How do I keep my installed Office when 365 expires?

Question

Similar question here

but that doesn't address the fact that I have a valid key. 4 years ago I purchased Office University 2010 and it included a free upgrade to Office 365 when it became available with the option to go back to whatever the current non-cloud Office product is.

Now my sub has expired and any time I open, say, OneNote, I get a popup about needing to renew or enter a key. I tried the University key but its not valid.

How do I continue to use Office 2016? Or was that "offer" non-existent?

Anyone have any insight?

Edit: I'm not looking at continuing Office 365. I'm looking to use the downloaded versions of Office 2016 that are currently installed (via Office 365 subscription which has now expired). The offer I accepted included the ability to continue to use Office even if the subscription was cancelled or expired. There wasn't any indication about how to do this and I can't find any info abou this via MS help. I paid for a stand-alone copy of Office which included an optional upgrade to 365. I am under the impression that I would get to keep whatever version I had currently, not the original 2010 or '13 or whatever it was. As such, I don't believe I need to completely uninstall and install and old version. If this isn't correct, provide me with more than "enter key" or "install from your media" (there is no media, it was digital distribution). I know how this typically works, and this isn't a typical situation.

Answer 1

As you correctly say, your subscription to Office 365 (which is where your "Office 2016" came from) has expired:

Now my sub has expired and any time I open, say, OneNote, I get a popup about needing to renew or enter a key.

Office 365 is only a subscription-based product:

Office 365 is subscription-based. This means that, in the case of most of its subscription packages, it guarantees that you and your team will always have the latest desktop version of all the office software you've subscribed to. Those desktop versions will stop working if you don’t keep paying your subscription fees though.

(emphasis mine)

So that "free-upgrade" can't mean you now own a perpetual license. If you choose to stop paying for the subscription, you can no longer use Office 365, no matter how you got into the product.

Fortunately it sounds like you have a valid license for Office University 2010. If you wish to avoid continuing your Office 365 subscription you should install the product for which you're licensed:

1. Uninstall Office 2016 which was provided by your Office 365 subscription.
2. Re-install Office University 2010 using the corresponding key.

Answer 2

The "offer" probably includes the ability to save the cloud data to the local system once you have a local version installed. The 2010 key will only work to install Office 2010. (Probably only the Office University 2010 that you had, and not some other, Standard or Professional, version.) To install Office 2016 you will need to purchase a 2016 key. If you are still a student, you may be able to get a decent discount on that, but not likely to be free, although not impossible either. Anyway, to use the 2010 key, find the 2010 disc somewhere in your old collection and reinstall it. Then you can use the "offer" to migrate the cloud data to your computer. Once you have a 2016 key, if you choose to get one, you can upgrade your Office 2010 to Office 2016.

Update

I haven't dealt with MS Office since 2010 versions, and avoid subscription-based services for my data. Consequently, most of the above about Office 2016 is way off base. However, misunderstandings of the "free" offer aside, the solution for you is the same.

Since you still have the 25-character product key from Office 2010, you can reinstall that. BTW some sources suggest that doing a "repair" option rather than an install will work, and experimentation with that is up to you.

First you need the installation media for Office 2010. If you have the old disc gathering dust somewhere, find it. If you don't have, never had, the disc, then MS will let you download a copy. Go to their download page, enter the product key you own and follow their instructions.

Now that you have installation media, either insert the disc, or go to the downloaded files, and run the installer. (The disc will probably AutoStart, but if not, find the disc in My Computer and double click it.)

Depending on what the installer detects on your computer, you will have one or more of the following options: Install Office 2010, Re-install Office 2010, or Repair Office. Choose the one that's available, that best fits your plans. FWIW I'd go for a complete new, total, installation, to be sure that all programs are installed, and nothing is 'linked' to the expired version you upgraded to.

Finally, save you install media somewhere in case you need it again; virus issues, buy a new computer, etc. Enjoy the perpetually licensed version, subscription free.

Answer 3

It is my belief Office 365 subscriptions are giving you the ability to USE the software on up to 5 devices and it will stay activated as long as your subscription is up to date. If you want to "keep" the product you would need to actually buy it. Like the actual disk or key. This, I believe requires a third party vendor like Digital River, etc. You could then reduce your O365 bill by only using the email hosting features.

Again this is just my understanding of it.

The whole reason they came up with O365 was because people were trying to rock Office 2007 in 2016. MS didn't want to support it for one and for two, they want money quicker. If you run 7 to 10 year old Exchange and O2k7 you haven't given MS a dime in like 10 years. They want reoccurring revenue so they lease the software and host the services to get paid monthly...indefinitely.