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. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-07-24T14:57:40+00:00

    Stefan: 

    You can indeed sign in while connected to the internet, then disconnect from the internet, and the product remains activated and signed in (at least for me). However, when you try to sign out (whether you sign out while connected to the internet or sign out while disconnected) it completely deactivates office products.

    Then it is working the way Microsoft says it should be working now. 

    It has changed; there is no doubt about that. It isn't a change for the better.

    You should post feedback, as Rohn007 has already suggested.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T15:21:43+00:00

    DDK try this as a workaround.

    Close all but one open Office 365 application (I often have several windows open)

    I signed out of 365.

    Unplugged the internet

    closed the application

    started it again

    It starts OK for me, just cannot access internet AI features like Dictate in Word.

    .

    I plugged the internet back in and when I start Word, it goes

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T15:44:51+00:00

    tried, doesn't work for me. Whenever I sign out (even with your suggested method) I get a notification pop-up that states if your ready to edit files again o this machine, sign back in. I did exactly your steps (several times) but it remained deactivated and could not do anything.

    I'm giving up. Thanks all for replying and trying!

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  4. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-07-24T18:43:17+00:00

    At File > Options > Save, select the option "Save to Computer by default" and specify a default location for documents. Also, clear the option to "Show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required."

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T21:10:45+00:00

    No, that's not it for me, I checked it at the very beginning when I encountered the problem, I always have these options like that.

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