Cannot activate Office Apps with High Sierra

thank you for what you said. it is completely true and speaks volumes to the anguish i am currently experiencing by trying to use word on a perfectly usable old macbook that i paid circa $1500 for. There is no reason it shouldn't work, its faulty lazy programming, messy web design and greedy corporate mules that want you to buy new devices before having old ones survive. always profit over function or creativity in this sick and twisted world we live in.

Hi RATLSNAKE,

I tried following these steps on the 2016 version of Office. Here is what I found:

• I installed Office Word 2016 15.11 (got it from an update page from MS). When trying to activate it, it gave me a "Network Connectivity error". I couldn't see any flows in the mitmproxy tool after enabling the proxy setting. I think think for older versions of Office 2016 we won't get any luck
• In then found a 32-bit installer for Office 2016, from MS as well. This installed Office 15.25 with all applications (Outlook is installed also but it can't run due to some incompatibility issue). I then tried to follow the same steps re. capturing the authentication URL, getting an activation code URL and then trying to redirect it again. The good news is: it worked, with the exact same steps!

If you'd like to try it as well, this is where I got the installer from (look at the download link under the 32-bit installation reversion section):

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/office-for-mac/office-2016-for-mac-64-bit-upgrade#options-for-reverting-to-32-bit-installations

Hopefully this version of Office will work on your machine - if it does, you should be able to follow the same guide to get it to work.

If you'd like to check the version of Office you're running, click the "About" option.

I recently discovered that if you have a Business M365 account (think E3 and the like), it allows these purposely "broken" versions of Office on Mac to get re-activated through the normal process. Now why in the hell MSFT have blocked/prevented personal accounts with previous Office licenses from re-activating what once worked in beyond me.

Hi guys,

I also went through the massive trouble of attempting to install Office in a High Sierra machine just recently. After a lot of back-and-forth, looking for as much info as I could gather from forums like this, I finally got a procedure that allowed me to do it - however, it takes a lot of steps to get there as it basically requires you to man-in-the-middle the whole thing to get an auth code generated and replied back to the Office App. Also, it worked to get all apps authenticated except for MS Teams.

I don't provide any guarantees that this will work for you. If you want to try it, make sure that you know what you're doing, and try it at your own risk: https://gist.github.com/rafaelfonte/56b9fb80daed8c586433e82859ccb876

This procedure involves intercepting the authentication window request url that is called just before the page goes blank with a local proxy tool, going to that URL in your browser, copying the auth code URL and then forcing the authentication window to that URL via a HTTP redirect. Still, a lot more hassle than what should at all be expected, just to overcome limitations from software that is poorly maintained by Microsoft when it comes to supporting users on legacy platforms that were working fine just a few years prior.

Also, I haven't taken any screen captures of URLs or such while doing it. What's documented there comes out of memory alone. I might come back to it later to fill in a few more details in the future.

(EDIT: Just reviewed the doc to make it easier to follow and made a few corrections to make it more clear).

After spending almost half a day trying everything else, just followed Rafael's guide and successfully signed-in Office 365 in my old Mac Mini (late 2012) running High Sierra 10.13.6

You are lucky if you are young and competent enough to understand Rafael's guidance. I'm 80 and limited in ability with this stuff. I too tried to re-install Word and Excel 16.43 software after a crash required a re-install of my High Sierra 10.16 os. I had originally purchased them back when you could. They are for use on an old Mac that I use in my vacation place. I tried to open a new account to activate them under a different email to avoid confusion with the current Microsoft subscription on my newer Mac. Same problem.... after filling in the requested data and getting verification, the page went blank.

I tried for a whole afternoon to reach Microsoft for help but 4 different phone numbers only resulted in the same recorded instruction to go useless FAQs on the internet. An earlier comment mentioned that he had spoken to a Microsoft person, I would like to know how he found them. It is all pretty disgusting.

I never have this problem with Apple support. A phone call and you have help in minutes.

Oliver

Hello,

A great great thank you rafaelfonte22!

Your guide was exactly what I hoped to find after getting so much "it is not possible" answers.

It worked perfectly and I can now use office apps on my old 2011 macbook air that still works flawlessly.

It took me a few tries to accommodate to mitmproxy interface an modify the response in the 30s (or so) timeframe, but as soon as I was warmed up it worked without any hiccups.

Thanks again you saved another old mac!