I used the switch plans utility in the Office 365 web control panel. The switch of the licenses was seamless. You can find information here on how to use the switch plans utility.

I thought I was all set! I was wrong. A couple days later our customer complained to me that they were getting pop-ups in their Office applications saying the product was unlicensed.

I was suspicious it was because we had switched plans. Microsoft Access is not included in the Business Premium package. I thought maybe the parts of Microsoft Office that our customer wasn’t paying for would just become disabled and the rest of the suite would work properly.

I tried signing into their office account and switching licenses for the Office suite that was installed but it wouldn’t recognize the new licenses.

This customer also has their Office 365 accounts linked to their domain user accounts on their Windows Server Essentials. I thought maybe I could reassign the licenses there. That didn’t work either.

I decided to call Microsoft support about this issue. I talked to a representative at Microsoft. She had me run through the Desktop Setup for Office. Frankly, I’m not sure why I even tried it but that didn’t solve the problem. She told me I had to re-install the Office desktop applications.

I also found an article or two that confirmed my theory, that I needed to re-install the Office applications on each desktop.

I was forced to go around to every computer and uninstall the old Office suite from the Midsize Business plan. I then had to log into their Office account and download the new Office suite.

Let me know in the comments below if you ran into similar issues or found a work-around. I hope this prevents someone from inadvertently switching Office 365 subscriptions without knowing you will need to reinstall Office.

Personally, I wish there was a way that the part of the Office suite you aren’t paying for would just become disabled and the applications you are paying for would continue to work. I will keep you posted if I find additional information.

This was posted by techspeeder.