lost access to free version of word for students

It sounds like you are experiencing an issue with your Microsoft 365 subscription, which is preventing you from editing documents in Word. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot this issue:

1. Check Your Subscription: Make sure that your Microsoft 365 subscription is still active. You can verify this by signing in to your Microsoft account and checking your subscription status.
2. Sign Out and Sign Back In: Sometimes, simply signing out of your Office app and signing back in can resolve activation issues. To do this:
   • Open Word, select your name or profile picture at the top, and choose Sign out.
   • Then, sign back in with your school account.
3. Check with Your University: Since you mentioned you are a student, your university might provide access to Microsoft 365. Contact your university's IT support to ensure that your account is still eligible for the free version of Word.
4. Reinstall Office: If the above steps do not work, consider uninstalling and reinstalling Office for Mac. This can help reset any issues related to the installation.
5. License Assignment: If you are using a Work or School account, ensure that the necessary licenses are assigned to your account. You may need to contact your Microsoft 365 administrator for assistance with this.

If you follow these steps and still encounter issues, you may want to check the service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center to see if there are any ongoing issues affecting your access.

References:

• Microsoft 365 Apps activation error: “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac.”
• Account or subscription verification errors activating Microsoft 365 Apps

Hi @muhsina sobratty

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on the information you described, I understand that you are a student using a Mac, and your Word application has suddenly switched to "View Only" mode, stating that you have no subscription. This is preventing you from editing your university notes.

In addition to the steps above, you can also refer to the following troubleshooting steps:

1. Check Word on the Web

Please try logging into Word on the Web using your education account.

• Check if you can access and edit your documents there.
• If you can edit online, your account is active, and the issue is specific to the desktop license or app.

2. Verify Your Assigned License

Go to your My Account page to see exactly which license your school's IT admin has assigned to you.

• Office 365 A1: If you have this license, it only allows you to use Office on the Web. You cannot use the desktop applications (Mac) for editing; they will be strictly read-only.
• Office 365 A3 or A5: If you have one of these, you are entitled to use the desktop applications.

Note: If you were able to use the desktop app normally before but are now seeing this error, it is possible that your school changed your license (e.g., from A3 down to A1) or the license has expired. In this case, please contact your school's IT administrator to verify your license status.

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Check with the university. Maybe they are no longer providing their students with anything beyond the free, online versions of the Office apps.

If you should have access to full versions, university IT support should also be able to troubleshoot your account.