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
    2014-04-04T06:33:59+00:00

    Thanks Don. Unfortunately this is not under my control but I will provide the feedback to the moderators of the site so that they can take the appropriate action.

    I think you can mark a reply as an "answer" in which case it might get highlighted or at least become easy for folks to find the most relevant reply within the 100+ replies.

    -Sumesh

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-04T06:28:59+00:00

    Sorry that you had to go through so much trouble.

    We are working on getting a fix deployed so that future users with the same regional setting will not run into this issue. This is only a temporary workaround.

    Thanks for your patience,

    Sumesh

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-04T06:26:43+00:00

    Hi Don,

    Are you talking about the email notification you get from here?

    -Sumesh

    That's the one. ;-) Always takes you to the first page rather than the most recent post, which in this case is on page 13.

    Cheers,

    Don

    P.S. I see we have one person for whom your solution worked. Well done!

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-04T06:20:33+00:00

    Follow these steps:

    1. Launch Settings app on your iPad. Select "General->International->Region Format".
    2. Change your Region Format to "Chinese->Hong Kong SAR China".

    Note: The above steps have nothing to do with what your apple store account's region is set to.

    1. Kill all the Office Apps by swiping them out or in other words quit all Office apps.
    2. Launch any of the Office app.
    3. Go to the "Buy" page. Here select "I already have a subscription", this will try to restore your original purchase receipt so make sure to sign in using the same Apple Account with which you did the original purchase.

    If these still not work, can you try setting your "Region Format" to "United States" and try steps from 3 to 5 again.

    Thanks,

    Sumesh

    Though your solution works, I must say this is a very good gift to your new CEO. What a stupid mistake and bug in regional setting handling.

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