Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | MacOS
A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data.
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I need to speak to someone
I can no longer edit word, powerpoint and excel documents
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(6.4, 28.000000000000004%, 10%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ECS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Chris Sakellariou
0
Reputation points
When I open any excel file, I get the following at the top of the document:
I can no longer edit or save my files. How can I fix this?
I bought the 2021 Student version of Office when I purchased this computer (I am a teacher). I was told this does not expire. Nevertheless I am locked out.
Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | MacOS
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(259.20000000000005, 39%, 35%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ESB%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Scott Breckenridge 0 Reputation points2026-09-25T13:33:56.72+00:00 account seems to not be assosiated
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2 answers
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Francisco Montilla 30,725 Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-11-14T00:32:11.9+00:00 Hi Chris,
You are seeing that banner because the apps think they are Microsoft 365 subscription apps, not your one time Office Home and Student 2021 license, so they opened in read only mode.
The fix is to switch Office to your 2021 license.
Open Word or Excel, go to Account or Office Account. If you see any account signed in, choose Sign out from all Office apps and close the app. Open it again and select Activate Office or Change license. Choose Use a different account and sign in with the same personal Microsoft account that you used to redeem Home and Student 2021 when you bought the PC. Do not use a work or school account. After sign in, the product name on the Account page must show
*Office Home and Student 2021*. Restart the Office apps and you will be able to edit and save again.If you are not sure which account owns the license, open a browser and sign in to the Microsoft account you think you used, then check Services and subscriptions for Office Home and Student 2021. If it is there, install from that page to overwrite the Microsoft 365 trial and the apps will pick up the correct license on first launch.
Tell me exactly what you see on File > Account after you try this, including the product name shown there. I will take the next step if anything looks off.