You should not have to pay again. You just need to find the account it's registered to when you initially installed it. Many people end up with multiple accounts without realizing it.
It's confusing to know what all you did online and what all you did in the desktop software. How did Online TurboTax come into play? Did you use Online TurboTax to test a scenario? In any case, if you started a 2024 return online in the same account you used for an online 2023 return, then the 2023 data would automatically transfer into the 2024 online return. So perhaps that explains why you have old employer information in the online return.
If you try to log into your desktop software, and it says it's registered to another account when you know you already installed it originally to your account, then you may have multiple accounts without realizing it.
A User ID may be an email address, but it doesn't have to be. It might be only part of an email address, or it can be anything at all.
To get a list of your User IDs, reset password, and recover account access, etc., you can use the tool at the link below. When using the Account Recovery tool, try using your phone number first if you can still access it. After that, if necessary, then run the tool on your email address(es) you can access.
NOTE: Before running the account recovery tool below, log out of all Intuit accounts including this user forum, or you might end up in a loop. Then clear your browser Internet cache, close your browser, then reopen it, and go to the link below. You may wish to copy this link so you can paste it into the new browser session.
https://myturbotax.intuit.com/account-recovery
If still no luck after running that on your phone number you can still access and email address(es) that you can access, here's another method:
Go back to the tool again, but this time leave the data field blank, scroll down a bit, then choose the small blue link that says "Try something else", and it will look you up by other parameters.
If you can't get it figured out, here's how to phone TurboTax Support. They can either help find it or possibly give you a new license code. Hours are usually 5AM-5PM Pacific Monday-Friday. However, I don't know if they will be extending hours and stay open later the next couple of days. Sometimes they do that when a filing deadline approaches.
FAQ: How do I contact TurboTax Support?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/contact
