Word for iPad won't activate

Anonymous
2014-03-29T03:20:57+00:00

I downloaded Word, Powerpoint and Excel for iPad yesterday and purchased a 365 Home Certificate. I tried to activate Word and am always given the message "Cannot Activate. This account doesn't have a paid Office 365 subscription." Then I tried activating Powerpoint and Excel -- knowing if you activate one, they're all activated -- and those won't activate either.

I have the receipt and Order ID from Apple and their phone support has been great, including today, Saturday. But ultimately, they can't help, because it's up to the developer (Microsoft). Everything is fine on the Apple side.

I have done everything possible, from rebooting, to reinstalling, to resetting my network connections, without success. So I tried to call Microsoft Support (through a link Apple kindly supplied) only to find they don't work on weekends.

I've searched the internet for solutions, but the program is so new that I appear to be the only one so far with a problem -- or maybe no one's buying a 365 Home subscription for the first time.

Any thoughts that don't include all the things I've already done would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Don

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Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2014-07-08T14:32:22+00:00

Go to settings and look for the app there..  Do u see it?...  If so try doing a Word reset" and then reload or open from AppStore page..  Report back..

This worked for me on my iPad. These are the full steps I used:

  • Open up Settings
  • Scroll all the way to the bottom in the left hand pane, select Word
  • In the right hand pane, select Reset Word
  • Turn on Delete Login Credentials
  • IF you already have Word running on your iPad, as I did: Double-press the iPad's home button to bring up all currently running programs, swipe back and forth until you see Word, flick the Word screen up to stop the program 
  • Press the iPad's home button to get back to the home screen
  • Select Word
  • Swipe all the way through the introductory screens until it says "Sign in now" - select Sign in
  • Enter your e-mail address, selected "Next"
  • Sign in to your Microsoft account with your e-mail and password, select "Sign in"
  • Select "Buy Office 365"
  • At the bottom, select the "Restore previous purchase" link
  • Enter your iTunes password

Yeesh.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-04-01T22:28:38+00:00

    Hi Mike,

    Sorry for the troubles and thank you for being patient.

    If you think you have a O365 business subscription (with the mac address), can you try logging into https://portal.microsoftonline.com and confirm the same. If you can confirm that you do have a subscription and still cannot activate using that account, do let me know and I will follow up directly with you.

    For everyone's benefit, if you have a microsoft account or a business account, you can do the following to confirm your subscription state:

    1. For microsoft accounts - login to http://office.microsoft.com/ and verify if your account indeed has rights to office.
    2. for O365 business accounts - login to https://portal.microsoftonline.com to confirm your office rights.

    Thanks,

    Sumesh

    (Microsoft Office Engg.)

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-01T22:00:43+00:00

    Mike!!F

    Can you sign in to your account at www.office.com/myaccount with those credentials.  You may have multiple Microsoft account credentials.  I have one for my Office 365 subscription that is completely different from that which I use to log into other Microsoft sites (such as this).

    That could be the problem

    I used to use a hotmail account, then moved my MS account to my mac.com address (Win 8.1 login etc)

    I can sign in to office.com/myaccount with both old and new addresses.  However, both tell me the same thing:

    Your Office Preview has been cancelled.

    Office 365 Home Premium Preview

    whereas I do have a live, working, paid-for Office 365 business account tied to my mac.com address (as far as I know(

    Any ideas on how to sort that out?  (I don't want to post either email address on a searchable forum)

    Regards

    Mike

    ps: something this new and ground-breaking is going to have a few glitches, I accept that.  I'm not going to throw my toys out of the pram; besides I am working fine at the moment with Numbers and Pages on iPad.  On the other hand, business users have to be the target market for Office on iPad, so I hope that the MS guys on here can both help sort out my authentication problems and thereby help other business iPad users

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  3. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-01T21:49:27+00:00

    If you actually were charged for two, you should try and get a refund for at least one of them as one is all that you need.  Probably doing it right away while this is recognised as a problem would be best and while you're at it, try and get refunds for both of them and then purchase a subscription via Microsoft as then the issue should not arise.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-01T21:05:51+00:00

    Matt

    Thanks for the response it's good to know someone is working on it and that it's a known issue.

    what do you suggest we do in the case I have now paid for two subscriptions .. One for Excel and one for Word I have confirmation emails for both subscriptions.

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