microsoft office can't find license for excel application. A repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled.

Question

microsoft office can't find license for excel application. A repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled.

Answer 1

Hi @Nagraj Angadi,  

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Thank you very much for reaching out regarding the issue “Microsoft Office can’t find a license for Excel application. A repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled.” 

This message indicates that Excel is unable to detect a valid license on your account or device, and the repair attempt did not complete successfully, most commonly due to a missing or expired license, signing in with an unlicensed account, network restrictions (VPN/Proxy/Firewall), corrupted activation data, or incorrect system date and time settings. 

Here are my recommendations, which I hope will be helpful to you. Please follow the steps below:    

1/ Verify your Office account sign-in 

• Open Excel > File > Account and confirm that you are signed in with the email address that has an active Office license. 
• Please sign out of all Office applications (Excel, Word, Teams, etc.), then sign back in using the licensed account. 

2/ Clear Office sign-in / activation cache 

• Close all Office applications 
• Open Control Panel > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials and remove entries related to Microsoft Office 
• 
• Press Win + R, paste %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\Licenses, and delete the folder if it exists. 
• 
• Restart the device and sign in to Excel again 

3) Repair or reinstall Office 

• Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps (or Programs & Features) 
• Select Microsoft 365/Office > Modify 
• Run Quick Repair; if the issue persists, proceed with Online Repair 

4) Use the automated support tool (recommended) 

• Run the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) and select the Office sign-in / activation scenario to automatically diagnose and fix common issues. 

5/ If the issue persists 

In this case, I strongly recommend reaching out to your IT Admin department and ask them to assist with verifying license assignment for your account, checking connectivity to Microsoft activation services, and reviewing Office services and configuration on your device. 

If your IT department cannot access the necessary information or make the required changes, I suggest asking them to open a request with Microsoft’s higher-level support team through the Microsoft Admin Center. They have access to backend configurations and can perform a more in-depth investigation. At the very least, they can provide the most effective workaround to ensure your experience remains smooth and secure.        

We kindly ask for your understanding that, as moderators, we do not have access to the administrative tools or permissions required to investigate or modify these configurations. We also do not have the capability to initiate remote sessions for direct assistance. Our role is to guide users to the appropriate resources and support channels.         

I hope this information is helpful.  Should you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to reach out.     

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.   

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Answer 2

When you encounter the error message stating that "Microsoft Office can't find your license for this application" and that a repair attempt was unsuccessful or canceled, it typically indicates that there is an issue with the Office installation or the license verification process. This can occur for several reasons, including running the application in compatibility mode or issues with the software protection platform registry key.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Check the Software Protection Platform Registry Entry:
   • Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Start menu.
   • Navigate to HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion.
   • Ensure that there is a SoftwareProtectionPlatform value present. If not, you may need to export it from another device where Office is functioning correctly and import it into your current device.
2. Stop Running the App in Compatibility Mode:
   • Right-click on the Excel application and select Properties.
   • If the Compatibility tab is available, ensure that the option to run the program in compatibility mode is unchecked.
   • If the Compatibility tab is not available, you can try using the Troubleshoot compatibility option to reset compatibility settings.
3. Repair Office:
   • Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, select Microsoft Office, and choose the option to repair it.
4. Reinstall Office: If the above steps do not resolve the issue, consider uninstalling and then reinstalling Microsoft Office to ensure a clean installation.

After performing these steps, restart your device and try to open Excel again to see if the issue is resolved.

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References:

• Microsoft Office cannot verify the license for this product
• Microsoft Office cannot verify the license for this product