Why does signing out suddenly de-activate office?

Anonymous
2020-07-16T15:23:12+00:00

I have office 365. I used to be able to sign out of an office application and the application still worked. I recently made the mistake of updating the office application where Office 365 is now Microsoft 365. It now seems I HAVE to sign in and stay signed in on my own computer where I downloaded and installed my office products to keep using MS Office. When I sign out, the office product deactivates. I don't want to be signed in to use the product that I paid for. It now means that everyone in my family who use the same computer also use my Office account with my name on each office application. Why did this policy change and can we get the previous policy back?

At https://www.reddit.com/r/Office365/comments/fyzfe6/how_to_logout_from_office_365_word_without/ a user commented:

"Yes you used to be able to sign out of Office 365 and it would still stay activated based on the original MS account that has the Office 365 subscription on it... BUT NOW since they changed the name to Microsoft 365 the NEW installers/program are different and if you sign out then it will deactivate Office and make you sign back in... if you updated from an older install then it still seems to let you log out even with the newest updates... but if you did an Online repair then you will be forced to stay signed in... once signed in with a valid subscription account you can sign in with any another microsoft account instead and it will keep the activation still.."

Please revert this manner of using Office products that have been paid for.

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

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T16:05:45+00:00

    My question was not on whether to use Office while connected to the internet. I could use Office 365 while signed out of Office regardless of being online or offline.

    I have not been using a stand alone product of office. I have been using Office 365 subscription (see my original post) where I could sign-out of the office application (i.e. Word) and it was still activated (this is what I did always when using the office application, I never used it while signed in). Reason for that being able to work was that Microsoft counted the devices that the office application was installed on.

    Again. I unfortunately updated the Office 365application which now changed to Microsoft 365. This changed a few things amongst others where it now counts sign-in's so that you can download and install Office on any computer and sign in on that computer which automatically signs you out of the other computer it was signed in on (depending on which plan you had).

    If you only use Office 365 personal on 1 computer in your home, the new way that Microsoft 365 deals with sign-ins is just not something to be very happy with. My online MS account shows the device that is installed on so Microsoft should already be able to tell that my office application should be activated on my (and only) device. there should not be a reason to be continuously signed in.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T16:49:14+00:00

    "If you are trying to use Office on more machines than you're allowed"

    Where did I say I was using Office on more than 1 machine? I said I use it on 1 machine and 1 machine only.

    "then no wonder you have to go through what you are to get around the limitation on licenses."

    Where did I say I have to go through what I am to get around limitations? I'm not trying to get around limitations nor do I have any desire to.

    "Others users on my computers have their own Windows login IDs and are not able to use the Office products as they don't have a license to use it."

    Not the point. They should still be able to use the product like they usually could but without my MS account displayed everywhere.

    I honestly don't get why you don't understand the issue. Previously users of office 365 could sign out of their office applications, but they remained activated so that you could still use the application on the device that it was installed on. Now because it is updated to Microsoft 365 (instead of Office 365), this is not allowed anymore.

    " Regardless, no one from the Microsoft Team reads these forums so leave your feature suggestion in the Feedback mechanism available in the Office apps."

    Already did. I was hoping someone else may have a solution that I could not find so far.

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