Microsoft account lost

Question

Microsoft account lost

David Parkinson 0

Hi All, I have a customer who purchased a new PC in May 2018 along with a copy of Office Home & Student 2016. I set the machine up, created a Microsoft account and installed Office. Since then all has been well. That is, until recently when Office applications started asking him to sign in or close the application. I entered his Microsoft account only to be informed that the account didn't exist. So I set up his account again. He had only ever had one email address. I then tried to re-activate the Office (he still has the original card with the product key). When I tried to activate Office it said that this copy of Office had already been activated on 18th May 2018 with a different account. I re-iterate, he's only ever had one email address and therefore one Microsoft account. I've managed a work around which means that each time he open an Office application he enters the product key and it works but this is an unsatisfactory situation. It's as if Microsoft "lost" his account. Can anybody help me? Best regards, David

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Answer 1

For Office Home & Student 2016, the license is normally tied to the Microsoft account that was used to redeem or activate it. Re-creating a Microsoft account with the same email address does not restore the original Office license association if the original account is no longer available.

The most useful checks are:

In an Office app, open File > Account and check Product Information > Belongs to. That shows the account currently associated with the installed Office copy.
Sign in to Services & subscriptions with every possible personal Microsoft account the customer may have used. If the Office product is not listed there, that account is not the one associated with the license.
If Office shows activation errors, make sure there is only one Office installation present. In Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, search for office and uninstall any duplicate or unused Office versions, then restart the PC.
If the customer cannot access the original Microsoft account, use the Microsoft account recovery options. Microsoft also provides a sign-in helper tool for cases where the account email or password is no longer working.

Given the specific symptom — Office reports that the product key was already activated on 18 May 2018 with a different account, while the current account does not show the license — the practical next step is to contact Microsoft Support and provide proof of purchase and the original product key. That is also the documented path when someone else installed Office and the wrong account became associated with the product.

If support confirms the original account cannot be recovered, the context does not provide a self-service way to transfer that Office license to a newly created Microsoft account.