MS Office 2011 activation

Chris Au Said:

"MS Office 2011 activation: I installed a new SSD in my 2011 Mac and migrated my files using a Time Machine back-up. Now it seems that my MS Office 2011 won’t activate using the previous product key. MS is no longer supporting Office 2011 and suggests I upgrade to Office 2019 or 365 [$$$]. Supposedly, if Migration Assistant was used to transfer my files, the key would also have been transferred. My Adobe CS seems to be working fine."

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Licensing is the Culprit:

It all has to do with licensing. Just let Microsoft know that you had to replace hardware. Likely, it is seeing it as a new device, though a full assumption on my part. Start here, with the Virtual Support Agent. Start a chat with a rep, finding out where things can go from here.

"Great tip. I typed in Live chat please and got a response; only 13th in line. Went through issue with Habeeb, who was helpful, but the bottom line was I need to upgrade [$$$]."

👍 Glad you got in. Sometimes it;s a piece of cake; you just need to know how to get through.

You can always save a few by going for the free stuff (unless required to use it by school or work).

Chris Au Said:

"MS Office 2011 activation: Been there. Not 'live'. Suggested upgrade."

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To get a live Chat:

Two Thoughts:

• Keep denying that something worked

• Type a different, purely-irrelevant scenario

Give the free, open-source LibreOffice a try. It can open, edit and save MS Office files in MS Office format or it's own format.

Also Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote can open, edit and save the same files as Office formats or their own formats. Their compatibility isn't quite as good a LibreOffice's is.

Microsoft has tended to tie its software licenses to specific hardware.

Download LibreOffice and use that, or maybe use Apple iWork Pages, Keynote, and Numbers.

Here’s the archived Microsoft activation process. Also see: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/124697

Chris Au wrote:

...Yes, I'm looking into LibreOffice, but am POed that I paid for something that does not work, though I am the same person, on the same machine, but with a different HD.

This change-one-thing-and-trigger-relicensing arises with Microsoft Windows licensing, too.

Either pay Redmond for Office 2019 or for an Office 365 subscription, or switch.

iWork, Google docs, LibreOffice, etc.

Office 2016 (with patches) is the oldest version that’ll run on Catalina.

I keep license keys in Keychain notes, for those apps using that approach.

Chris Au Said:

"MS Office 2011 activation: The Virtual Support Agent was not a "live" person. Suggested I upgrade [$$$]."

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After clicking Get Started Here is what you get:

Hi Chris Au,

I suggest you contact Microsoft Support. They can help better: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us.

Cheers,

Jack

Then you might be out of luck. You should look into modern versions of Office. There is also the free web version of Office.

Cheers,

Jack

You can try a live person.