You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Happy new year to y'all.
My laptop's screen cooked itself just before Xmas so I bought a replacement from John Lewis which comes with a free one year subscription to 365 Personal. All good.
However, I already have a 365 Personal subscription which lapsed in May 2022.
I have logged in to Microsoft on the new device and it recognises both my old and new laptops. However, when I try to use Office apps on my new device, it says I need to activate my new subscription - which I don't want to do until my current one lapses.
The Ts and Cs say that the 365 Personal that came with my new laptop only has to be registered within 6 months of the purchase date. This made the offer attractive.
I've been back to John Lewis this morning who say that they haven't encountered this problem before (hard to be believe in my view),
Does anyone know what my best next step is so I get full value from both my current subscription and the new one?
TBH, I had been thinking of simply switching to Google Docs but the offer of a year's free 365 Personal is one I'd like to take up.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I would try creating a backup image of the system first, then uninstalling all the Microsoft apps, then logging into your current Office 365 account and seeing if you can reinstall Office from scratch.
If that doesn't work, you could try doing a full system refresh and starting from scratch (i.e. without Office installed). If it goes wrong, you should be able to roll back to where you are now with your system image backup.
.
Have you signed out of the old device? You can only have M365 personal on a single device.
You should be able to sign out of the old device through the browser as described on the link, then when you sign into the new one the M365 should activate for the new device.
Trawling the Bot-driven support on the MSFT site, there is a hint that a promotional code when applied to an existing account simply creates a positive balance which is then wiped off at the next renewal.
I've no idea how scheme knows when six months has elapsed since purchase. Maybe they measure the time from the point where the device is activated??
Hi beej, I just removed my old device from my account and restarted the new device. Unfortunately, I get the same message about needing to activate the software that has been installed on the new device.....
You can only have M365 personal on a single device
Are you sure about that? I thought you could have it on up to 5 machines per person. I've got mine on 3 plus my phone at the moment
I would try creating a backup image of the system first, then uninstalling all the Microsoft apps, then logging into your current Office 365 account and seeing if you can reinstall Office from scratch.
This might work, but looks painful and when your existing subscription expires you then need to recover your machine from backup and then activate the code
I think most likely you can just activate using the same email address as you use for your existing subscription and it will extend it
What happens if I add another Microsoft 365 for home subscription to my account?
It also looks a bit like this 'renewing in a store' which just extends the time you have available
but, I can't guarantee it as I have never tried this.
Are you sure about that? I thought you could have it on up to 5 machines per person. I’ve got mine on 3 plus my phone at the moment
I sit corrected! I wonder why advice is there to remove devices and add new ones? Must be for when you've hit the 5 device limit.
LB, good input thanks. An automatic extension would be the fairest outcome.
I reckon you need to log into M365 via the browser on the new device and install Office from there over the top of the existing. I suspect you might end up with 2 different instances so you can then uninstall the bundled one and use your new “licenced” one.
My MS 365 subscription was about to auto renew at £80.
I've just been to Amazon and bought 15months for £66 then went to the MS 365 account page and added the new product key and it's added 15 months on from February. I haven't lost the overlapping period.
Hi, a good outcome here! I went through the quick process of accepting the terms and installing the Office that came with my new device and, very pleasingly, the credit of a year's free subscription now shows on my Microsoft account (the renewal date has been pushed back 12 months). Thanks to all who commented, much appreciated.
that's great, thanks for the update
Always worth looking for Amazon deals for Office 365 subs as as Phil mentions above they can be used to extend your licence rather than start a new one. I picked up 15 months + McAfee (which i won't use) for under 50 quid in the Boxing day sale thing last week. You can share the 6 licences too if you don't need them all, so my Dad uses one of them for his account.
Jeff