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. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-06T11:02:17+00:00

    If the old ones  don't work, what use are they?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-06T09:57:39+00:00

    Try using a new set of credentials (account name and password) to create à new account under which to purchase the subscription.  Keep a record of the credentials as you may need them in the future.

    Thank you for your reply. Are you suggesting that I should keep two credentials? Can I delete or disable the old one?

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  3. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-06T09:34:48+00:00

    Try using a new set of credentials (account name and password) to create à new account under which to purchase the subscription.  Keep a record of the credentials as you may need them in the future.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-06T08:39:56+00:00

    Hi Don,

    Sorry for not being clear.

    1. Launch Settings app on your iPad. Select "General->International->Region Format".
    2. Change your Region Format to "Chinese->Hong Kong SAR China". It will most probably be set to "Hong Kong" if you are running into this specific issue.

    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.

    In your particular case, if you have tried after setting your iPad's region to "Chinese->Hong Kong SAR China", that would point to your purchase receipt being cancelled from Apple.

    At this point as you have cancelled your apple purchase, you can get a new subscription from Microsoft or from Apple.

    Let me know if this helped.

    Sumesh

    Hi Sumesh,

    I have been following your suggestion in the post without any success (neither HK nor US region works for me) therefore I end up requesting a refund from Apple, which they did. However, the bad news is, while I was trying to purchase an Office 365 on Microsoft website I came to an error (Correlation ID: eas#ea75736d-0c0f-4342-941c-90bbc9eb1732) and can't login to my account.

    I wonder if my account is being lock down to prevent purchasing before the problem is fixed or did I mess up anything along the way. Can you give me any suggestion if I want to purchase a license now?

    John

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