MS office 2021 license details

Question

Dear Team,

We procured 39nos of office 2021 license and activated 30nos of license with a single mail ID. But when i checked the devices it is only showing 13 nos of device . How i can find out rest of the license used in which device

Answer 1

Hello TSMH MEDICA,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum!

I realize that you've encountered a problem with Office 2021 licensing. I truly understand your confusion. Let me assist you further.

Office 2021 is a perpetual (one-time) license, and it does not provide a complete device list like Microsoft 365. When many licenses are activated using one email account, the Devices page usually shows only recently active or partially reported PCs. Older, reinstalled, renamed, or offline machines often do not appear.

Because of this, having 30 activations but seeing only 13 devices is expected behavior and does not mean the licenses are missing. It does not provide a full device inventory, license-to-device mapping, or an Installations portal for Office 2021.

To identify which device is using each license, the only reliable workaround is to check locally on each PC:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator
2. Run:

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

(Use Program Files (x86) if Office is 32-bit.)

This will show the activation status and the last five characters of the product key. You can match this with your internal records to identify each device.

You may also review internal IT inventory or deployment logs. If the licenses are MAK (Volume License), the activation portal can confirm how many times the key was used, but it will not show device names. For future management, it is recommended to keep an internal tracking list or consider device-based licensing or Microsoft 365 if centralized tracking is required.

I hope this will help with your situation. Please feel free to reach back if you have further update or more questions.

Best Regards,

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Answer 2

To find out which devices are using the remaining Office 2021 licenses, you can use the Microsoft 365 admin center to check the activation status of the licenses. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center: Go to the admin center and log in with your admin credentials.
2. Navigate to Reports: Go to the Reports section in the left-hand menu.
3. View Usage Reports: Look for the Usage reports, which can provide insights into how many licenses are activated and on which devices.
4. Office Activations Report: Specifically, check the Office Activations report. This report will show you which users have activated their Office subscription on at least one device and can help identify the devices associated with the licenses.

If you still cannot find the information, you may need to check each device manually or use a PowerShell script to gather more detailed information about the activation status of Office on each device.

For volume licensed versions of Office, you may also need to use the ospp.vbs script to manage activation status, but since you are using Office 2021, the details might differ based on your activation method.

Additionally, ensure that the licenses are correctly assigned to the users and that the devices are properly configured to access the licensing service.