Word ask to select a Work or Personal account and will not let me get past that prompt

Question

I'm on MacOS.

I have recently installed Office Home 2026. When I first executed Excel it asked for my Microsoft user and I put that in and Excel works fine. However when I initiate Word (or PowerPoint) after putting my account name (email) in then it asks me to choose between a "work or school account" or "personal account". I select "personal account" and then it returns to prompting for my sign in email/phone.

I've gone back and checked Excel and it is still working fine. Outlook works fine too.

I've been into the Microsoft website and logged out of all other accounts (I naively bought a Office 365 perpetual licence which obviously isn't valid but there is an account setup for that which I can't seem to remove my personal account from). I fear that my personal account is not assigned to that account too.

How do I can get by Home Office 2026 to work (Word and PowerPoint) using my personal account only (thoughts include: can I move the licence key to a different personal email)?

Answer 1

Good day Brian

From your description, Excel and Outlook activate correctly with your Microsoft account, but Word and PowerPoint keep looping back to the sign-in screen after you choose Personal account. On Mac, this might be caused by cached Office sign-in credentials or an account mismatch rather than the perpetual license itself.

Before considering moving the license to another email address, I'd suggest:

1. Sign out of all Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
2. Open Mac Keychain Access and remove Microsoft/Office-related identity tokens and credentials.
3. Restart your Mac, then open Word first and sign in using only the Microsoft account that owns the Office Home 2026 license.
4. Make sure Office is fully updated (Help > Check for Updates).

can I move the licence key to a different personal email

This is usually not necessary and may not be possible once your Office license has been redeemed and linked to a Microsoft account.

I would first recommend checking Services & subscriptions at Microsoft Account Services & Subscriptions and confirming that Office Home subscription appears under the same personal Microsoft account you're using to sign in. If it does not appear there, it may be worth checking whether the product was redeemed under a different Microsoft account.

If the license is shown under the correct account, the issue is more likely related to the Office sign-in or activation data stored on the Mac rather than the license itself. In this case, you could try Microsoft's Office license removal tool for Mac. This is generally recommended when activation or sign-in data may have become corrupted.

Note: The license removal tool only clears saved activation/licensing data on your Mac, it does not delete your purchase or invalidate your license. However, please make sure you still have access to the correct Microsoft account associated with your original Office purchase, as you will need to sign in again to reactivate it after running the tool.

Please let me know what happens after trying these steps, and I'll be glad to continue looking into it with you.

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Answer 2

This issue usually occurs when Word detects both a personal Microsoft account and a work/school account. Try signing out of all Microsoft accounts, then go to Settings > Accounts > Email & Accounts and remove any accounts you no longer use. Restart your PC and open Word again. If the problem persists, run a Quick Repair for Microsoft Office from Control Panel > Programs and Features > Microsoft 365 > Change > Quick Repair. This often resolves account selection loops and sign-in issues.