Office Home and Student 2019 for Mac not functioning anymore as of today: Forced to buy a new license??? Unethical!!!

Anonymous
2023-11-20T15:39:33+00:00

Hi,

As of this morning I have found my legal/registered Microsoft Office Home and Student 2019 (1 Mac) applications (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) do not function properly...

I have searched for similar problems on Microsoft community (found some & then applied all!). Also called "microsoft support" 3 times to look for an answer/solution.

As recommended, after all "Office app removals" (@Apple and Microsoft web sites)+ "license removal tool running" + "Re-installing of Office 2019", they still do not work/function. After the Office package re-install when I try to open an app it says "No license found for my account", although my purchase of Office 2019 can be seen in Microsoft Account (i.e. MS knows that I have legally bought it several years ago)...

Last support center guy told me that "Office 2019 support of MS ended as of Oct'23 -p.s. I confirmed it later-" recommended me "to buy a new license"!... I had bought my license for "LIFETIME". Now, they say "BUY A NEW ONE, just after 3 years!", adding that there is no other address that I can tell about this problem/my complaint (p.s. Live Chat did not work either today)...

Don't want to say bad words to Microsoft after such an ETHICALLY INCORRECT response; so any help of community much appreciated... Thanks.

Biltor Ulucay

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | MacOS

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.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
2023-11-22T19:06:30+00:00

I think the problem results from AutoUpdate installing a wrong version of Office for your license. You would have to remove the wrong version first:

Uninstall Office for Mac - Microsoft Support

Then, install the correct version, which is 16.78.3 which you can download from this link

Office suite (with Teams)

Please use the Help menu and choose Check for Updates. In AutoUpdate uncheck the box to automatically keep office up to date. 16.78.3 is the final version of Office 2019.

Was this answer helpful?

6 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

61 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-04T03:01:08+00:00

    Outlook's version is 16.81 as part of Office 2019

    Mac OS's version is 13.6.3 (22G433)

    More importantly, Office 2019 worked fine on my Mac until 3 Nov 2023 when suddenly it insisted I buy Office 365 which I will never do. I have already started to use Apple's Mail, Numbers and Pages. I want to use the Office 2019 which I purchased without being hounded to buy Office 365.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-04T20:44:48+00:00

    I had the exact same issue. It seems to be impossible at this moment to login to activate an Office 2019 or 2021 Mac version with the latest 16.78 or 16.79 installer versions on a mac. On my old mac which had currently 16.78.3 version I am still logged in. So it seems, it is only a login issue. The Office 2019 / 2021 can still be used if you're already logged in.

    That made me think. It seems to be an issue with the latest installer, which allows you only to login Office 365. Luckily I still had an old Office for mac installer on my NAS. I installed version "Microsoft_365_and_Office_16.69.23010700_Installer.pkg", downloaded in January of this year. With this version I am able to login my microsoft account and activate my license again.

    So you should look for an older installer in your downloads or somewhere online, or wait till this issue gets fixed in a newer version.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-05T02:16:34+00:00

    I had the exact same issue. It seems to be impossible at this moment to login to activate an Office 2019 or 2021 Mac version with the latest 16.78 or 16.79 installer versions on a mac. On my old mac which had currently 16.78.3 version I am still logged in. So it seems, it is only a login issue. The Office 2019 / 2021 can still be used if you're already logged in.

    That made me think. It seems to be an issue with the latest installer, which allows you only to login Office 365. Luckily I still had an old Office for mac installer on my NAS. I installed version "Microsoft_365_and_Office_16.69.23010700_Installer.pkg", downloaded in January of this year. With this version I am able to login my microsoft account and activate my license again.

    So you should look for an older installer in your downloads or somewhere online, or wait till this issue gets fixed in a newer version.

    Very interesting Arnould,

    I still have the versions of all of Office 2019 installed on my system. I just cannot use them. I do not have the installers anymore. I am very suspicious that if I did install them again, Microsoft would just disable them the same way they did my current versions. Microsoft just needs to tell us how to stop the constant pushing to get us to use Office 365.

    Regards,

    ..michael..

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2023-12-06T18:58:08+00:00

    Once again

    If your license is for Office 2019 the most recent version of Microsoft Office you can use is 16.78.3

    16.81 is the beta channel release for Office subscribers. Office 2019 can not be used with this version or any other version that is higher than 16.78.3

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments