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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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T17:12:46+00:00

    You experience is something new. I have not seen anyone else mention this problem.

    OOPS!

    I checked and it said I was running 2016 Pro Plus.  That is not supposed to happen. I did have 2016 Pro Plus installed, but I moved it before I installed 365, so it should not be finding that program code or license. But it is, or it thinks it is. This makes me a bad test case

    The theory, and practice I've been working under is that Office/Microsoft 365 installs a desktop copy. We can use it without signing in for up to 30 days. It will be mostly functional

    Doing an Office Repair of 365 did not help.

    But signing in did fix my problem.

    This is not the way it is supposed to work ...

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T17:43:01+00:00

    Love to hear other peoples' experiences. Your replies, however, continuously assumed I was doing things that I really was not doing (even to the point as to say I was trying to get around license limitations) and gave clear indications that you did not read my question carefully, even when your experience is different than mine. If you can't see what your replies were about..... indeed Good luck to you too dude!

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T17:50:24+00:00

    "You experience is something new. I have not seen anyone else mention this problem."

    It indeed is relatively new. I had been searching everywhere why this was happening suddenly. The first post I saw was the reddit post mentioned earlier who also encountered it. I also found this one (though not relatively new) https://office-watch.com/2018/office-365-counts-sign-ins/ where it states it now counts sign-in's instead of installs which I guess what is happening. I guess it is the new way of how Microsoft now deals with its product. There was a topic made on the suggestion box for MS Office Word that people can vote on https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/40499542-require-option-to-remain-signed-out-of-office-acco

    I had also tried online repair and uninstall / re-install in the hopes that it was just a bug, but alas. Thanks for trying it though! (hope you trying didn't mess-up anything in your installation).

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  5. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-07-16T17:58:41+00:00

    Several people have suggested that there has been a change. The official message from Microsoft remains the same, though:

    Internet access is required to install and activate all the latest releases of apps and services included in all Microsoft 365 subscription plans. Note that if you are an existing subscriber, you do not need to reinstall or purchase another subscription. 

    For Microsoft 365 plans, Internet access is also needed to manage your subscription account, for example to install Office apps on other PCs or to change billing options. Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the OneDrive desktop app

    You should also connect to the Internet regularly to keep your version of Microsoft 365 up to date and to benefit from automatic upgrades. If you do not connect to the Internet at least every 31 days, your apps will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents but cannot edit the documents or create new ones. To reactivate your apps, simply reconnect to the Internet. 

    You do not need to be connected to the Internet to use the Office apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the apps are fully installed on your computer.

    (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-family/cfq7ttc0k5dm?activetab=pivot:faqtab)

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