office mac keeps asking for license key with fusion drive

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Level 1

9 points

office mac keeps asking for license key with fusion drive

I'm posting this in case anyone else is having this trouble where Office for Mac 2011 keeps asking for the license key. I have a later 2013 iMac with Fusion drive and never have been able to use office on this computer without entering the key. In talking with Microsoft they removed office and all the files and reinstalled with no help. In speaking with Apple, they said there is a known issue with Microsoft Office and the Fusion drive and Microsoft is working on a patch. Evidently the fusion drive moves the files around and to Microsoft that looks like new hardware so it prompts for the key. Realy annoying! Microsoft

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Fusion Drive

Posted on Jan 18, 2014 7:02 AM

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Answer 1

Rudegar

Level 10

180,600 points

Jan 18, 2014 9:14 AM in response to hawkman123

don't believe microsoft read these forums

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/support

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Answer 2

Jan 20, 2014 12:14 PM in response to hawkman123

I reported this issue both to Apple and Microsoft developers in early December last year. They tried to troubleshoot to no avail. Apple said it was a Microsoft issue and vice versa. Further investigation by Microsoft isolated the problem as unique to iMacs with fusion drives. So it is a hardware problem. They are consulting with each other and are working on a solution. Microsoft calls me with an update around twice a week, but so far, they haven't found a solution. I am glad I am not the only one with this problem. If you don't quit Office and when you start up your computer, you wait till you get to the Mac UserID screen before you turn on your mouse/trackpad and keyboard, sometimes Office will run without asking for your product key.

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Answer 3

uruzone

Level 1

24 points

Feb 11, 2014 8:59 PM in response to hawkman123

I'm a certified Apple consultant and I recently hit this issue at an installation. On seven iMacs with the Fusion drive, I deleted the "Thunderbolt Bridge" interface from the Network System Preference. We then rebooted the computers, entered the product key one more time, and so far, the problem has disappeared and survives subsequent rebootings.

Obviously, if you are frequently networking two Macs using Thunderbolt, this isn't a good long-term solution (though it is easily added back). However, it does appear to work. I have no sound theory as to why it works, except that Office might be interpreting the existence of that bridge as evidence that the software was copied onto a machine instead of properly installed. This is just a wild guess, though.

I have no idea if it will work for others, but hey, the forums are for throwing out these ideas and seeing if one of them sticks for most people. So...there it is.

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Answer 4

hawkman123 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 13, 2014 2:43 PM in response to uruzone

This seems to have worked for me too so far.. The funny thing is Microsoft called me today to tell me they were closing the case and I would need to wait for a general update which he had no timeframe on. I told him about this and said this may be an option but he said he would leave that for the engineers. I deleted the bridge yesterday and so far after 24 hours and a reboot, it has not asked for the key.

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Answer 5

hawkman123 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 17, 2014 3:15 PM in response to uruzone

I thought this had fixed it, but after a couple of days it is asking for a license key again. I had deleted the Thunderbolt Bridge and thought this fixed it. I currently have in my network prefernces Ethernet, Wireless, Thunderbird Firewire, Bluetooth PAN. Only the Ethernet is active.

I use a thunderbolt to firewire cable to connect to my external drive if that matters.

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Answer 6

uksaint

Level 1

8 points

Feb 18, 2014 10:49 AM in response to hawkman123

I'm glad I've seen this as this issue has been driving me mad. I got the latest imac last November with the fusion drive and bought office 2011 at the same time and have had the product key issue ever since. Some days it seems not to need the key and works fine other days you have to re-enter the key as said.

I hope they do a patch for this ASAP.

In the meantime I'll try the thunderbolt bridge thing mentioned.

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Answer 7

TaselJR

Level 1

0 points

Feb 21, 2014 10:19 AM in response to hawkman123

Microsoft has posted this as an offical fix - http://www.officeformachelp.com/2014/02/fusion-drive-solution-to-activate-office -for-mac-2011/

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Answer 8

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Feb 21, 2014 10:26 AM in response to TaselJR

TaselJR wrote:

Microsoft has posted this as an offical fix - http://www.officeformachelp.com/2014/02/fusion-drive-solution-to-activate-office -for-mac-2011/

While this may be a fix, this was NOT posted by Microsoft, that is a third party website. Not that it matters as long a solution is found, just wanted you to know it's not a Microsoft solution.

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Answer 9

hawkman123 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 21, 2014 11:31 AM in response to TaselJR

This fix doesnt fix the problem. It fixed mine for 2 days but then started asking for a key again. I've been in contact with Microsoft since this started and they stated it is still a problem.

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Answer 10

Johndraw

Level 1

0 points

Feb 23, 2014 11:05 AM in response to hawkman123

Another voice .... I called Microsoft with the same issue, and they used this page to show me the solution to the problem. For me, it is not. Did the steps as described to just be back to where I started. It did not fix the problem.

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Answer 11

hawkman123 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2014 12:51 PM in response to Johndraw

Yea there isn't a fix. I was hopeful this worked but it didn't. Really frustrated at Apple and Microsoft. Throw this stupid thing out the window.

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Answer 12

Apr 1, 2014 2:30 AM in response to uruzone

Hi, I have an external LaCie Thunderbolt drive on my iMac 2011 and am experiencing the same license key prompt issue. I haven't yet removed the Thunderbolt Bridge, but before doing so, I was wondering if it's easy to activate it again at a future date? I understand that it's only use is to allow for easier migration of data from one computer to another. Will there be a future prompt asking me to reconnect the Thunderbolt Bridge if I try to migrate data?

Thanks in advance!

Message was edited by: JSCappleforum

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Answer 13

Apr 1, 2014 2:45 AM in response to hawkman123

Hi, I just found this solution on the Microsoft site..it involves removing various "Licensing helper" files. Is this safe to do?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2476507

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Answer 14

uksaint

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2014 10:37 AM in response to JSCappleforum

There are other threads about this issue. The main problem though about Office and the Licence key login issue now seems to have been resolved on the new fusion imacs by upgrading Mavericks to 10.9.2. It certainly has for me.

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Answer 15

Apr 19, 2014 1:35 AM in response to uksaint

10.9.2 has not resolved this for me, still get Office requesting a licence key on what appears to be every other restart.

This might not be possible, but could the relevant licence part ofthe application causing this issue be forced to reside on the HDD and reference the HDDs ID rather than the SSD... if I understand the problem correctly?

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