Recognising an MS 365 subscriptions

Steve Tayler 45 Reputation points
2026-08-07T14:41:29.6633333+00:00

My wife and I have bought a new laptop. My MS account is the admin for it, and is the subscriber to MS 365 Family. The invitation e-mails to use MS 365 were sent from this account to our regular e-mail addresses. My wife has a local account on the laptop, and we want to copy over .pst files from our old desktop. She has just set up a MS account (her Gmail id), but when we try to use that to authorise the use of data files in New Outlook, we have to authorise MS and Gmail to share absolutely everything, and still cannot access data files - she is invited to go through the whole process again.

As an alternative, I have invited her Gmail id (the MS account) to the MS 365 family subscription. This set up a new local account on the laptop. When she uses that account, she can see her Gmail and add her Virgin Media email address so she can see those mails too. But we still cannot access other data files - it does not seem to recognise that her Gmail account is registered on the MS 365 subscription!

What are we doing wrong please?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows
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AI answer

2026-08-07T14:41:53.89+00:00

The Microsoft 365 Family sharing part is likely set up correctly. A shared Microsoft 365 Family subscription gives the invited person access to subscription benefits after they accept the invitation with their own Microsoft account. The invited person must sign in with the same Microsoft account that accepted the family invitation.

What to check:

  1. Confirm the subscription share was accepted with her Gmail-based Microsoft account.
    • Microsoft 365 Family can be shared with up to five other people.
    • She must use the exact Microsoft account that accepted the invitation.
  2. On her Windows profile, sign out of Office apps and sign back in with that same Microsoft account.
    • In Word, go to File > Account.
    • Sign out of every account listed.
    • Close all Office apps.
    • Reopen Word and sign in with her Gmail-based Microsoft account.
    • In File > Account, check whether Office shows as activated, or whether Activate Office or Switch Account appears.
  3. If the share still is not recognized, remove and re-add her to the Microsoft 365 Family subscription.
    • Remove her from the family group.
    • Send a new invitation to the same Microsoft account.
    • After she accepts, wait a few minutes, then sign in to Office again with that account.
  4. Keep the account roles separate.
    • The subscription owner account is tied to the purchase.
    • Her shared benefits are tied to her own Microsoft account after she accepts the invitation.
    • It is expected that she will not see the purchase under her own account.

About the Outlook behavior:

  • A Microsoft account can use an existing third-party email address such as Gmail as its username.
  • In Outlook, subscriptions purchased with a Microsoft account that uses a third-party email address may need a different connection path.
  • In new Outlook for Windows, go to Settings > Accounts > Your accounts and use Add subscription, then sign in with her Microsoft account.

Important limitation from the available information:

  • The provided material supports how Microsoft 365 Family sharing and account recognition work.
  • It does not provide supported steps for opening or importing legacy .pst data files in new Outlook for Windows.
  • The issue described may therefore be partly a subscription sign-in issue and partly a data-file support issue in new Outlook.

If the subscription is recognized in Word under her Microsoft account but the .pst files still cannot be used in new Outlook, that points to the Outlook data-file side rather than the Microsoft 365 Family sharing setup.

AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  1. Steve Tayler 45 Reputation points
    2026-08-08T10:06:57.5933333+00:00

    That was all useful info, which is not conveniently available when you just get told you need a subscription. The problem appears to have been that the original invite did not generate an email. When I 'resent' it, having logged into my MS account on the MS site to do it rather than just logged into the laptop as the subscription owner, it worked.

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