MS office 2016 for mac: Authentication session has expired error

Question

Hello:

I recently got the key to activate a copy of a MS office 365 from my father (one of 5 allowed when he bought the year subscription). I installed this on my mac book. Before this I had a MS office 2011 for mac on my computer. The installation process went smoothly. The various applications were installed in the folder on my computer. When I click on the specific application it opens but asks to sign in to the account. I have created an account and I can access the online versions of the MS office 365. When I provide it with my login information, I get the following: the authentication session has expired: please login again.

I have tried (1) uninstalling and reinstalling and this did not work; (2) I created another user (test user) on my computer and install and sign in from there and this seems to work. There seems to be some software glitch as usual with Microsoft. This is very frustrating. Can someone please help?

Best!

Answer 1

Hello SiddharthParasnavis,

This is Cesar Ramirez from the Office for Mac and iOS team. I understand your frustration but I think that Office does not have access to your user's keychain. You can try this:

1. If any of these apps are open please close them: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Outlook
2. Open your 'Keychain app'
3. Select your default keychain on the left side, this is usually the 'login' keychain.
4. Now click on the lock icon on the top left side to ensure the lock is in the locked state.
5. Now open any Office app, you should see a dialog asking for permissions to access the keychain. This dialog may appear multiple times so you will have to ensure to provide the correct password and click on Allow or Always Allow when prompted.
6. After this, you may be asked to sign in again, if this happens please sign in.

After doing all this I am expecting that Office should be able to save your credentials.

Please let me know if this works for you.

Regards,

Answer 2

Hi SiddharthParasnavis,

According to your description, I’d like suggest you try the following steps:

Note: Please back up files before you deleted it.

1. Quit all Office applications, then delete Microsoft User Data for Office2011 which located in  /Users/username/Documents/Microsoft User Data.

Then you can sign in Office 2016 to check if the issue persists.

2.  Go to Applications>click KeyChain Access under the folder Utilities>delete all the items you find about “Office”.

Then you can sign in again to  check if the issue persists.

3. Click Go>Go to folder>go to Library>Group containers>delete the folder UBF8T346G9.Office.

Then sign in Office application to check if the issue persists.

Could you please provide below information to better assist you?

1.  The Screenshot of your MAC OS version and Office Version(Open Word>about Word).

2.  Does the issue occurs in all Office applications or some special application?

Note: Please mask your personal information to protect your privacy.

Regards,

Virgil

Answer 3

Hello SiddharthParasnavis,

This is Cesar Ramirez from the Office for Mac and iOS team. I understand your frustration but I think that Office does not have access to your user's keychain. You can try this:

1. If any of these apps are open please close them: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Outlook
2. Open your 'Keychain app'
3. Select your default keychain on the left side, this is usually the 'login' keychain.
4. Now click on the lock icon on the top left side to ensure the lock is in the locked state.
5. Now open any Office app, you should see a dialog asking for permissions to access the keychain. This dialog may appear multiple times so you will have to ensure to provide the correct password and click on Allow or Always Allow when prompted.
6. After this, you may be asked to sign in again, if this happens please sign in.

After doing all this I am expecting that Office should be able to save your credentials.

Please let me know if this works for you.

Regards,

that solved my issue too, thx.

Answer 4

Muchas gracias esta si funciona

Answer 5

Awesome

THANK YOU