0
I am trying to activate Microsoft Office 2013 on a laptop. It was previously installed by another IT worker, and they used a Microsoft Account to activate the license. They are no longer with the company and I have no way of contacting them to know what account they might have used when activating this product. Is there anyway to activate this product without using that email or being able to change the email that can be used as associated with this product? Or is this license just bad and I'm out of luck?
I've tried selecting "enter product key instead" and it brings me this popup that says "activate online" where I go and it again asks me to sign in with the Microsoft account that was used to previously activate this product.
Edit: Since some of you might not know. When activating Office 2013, you must input a product key, but you may also link it to your Microsoft account, so if you ever need to install it again, you don't need to input the product key again, you just need to sign in with your microsoft account and it will automatically activate since the product key is associated with your account. My problem is, I don't have that account that's associated with it, and it won't let me activate Office without it. I was wondering if anyone knew a way to recover what account was used to activate it, or if I could workaround that little bit.
2nd Edit: I do have the product key, but it requires me to sign into the microsoft account that is associated with that key. The previous IT person did not record what microsoft account they used when installing this product.
New-To-IT
Posted 2015-10-14T20:00:18.797
Reputation: 352
@Tyson - You are 100% mistaken. Office 2013 can be a retail product only Office 365 is a subscription based product. – Ramhound – 2015-10-15T12:17:51.337
Any particular reason for the down vote and close vote? – New-To-IT – 2015-10-15T12:59:12.167
Office 2013 isn't subscription, so its not clear, how it was activated with a Microsoft Account. The close votes indicate as of now the question is way to broad. I routinely vote on questions, when they are improved, i routinly reverse those votes. – Ramhound – 2015-10-15T13:08:24.047
That make more sense? @Ramhound – New-To-IT – 2015-10-15T13:15:15.050
It helps. If you don't have the product key nor know what Microsoft Account the license is connected to then there isn't anything you can do. It isn't clear what we can help with. If you don't have the information then your only solution is purchase another license and document the information for the future. – Ramhound – 2015-10-15T13:16:51.810
If it was installed by an IT worker then they [should have] documented that. Check the IT folders (IT does keep a list of licenses for legal purposed!) for the relevant information. – Hennes – 2015-10-15T13:16:57.033
I edited it again, I do have the product key, I just don't have the microsoft account that it was tied to. All I'm asking is if anyone has had this issue and knows if there's a workaround. – New-To-IT – 2015-10-15T13:24:19.070
I wish i had a better answer for you, but you may have to contact microsoft about it. I haven't heard of any way to activate it once it's not tied to an account. I've worried about that myself, since we just started upgrading some computers to 2013. – dakre18 – 2015-10-15T13:39:22.407
Thanks @dakre18, I was actually able to contact Microsoft and they gave me the email address that was associated with the activation key. I guess from now on, hopefully I can clean things up and keep things written down. – New-To-IT – 2015-10-15T14:09:15.797
Yeah, good luck with that. We've had the same problem, and I've seen it multiple times. It's rough cleaning up after the last person. :) – dakre18 – 2015-10-15T14:15:07.653