M365 Family Subscription - multiple users same device

Hi Michael,

Please allow us since you have the Microsoft365 family subscription, you can kindly go to the https://support.microsoft.com/contactus and get assistance for the personal or family support.

In addition, please see the FAQ at the https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-family/cfq7ttc0k5dm?activetab=pivot:faqtab

If you have futher questions regarding the Microsoft family,  you can kindly post your questions to the family (personal) category where we have engineers that have more experience on this field to assist you better.

Kind Regards,

George

27Mar2021sa

#1

Installed M365 on one laptop under Admin, but have other users in the same device with separate logins.  When trying to open WORD while logged in as a non-admin user, it wants to reinstall OFFICE all over again but

#2

the non-admin users do not have their own MS community account.

Can't other users on the same device use WORD and other 365 desktop apps that are installed on the hard drive in the Admin account?

#3

Also, the family subscription allows 6 different users, each to install 365 on 5 other devices, right? 

#4

If yes, then does each user who utilizes the same laptop have to install 365 when they login under their own login/profile? 

#5

Wouldn't that mean that there could potentially be 6 independent Installs of 365 on the single laptop? 

#6

must each of the 6 people using a seat in the family plan have their own MS Community account, in order to use one of the sub-licenses on the 6 seat subscription? 

#7

If yes, then how do the other 5 users desiring to use one of the 5 remaining sub-licenses, log-in and access the family plan that was purchased under the principal MS community account?

Hey Mike:

Lots of questions about 365 licensing.

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Starting with a simple summary.  Someone (you) who has rented/subscribed to 365 Family can "share" it with up to 5 other people. Each of those 6 (1+5) people has totally independent licenses to use 365 on up to 5 different computers each (so yes, in theory, the 6 subscribers on 365 Family could have Office 365 installed on up to 30 different computers!)

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Off the top, 365 (and Office 2016/2019) licensing is different than "traditional" licenses.  Most software licenses like Office 2010 (and earlier) or Windows 8 (and earlier) were licensed to the specific HARDWARE / computer / "seat".  Office 365 is licensed to a specific User / email account. The Office 365 license grants that user to "install" / use 365 on up to 5 different computers at the same time.

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#6

Yes, each person MUST have their own email account to register their 365 subscription or "Share" of 365 Family.

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#7

The original buyer of the Office 365 Subscription may "share" it with up to 5 other people in their nominal "family".

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/share-your-office-365-home-subscription-b389b9ce-3ae3-4a82-9017-39d79972fcba

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-family/cfq7ttc0k5dm

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<snip>

If you've purchased Office 365 Home, you can share your subscription benefits with up to five other people in your household.

</snip>

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<snip>

Share your subscription with up to 5 other people in your family.

</snip>

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This page gives a carpy description of how to Share 365 and what the share receiver gets. But there is no explicit definition of limits on who you can share with, other than saying “household” on one page and “family” on another.

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What are MS's definitions of a "household" and “family”?

Can I share with a child/parent/sibling/cousin/in-law who is not living at that same address?

Do you have to be biologically related to share?

Do you have to be related "legally", i.e. marriage, to share?

Does a same sex partner, (AKA "Friend") qualify for a share?

If I am sharing a "house" with non-family members (ie students sharing a house, or “Friends” the TV series), can we “share” a subscription?

If I define a random person to be part of my “Microsoft Family”, can I share 365 with them?

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365 Family Share.jpg

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Help for the people you've shared your subscription with

When you share your subscription with someone, they get an email from Microsoft telling them that you've shared your Microsoft 365 Family subscription with them. All they need to do is click the Accept button in the email and go to their Microsoft account, Overview page where they can install Office, access their OneDrive storage, and more.

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http://new.office-watch.com/2016/who-has-your-office-365-home-licenses/

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/share-your-office-365-home-subscription-b389b9ce-3ae3-4a82-9017-39d79972fcba

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-family/cfq7ttc0k5dm 

When you share your Office 365 Family subscription, each person gets:

· Any available Office installs for PC, Mac, tablets, and smartphones.

· A personal My Office Account page where they can install Office, and view and manage their own installs. To learn more, see Sign in to My Account to install and manage Office.

· Their own free 1 TB OneDrive storage. To learn more, see “About OneDrive” in Office 365 frequently asked questions.

· 60 Skype minutes of calling per month to mobile phones in eight countries and to landlines in 60+ countries (only in markets where Skype is available). To learn more, see “About Skype minutes” in Office 365 frequently asked questions.

· Each person has totally separate email

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Note: People you share your Office 365 Family subscription with don’t have access to your personal OneDrive storage unless you specifically share files or folders with them.

Note: more than one person has reported that when they shared 365 Family with someone who has both an Outlook.com email AND and XBOX account, MS automagically gave them a 365 Family share to BOTH accounts, using up 2 shares. So they ran out of "shares" sooner than they expected. You can cancel the share offer to the XBOX id.

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https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12413/microsoft-account-what-is-family-group

NOTE: you do NOT have to use “Family Group” to be able to share 365 Family. It is intended to give parents extra control over their minor children’s internet use.

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This article includes a section on "managing" the family group, including this specific page to remove members from the Family Group:

Remove members from your family group: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027707

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https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/set-screen-time-limits-on-your-kids-devices-a593d725-fc4c-044c-284d-32eab0305ffd 

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#1 / #2

Yes, in the past, if software, like Office, was installed by the administrator ID, other users on the computer could also use it. This applied to Office 2016/2019 and 365.  But MS starting (dis)improving the way Office 365 licenses are managed. Starting in August last year if the computer was connected to the internet, the Office 365 user had to be signed in to use it.  It started with a few victims, then spread like Covid so now pretty much all 365 users have to sign in to use it.

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#3

Yes, each user can install on up to 5 computers: Windows desktop, laptop, tablet, Android tablet, smartphone, Mac desktop, laptop, tablet etc.

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#4

Yes, each "share" on the 365 subscription is independent. That is the reason they have to use a separate email account.  That way their email in outlook is private. They have to access their separate 1TB OneDrive allocation and 60minutes of Skype time using their email accounts to keep that stuff private.

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#5

I haven't tested, but as I understand it when a user clicks on the "install" button for 365, the install process checks the computer. If it finds a current installation of 365, it does not download new copy of the software. The install process then simply records the "computer name" to associated it with this user. 

Part of subscription management in the MyAccount site identifies the various MS licenses associated with the computer and the computer (names) the software is installed on. 

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https://support.office.com/en-us/article/sign-in-to-manage-your-office-product-959ac957-8d37-4ae4-b1b6-d6e4874e013f

For all Office 365 subscriptions and since Office 2013 you need an account associated with Office to manage your subscription and to install or reinstall Office. Sign in to manage Office

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/user-account-control-windows-10/

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http://ligman.me/29i2Mvf