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Office 2016 For Mac Not Signing In

Learning has never been so easy!

Simply signing into Office as another User does not change the 'Belongs to' entry in Office 2016. If the person it belongs to doesn't match the signed in person Office 2016 will start showing a licensing error.

  1. Go to in a web browser. If you have purchased a Microsoft Office 365 subscription/product card or ordered the software from an online store, you have a 25-digit product key (in the form of XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX) on your card or receipt.
  2. Outlook 2016/2019 for Mac does not support allowing subscribed Public Folder users to send on behalf of that Public Folder calendar. Users can send meeting invitations from their own Exchange account and can include that Public Folder as a recipient.

'You need to activate Office for Mac within X days' after activating already. Microsoft is aware of and currently working on this issue. If you've activated Office for Mac 2016 but are still seeing a message that says 'You need to activate Office for Mac within X days,' please try these steps to resolve your issue: Run the License Removal Tool.

It would be nice if there was a change owner button, or something similar, but there isn't. Luckily, it's not too hard to fix.

4 Steps total

Step 1: Open a command prompt

Ms office 2016 for mac

Use your favorite method to get a command prompt open. Winkey+R then CMD, Start then Command Prompt, etc.

NOTE - you need to run this as administrator

Step 2: Run the ospp.vbs command

Office 2016 Mac Sign In Not Working

Run the following command to get the last 5 digits of the product key:

cscript.exe '%ProgramFiles(x86)%Microsoft OfficeOffice16ospp.vbs' /dstatus

2016

Step 3: Run ospp.vbs again, different options

Office 2016 for mac not signing instructions

Office 2016 For Mac

Run the same command again, but change the options. This time you will be unpublishing the key you found in step 2. Replace XXXXX with the key from step 2.

cscript.exe '%ProgramFiles(x86)%Microsoft OfficeOffice16ospp.vbs' /unpkey:XXXXX

Office 2016 mac sign in not working

Step 4: Exit command prompt, run an Office app

Once you've exited the command prompt open any Office program (Word, Excel, etc.) and you will be prompted to sign in. Whatever account you sign in with will become the 'Belongs to' account.

It only takes a few seconds to do this, but I don't know why MS made it so you have to leave the apps and go CLI for it.

Office 2016 For Mac Not Signing Instructions

References

Buy Office 2016 For Mac

Office 2016 for mac support
  • PS script wrapper to automate these steps

Ms Office 2016 For Mac

6 Comments

  • Datil
    Josh_Cunning Oct 13, 2017 at 07:54pm

    I have this issue a lot and you might also need to check a few other places for like the Credential Manager

    Also you might need to clear this registry entries:
    HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0 or 16.0CommonIdentityIdentities
    HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftProtected Storage System Provider
    HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0 or 16.0CommonIdentity
    HKEYU(The Users SID)SoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0 or 16.0CommonIdentity

  • Pure Capsaicin
    DragonsRule Oct 13, 2017 at 07:55pm

    I've never had to do any of that, but thanks for the info.

  • Pimiento
    tommurphy5 Oct 13, 2017 at 09:11pm

    yeah you can do this, good for non-shared activation of Office 365 2016. its worth looking into the Office Deployment Toolkit from MS, you can setup Shared-User activation for systems that have multi users.

  • Chipotle
    uberchemist Feb 1, 2019 at 08:53pm

    Running the commands alone did not affect the 'Belongs to:' entry for me, though I am running Office 365, not 2016. But the comment from Josh about clearing the registry entries DID work. Thanks guys!

  • Anaheim
    DiscordantQ Jun 20, 2019 at 01:36pm

    is there a fix for Mac for this? or will this work just as well in Terminal?

  • Pure Capsaicin
    DragonsRule Jun 20, 2019 at 01:42pm

    Sorry, I have no Apple devices so have no idea.