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Office for Home & Student 2021 now inexplicably requiring Activation of Microsoft 365 to work.

Michael Weiss 0 Reputation points
2026-03-12T19:30:26.1466667+00:00

In December 2022 I purchased a non-subscription perpetual use version of Microsoft Office: Home and Student 2021 and installed it to my Mac via download from microsoft.com in January, 2023. It has worked perfectly until yesterday when out of the blue, I am now unable to create or edit and save documents. A banner appears saying "Activate Microsoft 365 to Create and Edit." The only information available online suggested to Reinstall from microsoft.com. I did that successfully but the banner still appears and I am unable to edit or create any file. I paid for a perpetual license not to have to upgrade or use Office via subscription. Please help restore my Office.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | MacOS
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  1. Michael Weiss 0 Reputation points
    2026-03-12T21:05:03.2+00:00

    Thanks for the suggestions. I followed all of your instructions correctly. I uninstalled, I deleted the Library items you listed, I reinstalled from microsoft.com, opened a new Excel document and the same banner appears: "Activate Microsoft 365 to Create and Edit. And the same thing happened. When I continued and selected "Activate" I selected "already have an account." Then I was asked to create a passkey. This was unsuccessful. But... then miraculously, saves and edits were restored and the "Activate 365" banner doesn't appear anymore.

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  2. John Jefferson Doyon 61,635 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-03-12T20:04:52.12+00:00

    Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

    Are you able to see your Microsoft Office 2021 under the Services & subscriptions page here: https://account.microsoft.com/services (make sure you’re signed in with the same Microsoft account you used to activate Office)?

    If you can see it there, please follow these steps below.

    If you haven't already, I’d suggest is to uninstall any existing Office apps on your Mac to avoid conflict:

    Then, to reinstall Microsoft Office:

    • Go to https://account.microsoft.com/services again.
    • Sign in using the same Microsoft account linked to your license.
    • Find your Microsoft Office 2021 and click the "Install".
    • That will download the installer for the Office apps, just run it and follow the steps.

    If anything’s unclear or the "Install" option still doesn’t show, feel free to let me know. I’ll be happy to walk you through it!

    I really hope this information is helpful! Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

    Regards,

    John J.D.

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