Office 2016 disappears on Monday 28 along with Outlook and now read only

Question

Office 2016 disappears on Monday 28 along with Outlook and now read only

Pirouz 0

Hi, I purchased perpetual Office 2016 and Outlook in July 2016 along with my computer, all from HP. I had been using them eversince. I don't know if it was family or for business. I just know it was a bundle including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and maybe some others.
Last Monday (Sept 28) it all disappeared while I tried to read my emails.

In the afternoon, .exe were working again, but only on read only mode, asking for the licence key.

I called HP (they sold me the Office suite). They told me they could not give me the licence key because the purchase was too old for their systems and advised be to get the key from my MS account.

I went to my MS account where there was no trace of any licence key although they had my computer caracteristics!

I read now that this may have been caused by KB5002907 update that ran by error on my computer.

Now I am stuck, my accounting, work and ten years archives are frozen.

Could you help me get back my key and my work please?

Best

PS: If it may help, I can provide the HP invoice with some specific information including the Pack ID number and Delivery certificate number

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Answer 1

Xavier-D 13,755 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello Pirouz,

Based on the timing and symptoms, your issue may be related to the recent KB5002907 update.

This update affected some Office 2016 and Office 2019 installations, causing Office to appear unlicensed or, in some cases, to be removed.

Please be aware that support for Office 2016 ended on October* 14, *2025. An existing installation may continue to function, but Microsoft no longer provides regular technical support, security updates, or bug fixes for this version. Continuing to use an unsupported version may therefore present security, reliability, and compatibility risks.

Your documents and archives are likely still stored on the computer. The read-only behavior occurs because Office is no longer activated.

Since the license does not appear in your Microsoft account and HP cannot retrieve the original product key, I recommend contacting Microsoft Support and providing the HP invoice, Pack ID, and Delivery Certificate number as proof of purchase. Support can review the licensing information and advise whether your Office 2016 entitlement can be restored.

You can contact Microsoft Support here:

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas.

Open a website link - Contact - Microsoft Support
In the box below "We're here to help", type Microsoft 365, click "Get Help", and then click "Contact Support" below.
In this section, you will need to sign in to your Microsoft account.
Select "Microsoft 365 and Office" under Products & Services, select "Technical Support" as the category, and click to confirm
You can select " Chat with a support agent in your web browser " to access the chat window.

I hope you can get the support you need, have a nice day.

Pirouz 0 Reputation points

2026-10-02T11:14:03.8933333+00:00

Hi, Thank you so much for this advice. It made me make a real step forward.

I contacted MS technical support.

A first person tried very nicely to help and restore etc. but the remote assistant engine aborted and he couldn't finish. He acknowledged I had a well installed product and that finally I just needed a key to be re-entered.

I retried again to contact MS support and the new person had a quite unpleasant (legal) behaviour, telling me to buy a new licence, saying it is not proven that KB5002907 is the pb (well apart from MS who can tell? there is a conflict of interest here, MS trying to push perpetual licenses to 365!) and that despite the invoice information I could provide, only HP can fix the product-key pb. Very unpleasant. If I can't fix this pb I doubt I will get back to an editor that doesn't take responsiblity.

Even if the outcome is unsatisfactory so far, thank you, Xavier, for the guidance
Xavier-D 13,755 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-05T23:30:11+00:00

Hi Pirouz

Thank you for reporting back.

I am glad the earlier guidance helped you move forward, but I am sorry that your second contact with Support was such a frustrating experience.

Microsoft has acknowledged that KB5002907 may cause some Office 2016 and Office 2019 installations to become unlicensed or, in rare cases, be removed. Support must still verify that the update was installed and validate the original license before determining the available resolution.

Because the first agent reportedly confirmed that Office was properly installed and needed reactivation, please contact Support again using the same case number, if available. Ask the next agent to review the previous notes and escalate the matter for an Office activation or licensing review. Have your HP invoice, Pack ID, Delivery Certificate number, update history, and prior support details ready.

Although Office 2016 is no longer supported, end of support does not by itself cause a perpetual license to expire.

However, this public forum cannot retrieve or issue product keys, so the case ultimately needs to be resolved by Microsoft Support or, if it is confirmed to be an OEM-managed entitlement, HP.