Cannot activate 365 licence on Mac with Time Machine

Question

I cannot activate my licence on 365 I have been trying for two days. I cannot go on

Answer 1

Hi Michael Jones, 

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum! 

Have a good day and I hope you're doing well! 

Based on my research, this is a known conflict when restoring data via Time Machine. The backup process often carries over old or corrupted license credentials that block the validation process on your current system. 

To fix this, you need to clear the old license files so the system can accept a new one. Please follow these steps: 

1. Download and run the License Removal Tool. 
2. Once the tool finishes, open any Office app (like Word or Excel). 
3. Sign in with your Microsoft 365 email account to activate a new license. 

You can refer to this article for the tool and detailed steps: How to remove Office license files on a Mac - Microsoft Support 

I hope this helps, at least partially. If you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to reach out anytime. 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".    

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.  

Answer 2

If you're having trouble activating your Microsoft 365 license on a Mac, here are some troubleshooting steps you can follow:

1. Make sure user licenses are assigned: Check if your Microsoft 365 account has the necessary licenses assigned. If you're not an admin, you may need to contact your Microsoft 365 administrator to ensure that your account has the appropriate license.
2. Sign out of Office and sign back in: Open an Office app (like Word), select your name or profile picture at the top, sign out, and then sign back in using your Work or School account, not a personal Microsoft account.
3. Use the Mac License removal tool: If there are issues with existing license files, you can use the Mac License removal tool to clear them. Instructions can be found in the Microsoft support documentation.
4. Uninstall and reinstall Office for Mac: If the above steps do not work, consider uninstalling and then reinstalling Microsoft 365 apps on your Mac. You can find instructions for this in the Microsoft support documentation.
5. Check for the correct version of Office: Ensure that you have the correct version of Office installed that matches your Microsoft 365 subscription. If you have a different edition or version installed, you may need to uninstall it and install the correct version.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, you may want to refer to the Microsoft support documentation for more detailed guidance.

---

References:

• Microsoft 365 Apps activation error: “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac.”
• Microsoft 365 Apps activation error: "The products we found in your account can't be used to activate"