Personal 365: Add mac to list of devices

Hi Robert,

Based on my understanding, you are trying to add your mac to the Microsoft Account device list:

Unfortunately, this is not feasible as stated in the following article:

Add a device to your Microsoft account

But, that's not going to affect you activating your Office subscription on your new MacBook pro, just sign in with your Microsoft Account when Office ask you to activate.

If you have different concerns on this, please keep us informed.

Regards,

Alex Chen

Hi Robert,

According to your description," the files open, but nothing can be manipulated. ", this seems like the Office suite is still in an unlicensed status.

As you mentioned you have already subscribed the Microsoft 365 Family subscription, it allows you to install Office on 5 different PC/Mac devices. Since you have only installed Office on 2 devices, I don't think this is an issue caused by the limitation.

IMHO, if you have correctly input your account and password when trying to sign in Office for Mac, yet the Office suite is still not activated, that could be an issue caused by the local corrupted license. Please use the Office license remove tool to clear all the Office related cache on your Mac, then, sign in again, see if it helps.

How to remove Office license files on a Mac

Keep us posted, let us know the further updates on this issue.

Regards,

Alex Chen

Dear Robert,

The activation of Office is not performed on the Microsoft Account Home page, what I am referring to is, after downloading/installing the Office suite on your Mac, open one of the Office for Mac application, it will ask you to activate your subscription:

Activate Office for Mac

Also, if you want to deactivate the Office for Mac, you could refer to the article below:

How to remove Office license files on a Mac

I understand it will be a lot of inconvenience to manage the your devices as you can't add a MacOS device to your Microsoft Account. As your major concern is about adding the MacOS device to your Microsoft Account, although the Office Article stated it's not feasible at this moment, I am not sure if there are any workaround on this.

If it's OK for you, I will help you move this thread to the other category which is dedicated in helping users who are having issues related with Microsoft Account. See if the member/agent there have a workaround to add the MacOS devices to your Microsoft account. Let me know if you are interested.

Regards,

Alex Chen

I suppose that you are still selling 365 subscriptions to mac users, so I assume there is a way to add the new mac book pro to my account. I upgraded to the family version just in case I had to enter the new device under another user in the family.

I logged into the account home page at https://account.microsoft.com/ as you suggested.  You had said to choose "activate," but there is no such selection, only "install" (which I already done), "add family member,"  or "add device," which as you noted, I cannot do.  What is the next step?

Sorry, I followed your instructions for "Activate office for MAC," signing in.  The programs are installed and the files open, but nothing can be manipulated.  I suppose that the system does not recognize that this machine is subject to what is now a family license.  Is there a limit to the number of Office applications that can be running at one time on such a license?  (The suite works fine on two older macs that are in use.) As you can understand, I am reluctant to de-activate the older mac book pro until I am sure that Office will work on the new one.  If there is no limit, and the program is simply not recognizing my license, then I could dispute payment of the license fee and perhaps that would occasion a phone call with someone who could walk me through this activation.