Office Home & Student 2021 - nothing is saving/working

Question

Office Home & Student 2021 - nothing is saving/working

Zara 0

I purchased a license for this in 2021 (for macOS), and all of a sudden it's saying I need to upgrade or activate my license, and none of my documents will save. What do I do? I know that support has now ended for this but I should still be able to use my purchase and save my documents!

Zara 0 Reputation points

2026-10-26T13:15:31.78+00:00

I tried signing out/back in to Word to re-activate my license and it worked. Then tried to do the same on Excel and I got an Error Code: 16 'couldn't refresh license'

1 answer

Your answer

Zara 0 Reputation points

2026-10-26T13:15:31.78+00:00

I tried signing out/back in to Word to re-activate my license and it worked. Then tried to do the same on Excel and I got an Error Code: 16 'couldn't refresh license'

Answer 1

Norah-L 13,140 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello Zara,

This issue appears to be affecting multiple Office 2021 for Mac users. Your one-time-purchase license has not expired, but a recent Office version 16.114.1 (26102031) may be preventing the apps from refreshing it correctly.

A new Office for Mac update 16.114.2 (26102345) was released on October 26, 2026, so first open Word or Excel and select Help > Check for Updates. Install all available updates, also finish installing any available macOS updates, restart your Mac, and then check whether Office activates correctly. But also keep in mind that Office 2021 reached the end of support on October 13, 2026, Microsoft might no longer provides new security or bug-fix updates.

If the issue continues after installing the latest update, try removing the current Office version and installing an earlier release as a temporary workaround.

Completely uninstall Office, then download and install Office for Mac version 16.114 (build 26101123) or 16.113 (build 26091433) from the official Update history for Office for Mac page. These installers also apply to the one-time-purchase Office 2021 edition.
Open Word or Excel and sign in only with the personal Microsoft account used to purchase Office Home & Student 2021. If prompted to choose a licence, select the Office 2021 one-time-purchase licence.

If the steps above do not help, you can also try installing the Office apps separately using their individual installers.

Please let me know how it goes. Thank you for your patience!

Norah-L 13,140 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-28T07:41:38.2033333+00:00

Hi Zara,

Just checking in to see if you’ve had a chance to try the suggested steps. Please feel free to share any updates.
Zara 0 Reputation points

2026-10-28T12:25:28.6066667+00:00

Hi Noah, thanks for all your help. I tried installing the latest updates but they kept getting stuck on the very final stage. Instead, I installed an older version and everything is working. Should the latest version update work as well? I might try this in a few weeks time, but for now everything is good on version 16.104
Norah-L 13,140 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-29T00:19:16.6+00:00

Hi Zara,

Thank you for the update. I’m glad to hear that installing an older version has got everything working again.

For now, I would suggest staying on the version that is working rather than updating immediately. You can try the latest version again in a few weeks, but as Office 2021 has reached end of support, there is no guarantee that a newer version will resolve the activation issue.

If everything is working correctly on version 16.104, you can continue using it for now. You may also temporarily turn off automatic Office updates: open Word > Help > Check for Updates, then clear Automatically keep Microsoft apps up to date in Microsoft AutoUpdate.

Best regards.