in to https://account.microsoft.com/services , is the subscription active? And can you tell you have shared the 365 Family product with your wife?

Also, when you open an Office application, such as Word, does it indicate it is activated if you go to the File > Account screen? Look at the right hand side of the screen.

You also mention work accounts. Do you mean that you have separate OneDrive accounts for work? Are these added as connected services in your Word installation (left hand side of the interface at File > Account)?

Answer 3

Answer 4

The answer to the first two parts is yes.

Here are the screens

In word, on the file account screen, I see this for me.

For my wife, I see this:

I cannot change the language to English, because you're not allowed to do that until it's activated....

Also, under users, it says it cannot connect to microsoft family...

It's also not possible to add a new family member.

The user/family/activation/account controls for Microsoft are messed up in every which way possible. This is the same on 4 different computers in the house.

A "support" person suggested that the proper and correct way to do this was a different computer for each person, and also each person should have separate computers for work/school/personal.

My wife has a local school account and a province school account, so between the 4 of us (2 schoolkids included), for a computer/laptop household, we'd need 26 computers....

Answer 5

Did your wife follow the steps at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/someone-invited-you-to-share-their-microsoft-365-subscription-6a6c098e-1934-4436-9a94-69c92590da5b to accept the invite and install Office?

Using more than one Microsoft accounts on the same PC may cause conflicts. Personally I work around this by accessing different accounts in different web browsers. Or you can set up multiple user profiles in a single web browser.

That said, trying to use more than one Office subscription on the same machine wouldn't work, as far as I know. Is that the scenario you are trying with your wife's PC?