Why does signing out suddenly de-activate office?

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.

Yes Stefan that is the "official" party line.  It is what I've been telling people for years. It is what I was prepared to tell them, until I made a WAG and tried signing out of 365 and starting a program.  At which point I said OOPS!

But I was able to at least partially confirm DDkDDK's experience that the official documentation does not work TODAY. It may have still been that way yesterday, but not today. 

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"Officially" I am supposed to be able to run my 365 licensed program from my desktop without signing in. I would lose the AI specific functions, but most functions would continue to work. I know it USED to work that way. I used to OFTEN not sign in to 365 right away after restarting my computer.  But TODAY I could not do that. Windows could no longer find the 365 program code at all! Even after doing an Office Repair.

SOMETHING has CHANGED!

In typical MS fashion they have made an "improvement" without any advance notice and are waiting for public reaction.

"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.

I tried that and id didn't make any difference for me ...

If you start the services.msc applet using Run As admin you can change the start type from automat, or Manual, to Disabled.  That won't restart at all.

I also tried stopping the "Microsoft Office Click to Run" service. That didn't help either.

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I too noticed a difference, for the worse, in how things run/not.  Previously I noted that unplugging my network connection would allow me to use it. No more. Nothing I do will allow me to use it without signing in.

This sucks.

Thanks for your reply. I agree with the fact that you need internet access, but should that necessitate continuous signing in with your account on all MS Office apps even after you installed them? I don't use One-drive and I'm happy to manually update Office and even sign-in to update office apps at that moment when I'm manually updating Office. It just bugs me a little to be continuously signed in with my account so that others using my device in my family have to use my account when they want to use Office.

I'll just have to hope that more people will vote for the suggestion that was made on https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/40499542-require-option-to-remain-signed-out-of-office-accoHope it will be picked up by MS.