Bought Microsoft 365 for Mac through Apple App Store and it will not download?

Question

Bought Microsoft 365 for Mac through Apple App Store and it will not download?

DebTom 0

Purchased Microsoft 365 trial subscription for MacBook Air through Apple App Store and received purchase confirmation. Microsoft 365 will not download and no installer in the downloads folder. Clicking the download arrow in the App Store eventually completes and I press the OPEN button but it only provides a read-only version.

The subscription is verified at microsoft.com but it will not download the workable, purchased version. Apple support has spent several hours on the phone with me; there is no apparent problem on the Apple side. I understand there are others in the Microsoft community with this same problem. Has anyone found a solution? Does anyone know if Microsoft has acknowledged the problem? Has Microsoft provided a solution?

DebTom 0 Reputation points

2025-11-04T02:55:55.98+00:00

Initially, the installer wouldn't launch as it was actually downloading to my Mac for about 30 minutes. It installed, presented the license agreement, etc. all the usual stuff. Very encouraging but when I opened Word, it again was only a read version. I tried the only three email accounts we have and it says that none of them have an account (they are all registered with Microsoft). Working on this since breakfast so I have to give up for now. I truly appreciate your help and even if there is nothing more you can add, I am confident that you helped me make real progress. I will update this item when there's progress. Thank you!

3 answers

Your answer

DebTom 0 Reputation points

2025-11-04T02:55:55.98+00:00

Initially, the installer wouldn't launch as it was actually downloading to my Mac for about 30 minutes. It installed, presented the license agreement, etc. all the usual stuff. Very encouraging but when I opened Word, it again was only a read version. I tried the only three email accounts we have and it says that none of them have an account (they are all registered with Microsoft). Working on this since breakfast so I have to give up for now. I truly appreciate your help and even if there is nothing more you can add, I am confident that you helped me make real progress. I will update this item when there's progress. Thank you!

Answer 1

Sumit D - IA, I have tried everything I could find from Microsoft to remedy the problem but the installation continues to bring me to a read-only version. In an additional session with Apple I confirmed that I can convert my Word and Excel files into Pages and Numbers files on my Mac. Since I had already logged about 20 hours on this issue, I gave up. With my PC/Mac-compatible external drive, I can quickly and easily pull my files over. I can convert them as I need to work with them. The bottom line is if anyone had known the problem was going to eat up so many resources to no avail, I would have just used the external drive in the first place. I still see no indication that Microsoft is working on this precise problem. I am very grateful that you jumped in to help and I wish we could have been successful.

BTW, as this is my first Mac and I am pretty awkward (spending all time on this one problem) with all aspects of operation, the thought of downloading an alternate browser is daunting. eeek.

Again, thank you.

Answer 2

SD - IA 180.7K Independent Advisor

Thanks, That is weird. Maybe try with Chrome or Edge? It is a .pkg file intended for Mac.

0 comments

Answer 3

SD - IA 180.7K Independent Advisor

Hi Debtom,

Please try the following link:

https://officecdn.microsoft.com/pr/C1297A47-86C4-4C1F-97FA-950631F94777/MacAutoupdate/Microsoft_365_and_Office_16.102.25101223_Installer.pkg

Sign in with the Microsoft account you linked and let me know if it works.

I look forward to your response and am eager to collaborate until we find a solution.

DebTom 0 Reputation points

2025-11-04T01:47:10.34+00:00

Not there yet. The download stops and says basically "Safari stopped download as this is not a downloadable file." ?
Mark Davidson 0 Reputation points

2026-10-07T15:50:46.45+00:00

A big Thank You to SD-IA! I had the same problems as Debtom, and I followed all the alternatives suggested by AI, but nothing worked. So I tried your link, and the first time didn't work so I tried again, and then it did work. What a relief!!