Cannot activate Office Apps with High Sierra

Anonymous
2024-10-02T16:36:17+00:00

I have deleted everything and re-installed High Sierra on an old Macbook Pro. 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 I can get and then a window to enter in my Microsoft account email address. 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. Having done a clean install of the OS, there shouldn’t be any remaining bits of Microsoft licence.

Various web pages give conflicting advice about whether or not Office can still be used, albeit without support, or not with High Sierra. Can anyone give me the latest firm evidence about the situation and, if it is possible, suggestions as to how I can activate Office 365?

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

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-11-17T14:30:37+00:00

    Basically, after I force quit everything, I reopened Office and it signed back in without having to reenter the password.

    Thank you for such a prompt response. I have just tried what you suggest but I do not have an “Office App”. I have all the usual Microsoft Office apps such as Powerpoint, Word or Excel but nothing like just an Office app. Did you install something like “Office 2016” which I suspect would have had a Product key to activate it?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-11-16T21:33:00+00:00

    Basically, after I force quit everything, I reopened Office and it signed back in without having to reenter the password.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-11-16T15:03:39+00:00

    I managed to get it to work by doing the following:

    Force Quit: Office App

    Force Quit: Finder (and anything else found in there).

    Do this from here… click on the Apple logo top left of screen, click on Force Quit, highlight app and click on the Force Quit button.

    Hope it works for you too…

    I’m sorry but I don’t understand what it was that you did. I can see that you force quit “Office App” and Finder, but then what did you do?

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-11-16T03:45:33+00:00

    I managed to get it to work by doing the following:

    Force Quit: Office App

    Force Quit: Finder (and anything else found in there).

    Do this from here… click on the Apple logo top left of screen, click on Force Quit, highlight app and click on the Force Quit button.

    Hope it works for you too…

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-11-02T18:48:02+00:00

    On Nov 1, 2024 I experienced this EXACT issue with Excel (v16.43 running on High Sierra) suddenly claiming my license needed to be renewed or that it was insufficient. Tried to activate and was unable to enter password due to blank screen as described so well in this thread. It seemed so odd to me because my OTHER High Sierra Excel 16.43 was doing just fine. Then I found this thread and gave up: I turned off my router and went to bed.

    Next day (Nov 2, 2024) I turned on my router, had breakfast, logged into my mac user account on the machine where Excel had not been working the night before, and - lo and behold - I was able to edit and save and was not even asked to activate.

    Your guess is as good as mine, but I felt compelled to add my experience to this thread for others who might find it and therefore not be completely discouraged.

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