I bought and have downloaded office home 2024 for Mac and cannot activate

Question

I'm certain this has come up hundreds or thousands of times. I bought from Microsoft and have installed Office Home 2024 for Mac (the $149 purchase). I am unable to activate the apps. I keep on getting asked to upgrade to Microsoft 365, which I have no interest in doing. I've looked everywhere on Google Search and Microsoft Support and cannot find the answer I need. I am using a Mac Studio M4 Max with OS Tahoe 26.01. Help! Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Shelley,

Do you see a product linked to your MS Account at https://account.microsoft.com/services page?

Try purging the license data:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-remove-office-license-files-on-a-mac-b032c0f6-a431-4dad-83a9-6b727c03b193

Download and run the license removal tool

1. Download the license removal tool.
2. Open the .pkg file from your Mac's Downloads folder.

Note: If you get an "unidentified developer" error, try opening the file by holding Control + clicking the file > Open.

3. Select Continue and follow the prompts in the setup wizard.

Caution: We recommend you double-check that you have the correct account info ready by logging into Office.com/signin and checking for the license you want to activate with.

Click continue and follow the prompts on the installer.

4. When you're ready to complete the license removal, select Install. You may need to enter your Mac's local admin account password.

After the tool successfully removes licenses, select Close.

Click Install on the tool to remove licenses.

5. Now open any Office app and sign in to activate with the email account associated with your Microsoft 365 for Mac license. If you're troubleshooting an issue, you may need to reinstall Office before signing in.

After you've successfully activated, restart your computer and then you're good to go!

Note: If your account has both a Microsoft 365 for Mac license and a one-time purchase associated with it, you'll be prompted to choose which license you want to activate with. We recommend always choosing Microsoft 365 for Mac if available.

6. Uninstall the License Removal Tool by dragging the Microsoft_Office_License_Removal file from Finder > Downloads to Trash.

I look forward to your response and am eager to collaborate until we find a solution.

Answer 2

Hi, thanks for your quick reply. I followed your instructions and I'm still not able to activate.

On my Microsoft account page, I do show Office Home 2024 under Products You've Purchased. I also show on the account page under Canceled Subscriptions, an old Microsoft 365 Family which expired Apr 2020. I haven't used it in years and it is not on my Mac.

I ran the license removal tool as you suggested, restarted my computer, clicked on Word, and the same dialog box came up that tells me No License Found, Buy MS365 for this account or use another account to activate MS365 if you've already bought it. And it invites me to Skip to read-only mode.

Haven't had any issues downloading any other software in many years so I am pretty confident it is not me being dense and not doing something correctly.

I appreciate your help.