Reinstall Office 2011 on Macbook pro on osx 10.11

  1. I have 2008 macbook pro with OSX 10.11.6 and Office 2011 on it. I had to do a clean reinstall of osx, and now I can't activate the reinstall action of office. Microsoft said "Drag the file com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist from the desktop and drag it into the Preferences folder. Enter your Mac password if prompted". When I tried that, I wasn't allowed to write to that folder. Can anyone help me out? I can't find a phone number to get a real person to help at Microsoft, so I hope the folks here can help. TIA.


Posted on Jun 8, 2024 3:19 PM

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Posted on Jun 9, 2024 11:25 AM

Microsoft have taken down the activation servers for old versions of Office. You cannot reactivate even with a valid key. Been there, encountered that. Whoever advised a erase/clean install did you no favors.


Do you have a system backup made before the erasure?


There are no current versions of Office that will install on a 2008 Mac running OS 10.11. Microsoft only supports the current OS version and the previous two.


You may be able to find an older version of the open-source LibreOffice that runs on 10.11 but even that is a long shot today.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 9, 2024 11:25 AM in response to PETERV-6

Microsoft have taken down the activation servers for old versions of Office. You cannot reactivate even with a valid key. Been there, encountered that. Whoever advised a erase/clean install did you no favors.


Do you have a system backup made before the erasure?


There are no current versions of Office that will install on a 2008 Mac running OS 10.11. Microsoft only supports the current OS version and the previous two.


You may be able to find an older version of the open-source LibreOffice that runs on 10.11 but even that is a long shot today.

Jun 9, 2024 10:30 AM in response to PETERV-6

PETERV-6 wrote:

I have 2008 macbook pro with OSX 10.11.6 and Office 2011 on it. I had to do a clean reinstall of osx, and now I can't activate the reinstall action of office. Microsoft said "Drag the file com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist from the desktop and drag it into the Preferences 1. folder. Enter your Mac password if prompted". When I tried that, I wasn't allowed to write to that folder. Can anyone help me out? I can't find a phone number to get a real person to help at Microsoft, so I hope the folks here can help. TIA.


for your third party app—if in doubt search the developers website or contact their: Support/Help/FAQ/Known issues/compatibility/updates…


Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support

Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support



Microsoft Corporation/Customer service

1 (800) 642-7676


Microsoft support

https://support.microsoft.com


Ask the Microsoft Community

https://answers.microsoft.com/


Microsoft 365 help & learning




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Reinstall Office 2011 on Macbook pro on osx 10.11

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