Clearing old tenant in Office

Wil Okraku 60 Reputation points
2026-09-23T16:55:49.92+00:00

How do I clear an old tenant that I no longer use in Office so I can sign in with my current credentials?

Thanks

Wil

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For business | Windows
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AI answer

2026-09-23T16:56:03.76+00:00

On Windows, clear the old tenant sign-in state in this order:

  1. Disconnect the old work account from Windows
    • Open Settings > Accounts > Access work or school.
    • If the old organization account is listed, select it and choose Disconnect.
  2. Remove cached Office credentials
    • Open Control Panel > User Accounts > Credential Manager.
    • Under Windows Credentials, remove entries related to the old Office or Outlook sign-in.
  3. Clear OneDrive and Office identity cache
    • Sign out of OneDrive for Business.
    • Delete these folders:
      • %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneAuth
      • %localappdata%\Microsoft\IdentityCache
  4. If Office still shows the old tenant, clear the Office identity registry key
    • Warning: Registry changes can cause serious problems if done incorrectly. Back up the registry first.
    • Open Registry Editor.
    • Go to:
      • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity
    • Delete the Identity key.
  5. Restart the PC
  6. Sign back in with the current Microsoft 365 account
    • Open an Office app or OneDrive and sign in with the current credentials.

If the device is managed and Office sign-in still keeps the old account, additional cached Office credentials may need to be cleared from managed-device WAM storage by using the Microsoft script described in the activation reset guidance.

References:

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Answer accepted by question author
Michelle Nguyen 1,835 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-09-23T18:55:17.9966667+00:00

Hi @Wil Okraku

Since it tells you whether the steps below are even the right path: try signing in with your current account at outlook.office.com in a browser. If that also fails, the issue is account/password/MFA-related, not local caching. If web sign-in works fine, the problem is genuinely local, stale cached identity data on this PC which is what the steps below address.

1.Sign out of all accounts in Office itself: Open any Office app (Word, Excel, Outlook) > File > Account > Sign out of every listed account, including the old tenant if it's shown there. Then close all Office apps completely.

2.Remove the old account from Windows itself, in both places: Settings > Accounts > Access work or school. If the old organization's account appears here, select it > Disconnect. Separately, also check Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts (a different section), organizational accounts sometimes linger there too, even after being removed from Access work or school.

3.Clear Credential Manager thoroughly all three sectionsSearch "Credential Manager" > Windows Credentials tab. Remove anything referencing MicrosoftOffice, ADAL, OneAuth, Office16, AzureAD, or the old organization's name or domain. Also check the Generic Credentials section, and the Web Credentials tab. Many entries are generic and won't obviously show the old tenant's name, if unsure whether an entry is Office/Microsoft 365-related, it's safer to remove it than leave it.

4.Clear Office's own local identity cache folder: Press Windows+R, go to %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Identity (adjust the version number if you're on a different Office build) and delete everything in that folder. There's often a similarly-named OneAuth folder in the same Microsoft directory worth clearing too, this is where Office caches sign-in/identity tokens separately from Windows' own account system.

5.Restart, then sign in with current credentials: After all the above, restart fully before testing, some of these caches only clear on reboot, not just on sign-out. Then open Office and sign in fresh with your current credentials.

If possible, could you describe the error you're running into in a bit more detail? Please keep me updated.

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