office key activation

Question

I have a office professional academic 2016 media case. I installed office and enter the key this shows 'this key activated' how to activate my office?

Answer 1

One time payment Office licenses like this can only be installed on 1 computer at a time. Unfortunately, uninstalling Office from that computer does not communicate with the activation system.  The message is telling you that the key has been used and installed on one computer already. That is OK, you have the license right "transfer" the installation to a new computer

Transfer Office 365

Transfer Office 365 To another Computer

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Download-and-install-or-reinstall-Office-365-or-Office-2016-on-a-PC-or-Mac-4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658

The “Office Install” MS support site has detailed instructions for this process.  Essentially it is a 3 step process which can all be done from the new computer.

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The first step is to log in  to the MyAccount site on the new computer.

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The Second step is to remove permission to use full functionality on the old computer, you “Remove” (consumer) / “deactivate” (business) it.

“Deactivate”/”Remove” Office 365

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/deactivate-office-365-if-you-see-a-limit-reached-error-767e3560-96ed-4b1c-806d-2fe01c529b1b

If you have an Office 365 subscription or 2016 or 2019 license, you can deactivate Office on a PC or Mac that you're no longer using. Deactivating an Office install doesn't uninstall Office, remove Office documents, or cancel your Office 365 subscription.  It just removes your license from that computer to free it up to use on another computer.  The Office installation on that computer goes into “limited function” mode. It allows read and print only. You cannot save new files or save changes to existing ones.

"D:\Public\Pictures\Office 365 Business Portal My Installs.png"

"D:\Public\Pictures\Office 365 Consumer MyAccount Devices.png"

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The third step is to install on the new computer. The install will also assign a license “count” to it to “activate” the programs.

Here are the specific links you need:

1.   MyAccount - **http://office.com/myaccount**

2.   Deactivate instructions- https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Deactivate-an-Office-365-install-767e3560-96ed-4b1c-806d-2fe01c529b1b

3.   Install on new PC - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Download-and-install-or-reinstall-Office-365-or-Office-2016-on-a-PC-or-Mac-4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658

Transfer 365 / 2019 / 2016 to a new computer

Don’t bother talking to "normal" MS Support about activation errors. When it comes to most "activation issues" they are almost always totally incompetent, I mean the definition of the term, not thederogatoryway (I was going to say ID-10-Ts, but that is not nice ... , so I won't …).

Yes, the Office 2016 / 2019 one-time payment license was (dis)"improved" to allow install on only one machine at a time. (Actually it was 2013, but why quibble).

Yes, the Office one-time payment Product Key has also been "improved" to be one-time use (this can actually be an improvement, keep reading). Now the Office license / product key is primarily “associated” with the email account, instead of the old way of only associating the license with the hardware. The new email association is managed through the MyAccount site:

https://account.microsoft.com/

(this is the “better” part than the old way)

Yes, the license terms say you have to uninstall Office to free up the install count.  The main point being that you have to make sure that Office installation can no longer be used. A "dead" computer is one way to meet that requirement. I’ll get to the other, “new & improved” way (no sarcasm this time) way in minute.

No, uninstall (STILL!) does not actually talk to the the MS activation system. It is completely local to the computer.

Enough repeating the bad news, on to the GOOD NEWS!

Starting with Office 2013, much more so in 2016, MS allows users to have easier and better control of their Office Licenses. (Yay!!!)

On the new computer, in your browser, log in to the MyAccount site: https://account.microsoft.com/

find the computer name of your old computer, click on the "deactivate" link beside it (see deactivate article below). You have now done EVERYTHING you need to do to install on a new computer. IF the old computer was still running, the Office installation would go into "limited function mode" because it was no longer activated.

Still in the MyAccount site on the new computer, find and click on the Install button (see install article below).

DONE, you have "transferred" the installation to a new computer.

Answer 2

Hello,

I am an independent advisor, and I am trying to help other users in Community with my experience in Microsoft products.

Please use this article https://support.office.com/en-us/article/unlice... to fix this issue.

Do let me know if you have any more question or require further help.