Word document is read only

Question

My subscription is active. When I open a word document it states my subscription has expired and is only a read only file.

Answer 1

If you sign in to your account at https://account.microsoft.com/services , which product name is indicated for your subscription? Not all products include the desktop apps that you can run on a PC (or Mac).

Also, make sure that you are signed in to your Office apps with the correct account.

Answer 2

If the subscription is active but Word says it has expired and opens documents read-only, Word is likely not recognizing the subscription correctly and has entered reduced functionality mode.

Try these steps in order:

1. Close all Office apps.
2. Go to the Services & subscriptions page and confirm the Microsoft 365 subscription is active under the same Microsoft account used in Word.
3. If the subscription is active, open the Payment options page and make sure the payment method does not show an error.
4. Restart Word and check whether the expired/read-only message is gone.
5. If Word still shows the subscription as expired, sign out of Office in Word, restart the computer, then sign back in with the Microsoft account that owns the subscription.

What this means:

• When Office cannot verify the subscription, it can show Unlicensed Product or subscription notices.
• In that state, Office apps can still open and print documents, but editing is blocked because the apps run in Reduced Functionality Mode.

If the subscription actually expired and was recently renewed:

• Select Reactivate or Buy from the yellow bar if shown, or use Enter Key if a new unused product key was purchased from a retailer.
• After renewal, close all Office apps to remove the renewal message.

If the file is stored in OneDrive, also check available OneDrive storage. If OneDrive storage is full, files can open read-only until storage usage is reduced below the allowance.

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References:

• Office error "Account Notice: We've run into a problem with your Microsoft 365 subscription"
• A subscription notice appears when I open a Microsoft 365 application
• What happens when your Microsoft 365 subscription expires
• Why did my file open read-only?
• SharePoint files open as read-only