Cannot activate Office Apps with High Sierra

Rafaelfonte22, that’s an interesting potential solution. I am, however, doubtful that it will work for those of us who subscribe to Office 365 because we do not get any sort of authentication code or product key but need to sign in to our Microsoft account from the app.

This solution works for the case you’re referring to. It involves authenticating to your MS account from the Office App itself by completing the sign-in flow in a web browser and then coming back to it with the code generated upon sign in. I’ll update the gist later with some images to help clarify the steps further.

Hey rafaelfonte22, a few tips/screenshots regarding what to look for within the mitmproxy window (Step 7) would be great please. Got it working easy enough, but the web requests appearing aren't jumping out at me in line with your github steps. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Rafaelfonte22. I am not in a hurry so I’ll wait for your update as I shall probably need some pictures to guide me.

Rafaelfonte22, that’s an interesting potential solution. I am, however, doubtful that it will work for those of us who subscribe to Office 365 because we do not get any sort of authentication code or product key but need to sign in to our Microsoft account from the app.

This solution works for the case you’re referring to. It involves authenticating to your MS account from the Office App itself by completing the sign-in flow in a web browser and then coming back to it with the code generated upon sign in. I’ll update the gist later with some images to help clarify the steps further.

Rafaelfonte22, that’s an interesting potential solution. I am, however, doubtful that it will work for those of us who subscribe to Office 365 because we do not get any sort of authentication code or product key but need to sign in to our Microsoft account from the app.

Thanks, but unfortunately this did not work for me. Microsoft won't update the version that works with my (older) OS to allow me to activate my subscription. I can access online, but the formatting features are difficult to navigate and I need to be able to work offline too, so looks like I'm going to have to use alternative word processing software. Really hope Microsoft addresses this issue. I'd pay more for a permanent version with 1yr of updates like used to be available.

I don’t think that Microsoft will address this issue so I have emailed the CEO of Microsoft and asked him for help. He is Satya Nadella (satyaN@microsoft.com). This is the text of my email:

“Dear Mr Nadella,

I am emailing you in the hope that you might be able to direct my query to someone who can resolve a problem, all other attempts having failed.

I have an old but good condition  Macbook Pro with a clean version of High Sierra having been installed.  I have an Office 365 account and downloaded and installed Office (version 16.43). When first trying to use any of the Apps (Word, for example), I get a welcome page telling me all the great things that are now available and then a window to enter in my Microsoft account email address. After entering this, I then get a blank window where, when logging in to my account from a browser, I would need to enter my password. The blank screen never changes. I am far from being the only one affected by this problem as the following thread shows:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/cannot-activate-office-apps-with-high-sierra/5ebfc96a-6c37-46f5-87e1-edf624c8b027?page=2&messageId=9b0f4da6-bb88-43e3-b46e-01f3280f82b3

In this day and age when we are constantly being exhorted to avoid waste, protect the environment and conserve resources, it is surely not right for companies like Microsoft to force us to abandon perfectly serviceable technology, both hardware and software. I am not expecting life-time support, accept limitations and recognise that bells and whistles aren’t there but it is not asking much to expect that otherwise working devices are not prevented from doing so by what seems like purely administrative limitations.

I look forward to your being able to help resolve this dilemma.

Best regards”

My suggestion is that anyone else who is affected by this problem should also email Mr Nadella - it might not do any good at all but, then again, it might.