How can I successfully activate MS 365 for Mac when continually receiving a "Network Timeout" message?

Question

In an open Word document or Excel file, a band located below the ribbon has the message "Activate Microsoft 365 to Create or Edit" on the left and an "Activate" button the right. When I click to activate, an "Activate Microsoft 365 to Create and Edit" window appears. When I select "Already bought Office. Sign in" another window appears, in which I enter my email address. The next window that appears allows me to "Send code". After entering the code I received in the window, another window appears that says "Network Timeout. The network request timed out. Please try again. [2602]".

I have attempted this process several times, sometimes using the code emailed to me and sometimes with my account password. The results is always the same: "Network Timeout". MS 365 is up to date on my computer and so is Sequoia 15.7.8. Please, help. Word and Excel are both inoperable in their current state.

Answer 1

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

This may be a temporary network issue.

If you have a VPN turned on, temporarily disconnect it and then try activating the Microsoft 365 apps again. If that doesn’t work, try using a different Wi‑Fi network, such as a mobile hotspot, and then activate the apps again.

If you’re still having issues, I recommend running the Microsoft Office License Removal Tool to remove any remaining Office license files from your Mac and then reactivate them.

How to remove Office license files on a Mac

Run the Office License Removal Tool and follow the prompts to activate the Microsoft 365 apps on your Mac.

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If you’re still experiencing errors, move all Office apps to the Trash.

Then open the App Store on your Mac and download the individual Office apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc... to see whether they work properly.