How do I transfer the licenses?

For the Office Home & Business one-time licenses on Mac, the Microsoft account portal does not show which specific Mac each key is tied to, and one-time licenses cannot be “unlinked” in the portal. Transfers are done by reinstalling and reactivating according to the license terms.

Use these steps and best practices:

1. Understand the transfer rules
   • Office Home & Business (one-time purchase) can be installed on only one computer at a time.
   • For Office 2021/2019/2016 and later one-time purchases, the license may be transferred to another computer that belongs to the same owner, but not more than once every 90 days, except in case of hardware failure.
   • When transferring, the software must be removed from the prior computer and no copies may be retained.
2. Move a license from one Mac to another
   For each Mac you want to move Office off of:
   1. Uninstall Office from that Mac (delete the Office apps from Applications and empty Trash).
   2. On the new Mac, go to the Microsoft account dashboard where the product is listed and select Install for one of the copies.
   3. Install Office and, when prompted, sign in with the same Microsoft account used to redeem the product.
   4. Activation will consume one of the available one-time licenses associated with that account.
3. Dealing with multiple one-time licenses on the same account
   • Up to 25 Mac one-time licenses can be associated with the same Microsoft account.
   • The portal does not track which license is on which Mac. To manage this, keep a separate record (for example, a list noting “License added on March 16, 2026 → MacBook A”, etc.).
   • If a license has already been used on another Mac and you try to reuse it, you may see a “Key already used” or “maximum activations” message. In that case, follow the transfer rules: uninstall from the old Mac and then activate on the new Mac.
4. If activation fails after moving
   • For Office 2016/2019/2021 one-time purchases, if activation on the new device reports that the maximum number of activations has been reached, activation might need to be completed by telephone after confirming that the license is being transferred in line with the Software License Terms.
   • After successful activation on the new Mac, ensure Office is no longer installed on the old Mac.
5. Transferring to another person (EEA only)
   • In the European Economic Area, the license can be transferred to another person by contacting Microsoft customer support. Identity and license ownership will be verified, the original entitlement cancelled, and the new licensee will receive instructions to associate the license with their own Microsoft account.

Because the portal does not map keys to devices, the practical method is:

• Decide which Mac should lose Office.
• Remove Office from that Mac.
• Install and activate Office on the target Mac using the same Microsoft account, keeping your own record of which “copy” (date/entry) you consider assigned to which device.

References:

• Transfer your Office license to another device or another person
• Activate Office after reinstalling or installing on a different device
• Activate Office for Mac
• Office 2021 license does not work and ist not anymore in the portal listed - Microsoft Q&A
• Move my Home and Student 2016 to a new computer - Microsoft Q&A