Unable to sign-in to Microsoft Defender on Android devices for child accounts

Anonymous
2022-06-28T19:22:06+00:00

I purchased a M365 Family subscription so I could use Defender for Individuals on my and my children's devices. The subscription is being shared with both children's MS accounts. I can sign into Defender normally on my PC and Android device, but when I try to sign into the Defender app with their Microsoft accounts on their Android tablets, I get an error: "Invalid license, please contact administrator".

This is happening on two different Android tablets with both their accounts, so I don't think it's a device based issue. Is anyone else seeing a similar issue trying to setup Defender for Individuals on a M365 Family subscription?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Microsoft 365 Defender | Other | Android

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-07-08T10:21:28+00:00

    I also have this issue on Samsung android devices of my children. I am subscribed to Microsoft 365 Family. I also noticed I can login their account in my device as a parent which I think is not restricted by the family link app. It seems that the family link app and windows defender doesn't go well together. Something that is restricting the google child account to work properly with Windows Defender.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-06-29T00:52:55+00:00

    Thanks Emmanuel. I attempted to sign-in on their devices using my own account and got the same error ("Invalid license, please contact administrator"). I've signed in using my account on my Android phone and did not have this problem, so that account is working for login on another Android device. It looks like the problem is on those devices, but they are two separate models of Android tablet (one is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 8, the other is a Lenovo Tab M8).

    I was looking through reviews for the MS Defender app on Google Play and noticed someone mentioning they were having the same issue as me. They blamed the issue on Android devices that are being managed via Google Family Link (for parental controls). Are there currently any known compatibility issues between MS Defender for Android and Google Family Link? My children's tablets (where I cannot sign in) are managed by Family Link, whereas my phone (where I signed into Defender with no problem) is not. Is that possibly a bug that we can raise to the Microsoft engineers working on Defender? Thanks for all your help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-27T15:20:02+00:00

    Same thing. 2 new samsung android devices that I setup for my kids, and we use Google Family Link as well as Microsoft Family Safety.

    • I installed Defender (and manually had to approve the install of the app through family safety, because I have restrictions on app installation) on both of the devices.
    • When I go to "Sign in", I get the "Invalid license, please contact administrator" message on both devices.
    • Both children have a valid M365 license and are part of the Family in Microsoft Family Safety

    Keeping kids safe really shouldn't be this difficult. Part of protecting your kids is getting some kind of an antimalware software on their devices.

    Microsoft needs to walk through this step by step, there's clearly a bug here.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-23T17:58:03+00:00

    Interesting. Maybe there are other things that can cause this too, but several people here are reporting that they're unable to login to Defender for Android (with any account, child or otherwise) on an Android device managed by Google Family Link. I believe this is different than the login issue that was happening earlier in July that Sumit mentioned was resolved. Keep in mind we're not getting a notice that we need to purchase a M365 subscription, we're getting a small error message saying, "Invalid license, please contact administrator". See screenshot in the original post above. Definitely a device issue as I'm able to sign in on a non-Family Link device using the same account with no problem.

    Sumit, do you happen to know if this is even on Microsoft's radar right now? Are they aware of people seeing this issue on Family Link Android devices? I've opened tickets and reached out to the Android developer email address but haven't gotten anywhere. Thanks.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-07-08T04:52:38+00:00

    Still seeing the issue on Android too. I've reached out to the developer email on the Defender app but haven't gotten a reply. Also opened two tickets with Microsoft support which said they would escalate the issue but never heard back on either of those.

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