cannot sign in to Office for Home and Business 2021 (Mac)

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cannot sign in to Office for Home and Business 2021 (Mac)

John Thomas 5

As an attempt to get help with a different problem (in Word), I try but fail to sign on to my account. Spinning wheel and frozen Word.

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Answer 1

For Office Home and Business 2021 for Mac, sign-in is not normally required just to use the one-time purchase license. If Word is freezing with a spinning wheel when trying to sign in, use this order:

In Word, open Word > About Microsoft Word.
Check the Belongs to: line.
Select More Info > Refresh License.
If prompted, sign in with the Microsoft account associated with the Office purchase.

If Word still freezes or the sign-in window does not complete:

Quit all Office apps.
Open Keychain Access.
Search for Office and Microsoft and remove related Office/Microsoft credential items.
Reopen Word and try again.

If the problem continues, use the official Mac license reset path:

Run the License Removal Tool for Mac.
Restart the Mac after it finishes.
Open Word and sign in again with the account that has the Office license.

If that still does not fix it:

Create a new macOS user account and test Word there. This helps confirm whether the issue is tied to the current macOS profile.
If the issue also happens in the new profile, uninstall Office for Mac and reinstall it from the Microsoft account Services & subscriptions area.

For repeated sign-in prompts or Authentication Expired behavior on Mac, reset keychain permissions using the Microsoft guidance for Office for Mac repeatedly requesting keychain access.