Cannot activate Microsoft Office with a purchased yearly subscription from Mac App Store

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Level 1

4 points

Cannot activate Microsoft Office with a purchased yearly subscription from Mac App Store

Running on MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), Catalina 10.15.8, Microsoft Office 16.66.1

I have been renewing my microsoft office yearly subscriptions from Mac App Store for years.

Two weeks ago my office programs started asking for activation out of nowhere. I was unable to activate because of Error Code 0x0. I spoke to Microsoft support, apple support, i cannot further upgrade my Macos or office. I used the Licence Removal Tool, and reinstalled as per support instructions. However I still cannot activate my subscription. Apple Support also rejected my refund request. I'm stuck, i cannot use the service I have already paid, and i cannot get a refund.

My computer has been working just fine since 13 years. I'm also all good with my Microsoft Office performance. Why break down something that is working?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 19, 2026 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Rudegar

Level 10

184,786 points

Aug 19, 2026 5:35 AM in response to dayioglu

microsoft choose not to support more than the 3 newest macos versions

System requirements for Microsoft 365 for home use | Microsoft Support

"One of the three most recent versions of macOS. When a new major version of macOS is released, the macOS and the previous two versions."

so they block you from activating

suppose you can try contact them https://support.microsoft.com/contactus

personally I would not hold my breath though

you can choose to use LibreOffice it's free and read and write ms office files

otherwise you can get a newer mac that ms supports

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Answer 2

Rudegar

Level 10

184,786 points

Aug 19, 2026 8:16 AM in response to dayioglu

it's not up to the mac, it's the microsoft app which phone home to microsofts activation servers and they deline because they view the os to be too old.

it's up to all apps which os version they wish to require, some may choose only to support the newest even

these forums are user helping other users like yourself, it's sort of going to a physical apple store and asking other customers their advice

and even if apple were willing they would not be able to assist you, only think I could think of they could do would be to open up for even very old computers to get newer macOS version support which would make then slow down to a crawl and have ½ of the features not working on the old hardware.

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Answer 3

dayioglu Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 19, 2026 7:58 AM in response to Rudegar

Well I contacted Microsoft support the first thing, after all troubleshooting with their directions they asked where did I buy the software from, and directed me to App Store. However Apple also couldn't fix the error, and the App Store doesn't take any responsibility saying you can't refund after 2 months.

I had no idea that my Mac was going to lose compatibility in 9 months while I was renewing my yearly Microsoft 365 subscription. These changes are usually well planned and announced ahead. But not in this case. So be careful if you are a older Mac user when renewing your yearly subscriptions in App Store, nobody will warn you.

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