How to fix Office 365 or Office 2016 “Activation” or “Unlicensed Product” Problems
How to deal with common Microsoft Office issues such as activation and reinstalling.
Please read the following self-help guide. If you still have problems, please bring your computer to our office in Subiaco and we will fix the issues for you for a small fee.
The latest versions of Microsoft Office (Office 365 and Office 2016) both need activating by logging into an Office 365 account.
This is normally achieved upon installation, however we have noticed that Windows or Office automatic updates can sometimes result in the products being “Disabled” or requiring “Activation”
These problems can occur in any or all of the Office products such as Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Publisher, OneNote, Outlook, Infopath or Lync; by displaying one of the following messages (or similar)
“Unlicensed Product”
“Product Deactivated”
“We’re sorry, something went wrong and we can’t do this for you right now. Please try again later”
or similar.
You can re-activate Office 365 or Office 2016 in a number of ways as follows
1) Repair Office 365 or Office 2016
In Windows 7 or 8 locate “Control Panel” > “Programs” > “Programs and Features”
Highlight “Office 365 ProPlus” (do not click on it) and select the “Change” button
Select “Quick Repair“. If this does not fix your problems try “Online Repair” and failing that move to Step 2) below
In Windows 10
Right-click the Start button 
(lower-left corner), and select Control Panel pop-up menu.
1a) From Category view, under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
1b) Right-click the Microsoft Office product you want to repair, and select Change.
NOTE: If you have a suite such as Office 365 Home or Office Home and Student 2013 or 2016, search for the suite name, even if it’s just a particular application you want to repair such as Word or Excel. If you have a standalone application such as Word or Excel, search for the application name.
1c) From the How would you like to repair your Office Programs screen, select Online Repair to ensure everything gets fixed, and then select Repair. You can select Quick Repair which runs faster but only detects and then replaces corrupted files. Online Repair does an uninstall and complete repair but takes longer.
1d) Follow the instructions on the screen to complete.
2) Reinstall Office 365 or Office 2016
From any of the office products click on the left arrow in the top left of the product, then click on “Office Account”
Click on “Manage Account” to login to your Office 365 or Office 2016 account
Once signed in, navigate to “software”
Then click on “Install“. This will downlaod a file that needs to be executed by clicking on it. This will start the “Office 365 reinstall”
3) Further Reading
You will also find more useful links and information at the following Microsoft links
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/activate-office-2013-programs-HA102819770.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2899838
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg702620(v=office.15).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg998767(v=office.15).aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/project-help/repair-or-remove-office-HA010357402.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929
Need more help?
If you live in Western Australia, and you need any kind of computer help, please bring your computer to us at 315 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, Western Australia or call us out. You can contact us here or call:
For instant remote control support download and install our TeamViewer remote control software By Clicking Here and following the instructions found on this page
23 comments to “How to fix Office 365 or Office 2016 “Activation” or “Unlicensed Product” Problems”
George S - December 28, 2016
Word was playing up as ‘unlicensed’ even though I had six months left. Great – quick repair helped perfect. Thank you!
sam - January 16, 2017
HI, I have a PC at my work place and I want to activate Microsoft office 2016 using my own account and this message pops up “THE ACCOUNT …….@gmail.com isnt associated with this office product.” I know what it means, but i just want to ask, Is there a way for me to activate office using my own account. cause the person using this computer before used his account to install it..
John Kirkby - January 20, 2017
Try “Sign-Out” of the existing account and then sign in with yours. However, to do this you will need to purchase a licence. If you have you may then need to reinstall office. You cannot simply switch to another email if you do not own the software or the subscription.
J - March 5, 2017
Thank you so much!
Rachel - March 14, 2017
Thank you.This worked so quickly!
Mark - April 30, 2017
THANK you. Easy, fast fix — and much appreciated!
bil - May 6, 2017
can i ask how to fix https://login.live.com that is not working?
par - June 26, 2017
Thank you
TJ Walden - July 26, 2017
You can also check the associated email address under Office Account. I have seen at companies where they used to have an onsite Exchange and then moved to Office 365 online, it will often get the account wrong. Check spelling and or syntax. like instead of J.doe@gmail.com it may be J.doe@Googledomain.local
Kalissa Friedman - August 28, 2017
Thanks for that LOVELY advice – my computer now COMPLETELY uninstalled ALL microsoft office products THANKS TO THIS ARTICLE 2 hours before my assignment is due!!!!!!!!
Toni Mayr - December 1, 2017
Hi,
all above mentioned possibilities were done today on my PC by a consierge supporter from MS. Actually he did it twice 🙂
Finally , nothing changed.
Opening Outlook 2016 or Word / Excel I still get a warning, that I may have a volume licence product and it is not verified.
Yes, thx for the news …I know that I have Office 365 Business Premium and I definitely have a registered account :-))
So what….even MS Support is not able to handle own products???
BR Tony from Germany
GILBERT CHAUSSENERY - January 6, 2018
thanks at last working you are the best
KMN - February 6, 2018
Greetings.
Please advise how to export my emails from outlook while my 365 office licence is expired. Please note that i will change my office to 2016 pro instead of 365.
Thanking you in advance.
John Kirkby - February 10, 2018
When you download the valid copy of Office 365 or Office 2016, the program should detect your old mail file and restore all the settings to your current copy of Outlook.
Robert - April 2, 2018
I have one pc that will not register. I have looked on the admin account and all looks good, I have uninstalled it and we installed it. I have logged off her account and logged on my account is it still wouldn’t register. I have no idea why this wont register. I haven’t have her log on a different computer to see if that might work.I ‘m not sure what would stop hers from registering on line. Any ideas of what to o next?
John Kirkby - April 3, 2018
This may be due to the computer having been installed using another licence or account in the past. That computer needs to be removed from that licence before being added to the new one. We have experienced similar problems when trying to “change” the licence ie Business to Business Pro Plus, bu this is usually solved by uninstalling one and then reinstalling the other… are you sure Onedrive or Sharepoint is not still running as a process in the background?
KISHOR - April 14, 2018
Dear Sir, Previously I installed ms office 2016 pro plus and used to show user information as XXXXXXX
I wanted morph so I purchased new ms office 365 , 2016 Subscription Product home copy with XXXXXXXXXX
First I uninstalled previous ms office 2016 pro plus and installed new mso 265, 2016 Subscription Product, now it shows user information XXXXXX
But, Now it says Activation required and on Thursday, April 19, 2018 most features of power point will be disabled. Please help me.
Paul - May 10, 2018
All the money we pay for office 365 products (900) and we keep getting unlicensed product errors in Windows 10 Enterprise. I do not understand why we would have to reinstall the whole product, or purchase another license. It was working yesterday.
lovemore - May 27, 2018
Trying to get the product key
daniel - June 14, 2018
Why can’t I copy and paste my resume to edit it in another software since my office 365 has run out? I have to pay to be able to apply for jobs when I am applying to acquire money in the first place?
joann - July 28, 2018
thank you very much….it really worked.
Rob Read - August 6, 2018
Thanks heaps itguys, the online repair fixed our ‘unlicensed’ Office 2016 issue.
Cheers….Rob
John Clemence - October 1, 2018
I tried all of the listed solutions when getting this message re activation every time I tried to use Outlook but only on one of my five machines. Then I accidentally discovered a solution that worked for me every time. I closed outlook and opened word. It automatically reactivated straight away and then I found that I could open outlook and continue as usual. Have no idea why this should work but hey, it does!