Why do I have to subscribe to Office 365 to fully use Office on my phone?

[nadroj915]

I'm pretty sure I was able to use a fully functional version of office in WP 8.1 on my Lumia 925. Now that I've upgraded to the Lumia 950 XL with WP 10, it seems I have "read only" functionality to Office documents. It then asks me to sign up for Office 365 to have a full working version.

I'm a little disappointed, as having native apps, like office already on the phone - ready to use - was a big selling point for windows phone in the past.

 

[Daniel B1]

I just came here to look for the same topic, having just discovered that I can't create a new Word document on my phone (Lumia 640 with latest W10M Insider Preview). On my other phone, HTC 8X with WP8.1, it worked fine -- and I remember reading here a few months ago the same issue was reported by Insiders, and that it was a glitch.

Through trial and error, I just resolved the issue:

1. Open Word.
2. In the top right corner, you should see your name. Click it.
3. You will now see an Account screen that list your Microsoft Account and an option to "Add account" (below it). In order to restore the ability to create new Word files on your phone you will need to sign out of your Microsoft Account (in Word). To do this, tap on the email address shown that is associated with your account -- it will expand to reveal a "Sign out" option.
4. Click Sign Out,and when prompted to "Remove this account?", click "Remove". Don't worry, you'll re-add in a moment.
5. You should now see a screen with black background that says "Choose an account". Click "Microsoft account" or "Work or school account" as appropriate. When prompted, Sign in. After a few moments, you will see the Account page and and that the account has been re-added.
6. Click "Close".
7. To test that it worked, Click "+ New". Then choose "Blank document". After a moment, you should now be editing a new blank document!

 

[nadroj915]

Great - that seems to have worked for Word, now what about PowerPoint? When I click in the Blank Presentation box, I get a "Sign in to continue," which I did - okay it also seems to work. But, why would I need to sign in TWICE? Shouldn't ONE sign-in be enough to access ALL of Office?

 

[Old_Mil]

I hope Microsoft has a change of heart on this. Instead of looking at this as a revenue stream from existing customers they should make it available for free on their phones and look at it as a feature that will enable them to take marketshare

 

[ajayden]

Great - that seems to have worked for Word, now what about PowerPoint? When I click in the Blank Presentation box, I get a "Sign in to continue," which I did - okay it also seems to work. But, why would I need to sign in TWICE? Shouldn't ONE sign-in be enough to access ALL of Office?

Every service (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) are separate apps. Therefore you need to sign into each one separately. However my suggestion would be for an office hub for Windows phone and then make it a single sign in.

Reply to the OP : You don't need a subscription to open/create documents, spreadsheets or presentation using office on windows phones. You can just sign into your free Microsoft account and start using the features. I am doing it on my L1520 and L1020.