Unblock 'Only Open as Read Only'

Question

Unblock 'Only Open as Read Only'

Janet Hull 0

How to unblock 'Only Open as Read Only' when I click on Review and want to edit a formatted word document on my mac

EmilyS726 256K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-28T16:43:12.0466667+00:00

Hello

This can be due to a recent digital license certificate update on all mac devices.

In order to understand your issue better and provide relevant suggestions, I need to know

What is your macOS version?

Is your office product purchased from Microsoft or from Apple?

1 answer

Your answer

EmilyS726 256K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-07-28T16:43:12.0466667+00:00

Hello

This can be due to a recent digital license certificate update on all mac devices.

In order to understand your issue better and provide relevant suggestions, I need to know

What is your macOS version?

Is your office product purchased from Microsoft or from Apple?

Answer 1

It would help to see a screenshot of the actual notification... there are at lest 3 possible reasons.

The simplest is that Protection has been applied. The tool on the Review tab will be darkened. Just click it to turn the Protection off.

If the workbook was edited by an Excel for Windows it's possible that a feature was used which isn't available in Excel for Mac, especially if the document is stored on a SharePoint server. In that case you'll need to contact the user to have them provide a copy which has the restriction removed.

It's also possible that a Password to Modify has been applied. In that case there would be a prompt when opening the file, though.