Office 2021 once again will not work.

Question

I have MS Office 2021 on an iMac running Tahoe 26.5.2. Even before this update, Office locked up again. This has happened repeatedly over the years. The only way to fix it has been to somehow reach a live agent, who will then give me a link to a version WITHOUT the latest updates. Apparently, MS has not kept the product up to date with the newest Apple OS systems. Now we have a new problem. None of the Office programs will work. When you open Word, you can’t edit, copy, nothing. It then wants you to activate a product that has already been woking for several years. But when you try to activate it, after entering your account information, you first get a message that says “You have reached a page not normally shown.” Then a message comes up that says “ Unable to connect to the licensing helper.” Then you are toast, again. I’ve tried at least ten times over the last 3 hours, and each time it ends this way. It has been impossible to reach agent. On my Apple products I can reach a live USA based agent in less than a minute with a direct call. So right now I have an MS product that I paid for, is still under support, but I can’t get any help, and the entire package is useless!

Answer 1

Hello

The issue you are having this time can be different, and is related to the recent digital license certificate update that happened on all Mac devices on July 13th.

Did you get an 0x0 error?

First, see if you can update your Office apps. Open Word for example, click on the 'Help' tab >Check for Updates. Make sure you choose Update All when prompted. Let the process run through, can take a bit time. See if that works.

Otherwise, use the Update method in this article: https://support.microsoft.com/support/known-issues/unknown-error-0x0-license-not-found-error-microsoft365-macos?apid=ets

If it still doesn't work, please uninstall the apps.

Then reinstall this way:

If you signed up via the Apple App Store, then download and install from the App Store.

If you signed up via Microsoft directly, go to https://account.live.com > Subscriptions/Services, find your Office product and download from there.

If it still doesn't work, download the updater https://support.microsoft.com/office/office-for-mac/troubleshoot-microsoft-autoupdate-in-microsoft-365-and-office-for-mac?apid=ets