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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?
Processes in Microsoft 365 for setting up Office apps, redeeming product keys, and activating licenses.
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.
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for your prompt response. I have used the license removal tool and re-installed Office but when It try to activate it, I get a blank screen at the point where I should enter in my account password. My OS is High Sierra 10.13.6 and I have an Office 365 subscription.
I thank all of you, including the Microsoft reps who risked their jobs for telling the truth, for the posts here confirming what it took me two afternoons of wasted time to find out: that Microsoft has conned countless users who still have older Macintoshes running Mac OS X 10.13 High Sierra.
The firm fails to make it clear that 365 will not work with this version of OS X. I wonder how much the banks and card companies have made processing cancelled 365 accounts. As a journalist and writer, I dislike web-based programmes.
I am currently posting this on a recent MacBook and am disgusted that I cannot use my old MacBooks with the Office 2016 that I bought in 2018 and which cannot be reactivated because of the 'Blank Screen Scandal'.
Well, it's not a scandal, is it? It's just a load of malcontents like us shouting into a void. But this will cost Microsoft in the long long. And Apple. The two firms have become similar in terms of the contempt they clearly have for customers.
Time was when when someone with my media background could get them to behave better but they know that there is little or nothing any of us can do short of violence against their decision-makers which is of course out of the question as we are civilised.
I am having the exact same problem. A formerly activated office that I've not used for a few months. It's now deactivated, and when I try and activate it, I just get a blank page after clicking 'Next' having entered my email address.
There is no resolution. An Office 365 subscription will not activate software installed on High Sierra. If you wish to have functioning Microsoft Office products on your computer, the option remains to purchase Office 2016 for Mac from a retailer. Noting that end of support for Office 2016 was reached on October 13, 2020 so we're on our own for nutting out any technical problems that arise from continued use of that software.
I posted the following earlier today. I contacted Microsoft Support and spoke with an agent on chat who was able to cancel and refund my Office 365 subscription. Hope this helps someone else.
I too have discovered this same problem after purchasing a 365 subscription today. High Sierra 10.13.6
I had fully functional office software installed on the machine, previous subscription was through an organisation I no longer am engaged with so office files have been read-only for some months.
As described in the original question, when attempting to activate office, I am able to enter in my email address in the sign in page. Clicking Next opens the next page. This page is devoid of anything, nowhere to enter password, no feedback as to what might have gone wrong. Just a blank, white page.
If I can't get in through the front door, how can I contact the team at Office 365 to activate my software in a different way, e.g. remotely?
Amanda
Thank you so much for the Libre Office idea, I downloaded version 7.4, a slightly newer one, and it works on my Mac. High Sierra. I guess that is what I am going to have to do, going forward. It will be a learning curve, I have used Word since it first came out in the late 80s, and it's a shame I need to change now, but if my legitimate copy of Office no longer authenticates, I have no choice.
However, having spent so much money on perpetual licenses in the past dictates that I cannot just leave a computer behind that still works fine, and I still have working copies of Adobe Creative Suite on it I bought before everything went to a subscription. I love it and want to keep using it, so older OS is the way to do it.