Microsoft office can't find your license for this application. a repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled.

Anonymous
2013-05-14T07:38:18+00:00

I am getting the following error in Office 2013. My software is licensed but it gives this error and exit:

Microsoft office can't find your license for this application. a repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-05-31T03:51:10+00:00

Hi Michael, 

My problem was solved after restarting/starting SOFTWARE PROTECTION service in windows 8, that service was stopped and its behaviour was Automatic(Delayed Start). So i just start that service and error gone. YOu try this as well.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-09T14:36:38+00:00

    [SOLVED]

    I can confirm that fixing this registry keys has worked for me too and fixed the issue.

    I've changed the values and rebooted.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sppsvc<key>:

    Next time I opened OneNote 2016 on my Win10 it opened properly without the "Enter your product key" message.

    Reason

    I agree with TimothyMarchini in his post here:

    that the reason is unclear, why this issue occurred.

    This seems to be another good page describing a fix by fixing the permissions for the service (not tested):

    Background

    I tried to find the documentation for this keys, which are configuring the services, but it seems that they are only documented explicit in the book:

    You may be able to apply the changes by the services.msc user-interface too, because the registry keys and values used, are represented in the user-interface too:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sppsvc<key>

    • DelayedAutoStart: 0 (means no delay)
    • Start: 2 (means "Automatically")
    • Type Hex:20 (Decimal:32) (means, from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/103000: A Win32 service that can share a process with other Win32 services.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-13T08:25:00+00:00

    [UPDATE]

    Four days later the same error reoccurs!

    The registry settings have not changed since my last fix.

    Back to square one :(

    [UPDATE]

    It seems to work right after I've restarted Windows... very unappreciated and annoying.

    I'm still wondering if this is a common problem and what has happened that it hit my machine.

    (=PA=)

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-13T23:22:29+00:00

    I'm having this same problem. Has an issue been found?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-09-14T09:09:53+00:00

    You are sure that you read the thread?

    Especially the *latest* notes?

    (=PA=)

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