Users with Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions are facing a disruption in use of services caused by a licensing glitch, Microsoft confirmed on Thursday.
Several users are unable to use their suite of productivity tools which they rely on everyday, however, the company addressed the issue and has started looking into the root cause of the problem. The company confirmed the potential problem in a post on X and said that further details can be found on their service health dashboard.
The problem only affects those who have purchased the Microsoft 365 Family subscription and denies access to the suite of tools including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneDrive.
As the scope of affected users is only limited to the family subscription tier, other Microsoft 365 plans have not been impacted by the problem. Individuals and families depending on the tools for education, work and personal organisation, faced a major inconvenience due to the downtime of the service for affected users.
Microsoft said that, “potential licensing issues,” could be the cause of the glitch. The company has yet to provide a detailed explanation for what may have triggered the glitch but reassured users that they are actively working to fix the problem. The next update is expected by 2:00 pm UTC on the same day.
Several issues were reported by impacted users ranging from not being able to log in to their accounts to receiving error messages when attempting to access Microsoft 365 applications. The company faced a wave of frustration from users on social media and forums trying to express their concerns and find a solution to the problem.
Microsoft advised users to check Microsoft 365 Service Health Dashboard for real-time updates. While the company has not specified how much time the issue will persist for, the next update provided may grant more clarity on the situation.
Users demanded a swift resolution and expressed their agitation towards the expected time of update on social media. Microsoft 365, formerly known as Microsoft Office, is the product family of software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft which includes online services as well.
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