How can I resolve the error: "Your account doesn't allow editing on a mac."

Dear respected Tstiekes,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

I’m sorry you’re having a problem but based on your description we can work together to resolve it.

For the situation you encountered, we deeply understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it.

As per your description, since you mentioned, if your Office 365 work/school subscription you have assign license “The latest desktop version of Office”. Then my suggestion is below, you may try to reset sign-in Office, you may try my below suggestion.

1.You can refer to this article: How to remove license to use/run license removal tool to remove the license files on your Mac first.

2.Then Restart Mac, open Office and use your work/school Office account now to sign in again with the account associated with your Office.

We appreciate your understanding that sometimes the initial suggestions may not resolve the problem very soon. However, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation. So, please kindly provide more information below to let us work further.

1.Confirm the version of Office 

2.The screenshot of the subscriptions page “Office 365”.

3. The screenshot of full error message.

4.Can you recall when this behavior starts e.g., after Office update or Mac OS.

Appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Hi respected Tstiekes,

Thanks for your valuable feedback and sharing updates with us and I really appreciate your effort and your precious time doing. 

And I appreciate your kind words.

First, please note that your first Office 365 subscription "Microsoft 365 business basic" doesn't include Office desktop client app license (only Office for web).

However, using your account "Microsoft 365 business standard" you should use Office desktop client app on your Mac OS.

As per your above screenshot, it seems that you have been assign two license "Microsoft 365 business basic" and "Microsoft 365 business standard" and the issue might be conflict account, in this scenario, if possible you may let your admin to unassign "Microsoft 365 business basic" license(because no need to assign Microsoft 365 business basic license) and keep "Microsoft 365 business standard" license and then use the same Office 365 log-in and verify the result with me.

Meanwhile, maybe the local settings had affected the application. Thus, we would like you to check whether the issue is related to your user profile. In this situation, we suggest you creating a new user profile on Mac  on your Mac and see if any improvement. It is worth trying because it will help you narrow down whether the issue is caused by a specific corrupted user profile.

***Disclaimer:***Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Hello Waqas,

Thank you for your help. I actually tried the removal of the license before but I did it again per your instructions and it still did not work. I received an "Unknown Error" when attempting to login to Microsoft Word. It said: "An unknown error has occurred. The error code is: 0x0." The next message that came up was: "Your account can view documents, but it doesn't allow editing on a Mac. To edit, use another account to activate Microsoft 365." I am using Microsoft Word for Mac Version 16.77.1. When did the problem start? I tried logging in this week with my work login for the first time. I have a school login as well.