Lost use of 2021 Office (home & student version) after Mac upgrade

Question

Lost use of 2021 Office (home & student version) after Mac upgrade

Megan Snipes 5

I was forced to upgrade my MacBook Air, and my OS is now Tahoe 26.3.1. I immediately found that the 2021 Office suite I'd purchased no longer works (as the "save" feature was disabled in all software). Directions online said to use the uninstaller tool, which I did, then I rebooted my laptop to attempt to reinstall the software. Now I'm getting a message stating that I've already redeemed the product key. It tells me to log into my Microsoft account to attempt reinstallation from there, but when I do this, there is no prompt or link anywhere to enable a reinstallation. The only thing I see is a promoted subscription to Office 365. Is this whole situation a Microsoft grift, where consumers are now forced to subscribe monthly, despite having shelled out money for the entire suite in the past?

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Denise Werrett 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T14:59:42.2666667+00:00

I'm getting the same thing on my Mac and it will not reinstall from my Microsoft account. I've tried to reactivate Office and it says - Licence Storage, unable to connect to the licensing helper but its looking to activate Microsoft 365. I've checked the version and I'm using Office Home and Student 2021.
Denise Werrett 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T15:23:28.69+00:00

I've resolved this. From what I understand the licence from the 365 trial version of Office was still on my Mac. I downloaded the Microsoft Office License Removal Tool v2.7 for Mac and ran that and I can now use Office 2021 without any issues. Hope this helps.
Stefan Blom 351.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-21T15:25:20.7666667+00:00

I've resolved this. From what I understand the licence from the 365 trial version of Office was still on my Mac. I downloaded the Microsoft Office License Removal Tool v2.7 for Mac and ran that and I can now use Office 2021 without any issues. Hope this helps.

That is good news. Thanks for the update. Maybe your response can help the original poster as well.

Answer recommended by moderator

paulr0511 48,445 Independent Advisor

Hello, good day and thanks for your question. Please login with your Microsoft account that you have used when you purchased Office 2021 at account.microsoft.com/services and check it from there. You may also see the link below as a reference.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/download-and-install-or-reinstall-office-2021-office-2019-or-office-2016-7c695b06-6d1a-4917-809c-98ce43f86479#bkmk_signin

Denise Werrett 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T15:08:14.2866667+00:00

I've tried downloading Office 2021 from my Microsoft Account and it was not successful. It still wants me to activate Microsoft 365 and pay a monthly subscription even though I've paid for a one time licence.

2 additional answers

Denise Werrett 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T14:59:42.2666667+00:00

I'm getting the same thing on my Mac and it will not reinstall from my Microsoft account. I've tried to reactivate Office and it says - Licence Storage, unable to connect to the licensing helper but its looking to activate Microsoft 365. I've checked the version and I'm using Office Home and Student 2021.
Denise Werrett 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T15:23:28.69+00:00

I've resolved this. From what I understand the licence from the 365 trial version of Office was still on my Mac. I downloaded the Microsoft Office License Removal Tool v2.7 for Mac and ran that and I can now use Office 2021 without any issues. Hope this helps.
Stefan Blom 351.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-21T15:25:20.7666667+00:00

I've resolved this. From what I understand the licence from the 365 trial version of Office was still on my Mac. I downloaded the Microsoft Office License Removal Tool v2.7 for Mac and ran that and I can now use Office 2021 without any issues. Hope this helps.

That is good news. Thanks for the update. Maybe your response can help the original poster as well.
Denise Werrett 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T15:08:14.2866667+00:00

I've tried downloading Office 2021 from my Microsoft Account and it was not successful. It still wants me to activate Microsoft 365 and pay a monthly subscription even though I've paid for a one time licence.

Answer 1

Stefan Blom 351.3K MVP Volunteer Moderator

You should be able to download Office from the update history at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac .

Note that the download packages are the same, no matter if you have a subscription or a perpetual license.

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Answer 2

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