@ fanfare wrote: "Chose free. Menu gone"That's because there are no ancillary services with the Free Edition.
Free Edition users get access to their prior returns all the time if they are in the right account, and can even transfer data from 2020 into a 2021 return. Up until 2018, Free Edition users who did not save a copy of their return prior to November of each year did have to pay in advance for a current-year paid product in order to unlock access to prior returns, but that has not been the case in recent years.
As you likely know, we forum volunteers see a LOT of people asking "how" to get a prior return--it's one of the most common questions in the forum each day. But we seldom see a user having this much trouble to access a prior return. In part it's due to the clumsiness of using a message board like this to try to resolve an issue that would be easier to effect in realtime, especially if one could follow along from screen to screen to see exactly what all is being experienced.
I don't know if user used 2020 Online TurboTax last year or not. I only know he's trying to get some "past returns", but I don't know the tax years. If he did prepare a 2020 Online return in that same account last year, it should recognize that and likely mention something in that regard. However, some users end up with multiple accounts (User IDs) without realizing it. So I don't know if this is his same account as past years or not.
@ a-dog
In another thread, you mentioned (and posted an image) that you had a screen that said "Welcome, we're glad you're here" and had a blue "Let's go" button. Did you click that "Let's go" button to get past some preliminary screens? You didn't say if you actually tried to proceed with that button. If not, can you get back to that "Let's Go" button and see if you are presented some preliminary screens that will make the left-menu column change?
If by proceeding as above, you are finally able to get to either the Documents menu (on the left) or the section "Your Tax Returns & Documents" (on the Tax Home page), if there is no evidence of the tax year return that you want in either of those sections, you could have multiple accounts, and we can tell you how to troubleshoot to look for other User IDs.
