Microsoft Office Experiencing Activation Issues on Mac and PC [Fixed] - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Microsoft Office Experiencing Activation Issues on Mac and PC [Fixed]

by

Microsoft Office appears to be experiencing activation issues on both Mac and PC today, according to several user reports on Twitter. MacRumors also received emails from multiple readers affected.

Word 2016 Mac
At least some Office 365 subscribers who have attempted to use Word, Outlook, and other apps in the Microsoft Office suite have been prompted to reactivate their license, but the process fails to complete.

Affected users have encountered various errors while Office apps hang on "activating" or "looking for licenses," which eventually leads to a window that says "no license found," with seemingly no workaround.


The issue appears to be affecting not only individual users, but businesses and universities and with enterprise licenses.

Update: A spokesperson for Microsoft says "our team has addressed the issue and is continuing to monitor to ensure complete resolution."

Top Rated Comments

pete2106 Avatar
102 months ago
I moved on from Office long ago...
I hadn't used Office in a long time but I was given an Office 365 account for University and started using it again. It's really fantastic. Office.com blows icloud.com out of the water.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jimmy Bubbles Avatar
102 months ago
I moved on from Office long ago...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
btrach144 Avatar
102 months ago
I moved on from Office long ago...
I'm curious as to what you use now and have you tried office again recently? Office really has turned around in the last 3-4 years.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fairuz Avatar
102 months ago
IMO Office has a UI designed by kindergarten kids and a box of crayons, and Excel crashes way too much on Windows, never used Mac version, does it crash a lot too? Maybe it's just time to bite the bullet and move on. Why pay for something that is worse than all the free software out there?
Excel is definitely not worse than the free software, including Numbers. I've found no replacement for it.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Shirasaki Avatar
102 months ago
Bring back non sub
There is a non-sub version called Microsoft office 2016 professional.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
102 months ago
iWork is cool. So is google docs. However there is really no replacement for Word and Excel. Specifically with Excel, I love VBA being built in. When you’re also used to work with macros in Excel, why fool around and try to do the same stuff with AppleScript? That’s just not very productive to have to learn how to do things a different way.

I use the standalone version of Office 2016 on Mac and imo it’s as close to Windows product as it’s ever been. I have had some problem using some add-ons that work fine on Windows versions but nothing I can’t live without.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

MacBook Neo and Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x Feature

New Study Highlights Advantages of $549 Windows Laptop Over MacBook Neo

Wednesday May 13, 2026 10:38 am PDT by
Microsoft has responded to the MacBook Neo by commissioning a study that highlights advantages of some Windows laptops. Market research firm Signal65 evaluated four Windows laptops:Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 3x Lenovo's Yoga 7i HP's OmniBook 5 HP's OmniBook X FlipWith a starting price of $549.99 on Best Buy's online store in the U.S. at the time of this writing, the IdeaPad Slim 3x is the only ...
nvidia rtx spark

Nvidia Challenges Apple Silicon With New RTX Spark PC Chip

Monday June 1, 2026 3:41 am PDT by
Nvidia is entering the consumer PC chip business for the first time and has thrown down the gauntlet to Apple, describing its new RTX Spark processor as "the most efficient PC chip ever built." Nvidia says its RTX Spark Superchip is purpose-built to run AI agents that can work proactively across apps and run in the background as a personal "teammate." With the chip, Nvidia says users...
microsoft office 2019

Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac Will Soon Stop Letting You Edit Documents

Tuesday June 2, 2026 6:31 am PDT by
Microsoft will prevent Office 2019 for Mac owners from editing their documents from July 13, a restriction the company is attributing to the productivity suite's expiring digital certificate. The Office 2019 apps affected include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Once the certificate used to confirm the suite's license expires, these apps will drop into what Microsoft is calling ...