Microsoft 365 Mac muss jeden Tag aktiviert werden

Question

Es tut mir Leid, ich habe übersehen, dass MS mich automatisch auf die deutsche Seite umgeleitet hat... Ich spreche Deutsch, also können Sie / könntet Ihr auf Deutsch antworten.

I have had Office 365 for Mac (I have a corporate E5 license) on my MacBook Air M4 since its purchase in March 2025. Since October it requires constant reactivation.

Outlook allows itself to be activated in "New" mode, as soon as I switch back to legacy (for on-premises accounts Outlook New can't convert), it wants to be activated again, but only displays the "signon" window with the animated circle and "Loading...".

Excel and Word do the same, they ask to be activated, then display the signon windows with rotating circle and "Loading...". I have left it running for up to 3 hours and nothing further happens.

Doing the following brings short term relief:

• Deinstall Office 365
• Delete all Microsoft Office files and folders in the user Library folder
• Delete all Microsoft Office entries in the Apple Keychain
• Run the Microsoft Office License removal tool
• Restart the Mac
• Reinstall Office 365 for Mac
• Activate without problems

After that, it will run happily for 2-4 days, after which I have to go through the whole deinstallation and reinstallation process again!What is going on? Why won't it stay activated and why, once activated, does it not display the activation dialog properly, when it needs re-activating in a couple of days?

Note: The activation dialog will display normally and allow me to sign on the first time, after that it just shows "loading..." when it asks for activation the next time. Once Office has been completely removed and reinstalled the activation dialog works again, so it has nothing to do with networking (firewall, proxy, AV software etc.).

I have also made my account and admin, that didn't help.

I have also completely disabled the Sophos AV software, that didn't help.

Answer 1

Interesting, out of frustration, I rebooted the Mac again (I had reactivated 3 times in Outlook New and switched back to legacy and it wanted to reactivate each time, and Excel was hanging on the activation dialog).

Upon restarting everything was activated and running normally. But something strange happened with the October update and it has been carried forward with the subsequent updates.

Answer 2

Please note that this is the de-de forum. We kindly recommend posting your question in German so that more community members can assist you. Alternatively, you may consider posting in the English forum if you prefer to use your native language. We sincerely appreciate your understanding.

Hi David Wright

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum and for sharing such detailed information about your environment and the troubleshooting steps you have already taken.

I understand how frustrating it is to repeat the reinstallation process every few days. Based on your description, it sounds like the authentication token is being corrupted or failing to renew in the background, which causes the "Loading..." loop.

To better understand, could you please clarify the following information?

• Is your MacBook Air enrolled in a corporate Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution?
• Are other users in your organization with similar Mac setups experiencing this same loop, or is it isolated to your device?
• Did you download the installer directly from the Microsoft 365 Portal?

In the meantime, please try the following workarounds:

1, Clear the Office licensing cache (without full reinstall)

• Please refer to this article for detailed steps: Troubleshoot Office for Mac issues by completely uninstalling before you reinstall - Microsoft Supp…
• After that, restart your Mac and test activation.

2, Refresh License Provisioning

• Ask your IT administrator to perform a backend refresh of your account: Unassign your Office 365 E5 license and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise in the Admin Center.
• Wait 15-30 minutes to allow the change to sync.
• Reassign the licenses to your user account.
• Test the activation again.

3, Temporarily uninstall Sophos AV

• Regarding the Sophos antivirus, although you mentioned disabling it, we recommend completely uninstalling it temporarily.
• Test the behavior for 24 - 48 hours to definitively rule out any interference with the activation traffic.

Please keep us updated on your progress, as your feedback is valuable to the community.

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Answer 3

Hallo David,

vielen Dank für deine Anfrage.

Zu welchem Fehler wird weitere Unterstützung benötigt?

Answer 4

Hallo David,

vielen Dank für deine Nachricht.

Ich warte auf deine weitere Antwort.

Answer 5

Schade. Heute früh hat es funktioniert. Ich musste aber heute Nachmittag neu starten und Office hat sich wieder deaktiviert und lässt sich nicht noch Mal aktivieren. Ich habe 2 Mal Neugestartet. Edit: Interessant, Outlook autostarts beim Neustart und ist deaktiviert. Noch ein Neustart hat nichts gebracht und Excel liess sich nicht aktivieren.

• Alle Office Anwendung beenden
• Outlook starten
• Outlook in New Look wechseln
• Outlook aktivieren (Signon-Dialog funktioniert in Neu Modus, nicht in Legacy)
• Outlook beenden
• Outlook neu starten
• Outlook in Legacy Modus wechseln
• Funktioniert!
• Excel, Word usw. starten, sie sind aktiviert.

Irgendwie verrückt!