Cannot activate my 2016 Office for Mac (license) on my MacBook Pro running Big Sur

Question

I cannot activate my personal Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac. I've tried EVERYTHING possible reading through forums. I've removed everything and added them back from the license from the software, anything you can think of. It's VERY frustrated considering I own it. If ANYONE can reach out to me, it would be appreciated.

I also completely removed my personal and tried installing Microsoft Office 365 from my college. I am able to use the online version, but just like my personal one I cannot activate the downloaded version. It keeps asking me to sign in to activate and when I sign in, it just brings me back to the sign in over and over.

I will post some pictures of the different errors. If ANYONE can please help me get either installed, I would greatly appreciate it.

microsoft error 2.png

microsoft error 1.png

[Moved from Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For education | MacOS]

Answer 1

Hello Mike,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum

I understand you cannot activate my 2016 Office on your MacBook Pro running Big Sur.

Here is what you can do:

• First quit all Office apps then remove all Office apps from your device for a fresh clean reinstall
• Next, you need to remove all Office licensing components:
• Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal, then paste each line one at a time:

sudo rm -rf /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper
sudo rm -rf /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
sudo rm -rf /Library/Group\ Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office
sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Group\ Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office
sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.*

• Enter your Mac password when prompted.

This will wipe the Office activation engine.

After this let clean your device Keychain:

• Open Keychain Access in Finder
• Select Login keychain
• Search for Microsoft and delete all entries related to: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Identity, ADAL, MSOID, com.microsoft
• Then restart your Mac before reinstalling

Make sure you only install one version of Office on your device (Office 2016 or Office 365), multiple versions installed on the same machine can cause conflict.

After installation, open Word and sign in:

• Word > Check for Updates
• Make sure Microsoft AutoUpdate opens
• If MAU does not open > activation will fail.

Feel free reply back to this post if you need further assistance, I'll be happy to help.