Non subscription Office 2021 deactivated by Microsoft. How do I use my Office 2021 licesne?

Question

Non subscription Office 2021 deactivated by Microsoft. How do I use my Office 2021 licesne?

Jeff Sumner 0

23 October software "upgrade" to Mac OS X Office 2021 install prohibits activation of my Office 2021 Perpetual license with:

Your Office 2021 license is not supported with this version of the application. Learn more

How do I (re?) install Office 2021 and activate it?

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2 answers

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Answer 1

DaveM121 (2) 17,800 Volunteer Moderator

This error is being widely reported with the Office apps on a Mac at the moment.

1

Use the steps provided on this link to remove the Office licence from your Mac:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-activation-licensing/how-to-remove-office-license-files-on-a-mac

2

Uninstall the Office apps using the steps provided on this link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/lifecycle/officeinstall/uninstall-office-for-mac

3

Then download and install the October 6th version of Office for Mac from this link.

https://res.public.onecdn.static.microsoft/mro1cdnstorage/C1297A47-86C4-4C1F-97FA-950631F94777/MacAutoupdate/Microsoft_365_and_Office_16.113.26100421_Installer.pkg

Charlie 0 Reputation points

2026-10-24T17:09:51.43+00:00

Thank you Dave for the information!!

This worked for me... Not sure why or what happened but going from licensed to not for a few days because all of other attempts failed, was very frustrating. I'm assuming removing the licensing was the important step that I didn't perform.

I will add that I removed MS office using AppCleaner (free) which removed all of the MS components, library files, etc.
DaveM121 (2) 17,800 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-25T05:57:49.6333333+00:00

Glad to help!
Jeff Sumner 0 Reputation points

2026-10-25T17:43:51+00:00

Thank you - I ended up grabbing the backup from Time Machine and that solved the issue, though I had to disable the MS Updates before it tried to break the software again.
Charlie 0 Reputation points

2026-10-25T18:10:06.1+00:00

@Jeff Sumner Following Dave steps allowed me update to the last version without licensing issues, Excel version 16.114.1 (26101919).

Answer 2

Charlie 0

Here is an update... So I was a beta test for MS office, so Auto Updater updated me automatically to the latest version, I also tested Preview Channel, and it overrides the License and updates to Office 365, and thus the license becomes invalid. If you are running into this, it is likely Microsoft AutoUpdate is set to Preview/Beta channel for updates.

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