Services & subscriptions missing Office 2019 keys

Meeee 141 Reputation points
2021-09-29T12:13:18.307+00:00

We have several account.microsoft.com office accounts, which we use to register our OEM copies of Office 2019 when we buy them (25 copies per account).

We then use the office product key / date to track each copy of office so we know the key for each machine just in case we have to reinstall office.

Microsoft seem to have stopped publishing the office keys on the Services & subscriptions list so now all we have if a list saying office 2019 & the date it was installed. If we now register more than 1 copy of office in a day we have no idea which copy it would be in the list.

If we then have to reinstall office in the future, we do not now know which office installer to use in the list if more than one copy of office was activated that day. We used to note the serial number / install date for each copy so when we activated it we new which copy it was.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, if so, is there a way around it.

Office Management
Office Management
Office: A suite of Microsoft productivity software that supports common business tasks, including word processing, email, presentations, and data management and analysis.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Ken Highman 26 Reputation points
    2021-10-04T14:32:45.817+00:00

    Yes, I too have this problem. We now have no way of tracking keys from the office web site. Its only done via activation date. Well that doesn't help at all if you have multiple copies of Office 2019 from the same date and you have multiple accounts because MS only allows 25 copies of office per account EXACTLY like the previous poster stated. I also request that the keys be shown again when clicking the arrow. We purchase these keys they should be available to us - PERIOD.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. StephenD 21 Reputation points
    2021-10-13T14:06:44.723+00:00

    Same problem here. It now makes it impossible to keep track of which PC is activated with each office key, and any new licences cannot be activated at all (except by signing in with the 'group' account). Oddly the Office 2013 and 2016 keys are still shown, its just the Office 2019 ones which are hidden.
    Stop messing things around Microsoft. :-(

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. James 21 Reputation points
    2021-10-20T04:18:10.713+00:00

    We also have this problem. We are managing over 50 OEM products across our company network on approximately 40 machines using several accounts (would be much easier if we could just use one!). This was a quick and convenient solution for us, in particular because our machines are not connected to the internet. We keep a register of all product keys and associated devices, so this is not a problem for managing our current product keys as we just download the offline installer. But it does make it more difficult to identify new product keys when we activate additional OEM products.

    Microsoft, do you understand that there are some organisations that just simply cannot use volume licensing and your subscription based products that require an internet connection?

    You are slowly driving us away from your products, we are already looking for alternatives to Office because it is becoming more and more difficult to manage Microsoft software. Fair enough, we are a very small fish, but I know there are many more like us that are equally frustrated at how difficult you make it to run your software legitimately.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Omni BR 16 Reputation points
    2021-10-15T14:02:38.497+00:00

    Same problem here! Any news?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Douglas 16 Reputation points
    2021-10-29T18:08:39.787+00:00

    My clients will not create 1 Microsoft account per redemption key and manually reinstall Office on pre-installed imaged desktops to activate.

    When we redeem a retail office license, we MUST have access to the installation key.

    The only ridiculous alternative solution, for now, is to call the activation phone line and reactivate the same license key over and over again.
    Since we have proof of purchase from a legitimate reseller, lying to the automated system about the number of devices should not be actionable.

    Another frustrating situation is my legitimate Office 2019 reseller ($215 per license) is now receiving installation keys from Microsoft.

    I explained to them that I can only accept redemption keys, which get assigned to a Microsoft account and is basically a "proof of purchase" with a date.

    In case of a BSA audit, having a Microsoft office account with all purchases or redeemed office licenses is very helpful.

    I also don't know why Microsoft allows Google to sell ads to illegal Microsoft Office vendors.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=office+2019&tbm=shop

    It is clear that Microsoft does not want small businesses to purchase retail licenses

    If Microsoft cared about small businesses, they would improve their portal (https://account.microsoft.com/services) and allow labels to identify which machine the license is assigned to.

    Exporting to CSV for internal compliance auditing would also be really helpful.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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