Subscriptions

Question

I have purchased 4 email subscriptions, but have not received a link to activate them.

Answer 1

What do you mean by Email subscriptions? There is no such subscription name called email subscription. Can you specify the exact name of your subscription? Such as Microsoft 365 personal/family/premium? Or Microsoft 365 business basic/standard/premium? Or exchange plan one or plan two?

Answer 2

No one here knows what email subscriptions you're talking about, so you have to explain. A Microsoft account is free to everyone.

Answer 3

For email-based subscription activations, the most common causes and next steps are:

1. Check spam/junk and all mail folders for each subscription’s activation email.
2. Confirm that the purchase actually generated activations:
   • For Visual Studio retail subscriptions purchased via Microsoft Store, the purchaser should have received a confirmation email containing a unique 5x5 product key for each subscription.
   • If those emails or keys are missing, contact Microsoft Store Support so they can resend the confirmation or provide the product keys.
3. If the activation emails were sent but not received, typical reasons include:
   • The email was blocked or went to junk.
   • The activation email was sent to a different contact address than expected.
   • The order usage/start date is in the future, so activation emails may not yet have been sent.
4. If the services were automatically assigned to an existing admin account, no activation email is sent. In that case, sign in to the relevant admin or subscription portal with the account used as the Online Services Manager (OSM) or purchaser to verify that the licenses/subscriptions are already present.
5. If the activation emails were sent to the wrong account or the OSM email address is incorrect, contact Volume Licensing or VLSC Support (for volume-licensing scenarios) to correct the OSM email and have activations remapped or resent.

For Visual Studio retail subscriptions specifically:

1. Ensure the purchaser has the confirmation emails with the 5x5 keys.
2. Share one 5x5 key per intended user.
3. Each user goes to https://my.visualstudio.com/subscriptions/activate, signs in with the email that should own the subscription, and enters the 5x5 key to activate.
4. After activation, each subscription appears on the user’s Subscriptions page.

If none of the above applies or the activation emails/keys still cannot be located, contact the appropriate support channel:

• Microsoft Store Support for retail/Microsoft Store purchases.
• Volume Licensing/VLSC Support for volume-licensing online services activations.

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References:

• Visual Studio subscriptions are available through the Microsoft Store
• Purchasing, renewing, canceling, or billing
• Online Services (OLS) activation email
• Activate online services in volume licensing