Reactivation of Microsoft 365

Question

A friend subscribed to Microsoft 365 family last year and shared with me. When it expired this year, installed Microsoft professional App for a day, and then subscribed and shared with 3 people who have already accepted the invite. I installed the App in my PC, but my subscription is yet to be reactivated. I can't do any work now.

Answer 1

If the Microsoft 365 Family subscription has already been renewed and the sharing invitations were accepted, the issue is almost always related to account association or licence activation on the device rather than the subscription itself.

Please follow the steps below in order.

First, confirm that the subscription is active.

Ask the subscription owner to sign in to https://account.microsoft.com/services and verify that Microsoft 365 Family shows as Active. Then check the Sharing section and confirm that your email address appears under the shared members list.

Second, confirm that you accepted the correct invitation.

Sign in to https://account.microsoft.com/family using the exact Microsoft account that received the sharing invitation. Many activation issues occur because Office is signed in with a different Microsoft account than the one that was invited.

Third, reset Office activation on your PC.

1. Open any Office application such as Word.
2. Go to File, then Account.
3. Select Sign out from all accounts shown.
4. Close all Office applications completely.
5. Restart the PC.
6. Open Word again and sign in only with the Microsoft account that was invited to the Family subscription.

After signing in, Office should automatically detect the assigned licence and activate.

If activation still does not occur, remove old licence tokens.

1. Close all Office applications.
2. Open Windows Credential Manager.
3. Remove any stored credentials related to MicrosoftOffice or ADAL.
4. Restart the device.
5. Sign in again to Office.

If the subscription owner temporarily installed Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise or Professional on the same device, ensure that there is no conflicting work or school account signed in under Settings, Accounts, Access work or school. Remove any unnecessary organisational accounts.

Finally, verify that the licence type is compatible. Microsoft 365 Family provides Microsoft 365 Apps for home use only. It cannot activate Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise builds installed from a corporate tenant. If the installed product shows as Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, uninstall it and reinstall Office from https://account.microsoft.com/services using the Install Office option under the Family subscription.

This process resolves the majority of reactivation issues after renewal and resharing.