Microsoft 365 features that help users manage their subscriptions, account settings, and billing information.
If Excel opens but will not let files be edited or saved after a renewal, the most likely cause is that Office is not recognizing the active subscription and is running in reduced functionality mode.
Try these steps in order:
- Sign out of Office in Excel or Word.
- Open Excel.
- Select the profile icon at the top right and sign out.
- Restart the PC.
- Use Restart, not shut down.
- Sign back in to Office.
- Open Excel again and sign in with the Microsoft account that has the renewed subscription.
- Check the subscription status.
- Go to the Microsoft account Services & subscriptions page and confirm the subscription is active and the expiry date is correct.
- Refresh Office from inside the app.
- In an Office app, go to File > Account.
- If available, use the option to update the license or confirm the signed-in account is the correct one.
- Check whether Office shows an activation problem.
- If the app shows Unlicensed Product or an activation error, Office will allow opening and printing files but not editing or creating new ones.
- If files are opening read-only, also check OneDrive storage.
- If the file is stored in OneDrive and storage is full, changes cannot be saved until usage is below the storage limit.
- If the issue continues, try the standard repair steps.
- Restart the computer.
- Install Office updates.
- Perform an Online Repair of Office.
If the renewal was made under a different Microsoft account than the one currently signed in to Office, the apps may still behave as unlicensed until the correct account is used.
References:
- Why did my file open read-only? | Microsoft Support
- A subscription notice appears when I open a Microsoft 365 application | Microsoft Support
- Renewed subscription but apps not working - Microsoft Q&A
- When opening Word or Excel, getting a 'subscription canceled' message but I have renewed my Office subscription - Microsoft Q&A
- All of my Excel files have recently become read only and can't save changes - Microsoft Q&A