Forum Discussion
Excel 365 activation request preventing Excel-for-Mac 16.114.2 from saving file.
I have been using Excel on my Macintosh (desktop, Powerbook, MacBook, iMac and MacMini) since 1988. I purchased Microsoft Office 2019 (for Macintosh) in December 2019 and have the order number and the 29-character activation key, which I used to activate the licence, immediately or within one or two days. I created a spreadsheet on October 1, 2026, and have been using it every day since then. When I started my Mac today, I opened the spreadsheet as usual but was shown a screen "offering" me a "free trial" of Office 365 -- only two options were available "Activate" or "Try Later". I tried Office 365 about 2 or 3 years ago and it did not have the features / functions I wanted (available only with Windows) and the other functions were not an improvement on those in Excel for Macintosh -- ditto for Word -- so I cancelled the trial. I DO NOT WANT OFFICE 365 and I want to continue with Excel (and Word) for Mac, using the license I purchased two, three or four years ago. Since I did not wish to activate Excel 365, I selected "Try Later" and updated my spreadsheet, using the spreadsheet opened automatically at startup. Excel (for Mac) will no longer save my file -- the "Save" and "Save As..." options are "greyed out". To restart Excel, I clicked on "Close", thinking that would allow me to save. Instead, I got a message asking if I want to save my file followed by
"Your changes will be lost if you don't save them. Click cancel and then activate your subscription to save your changes", followed by two options "CANCEL" (which was the default) and "Don't Save".
"About Microsoft Excel" shows that the product/licence is owned by me but says that the licence is not activated (which is untrue -- see above).
The spreadsheet is important to me and uses formulae which either are not supported by Apple's "Numbers" or which work differently in Numbers. (When I go away, I take a backup copy imported into Numbers, but many of the cells with functions have the resolved values rather than the functions, so the spreadsheet is merely a table from which I could reconstruct the spreadsheet, in extremis.)
Can anyone help me, please? Is this an actual Microsoft issue or has my system been hacked?
Thank you for explaining what happened! I spent several hours constructing a backup using "Numbers" but, as I expected, a number of the functions in Excel either did not operate the same in Numbers OR were not available; I needed the backup in case I could not resolve the Excel issue.
I had "automatic updates" enabled and that seems to have caused Microsoft Updater to install updates later than 16.78; I cannot recall what version was installed before 16.114.2 but it was the one immediately prior to "114" and there was no problem with the licence -- as I said I had been using the spreadsheet virtually every day since October 1.
In desperation, I opened the old (Excel) spreadsheet using Numbers AND IT WORKED EXACTLY AS I WANTED IT! Printing the spreadsheet / report is the only problem; I need to do a lot more research to specify the different areas which make up the "report", as I have not yet found a "Print Setup" function in Numbers and printing is a bit "clunky" without it.
THANK YOU and the two others who responded; while you did not resolve the licensing issue, you set me on the track to using Numbers as a usable substitute, ending my 37-year love affair with Excel! (I once made the outrageous statement that "the world's computing problems could be solved by Excel + Word + a Macintosh" 😂😂😂😂😂
Thank you again, and goodbye!
3 Replies
Your installed Excel version and your Office 2019 entitlement do not match: Microsoft identifies 16.78 as the last Mac build supporting Office 2019 licences. Version 16.114.2 therefore cannot be activated using that older entitlement. This explains an activation problem without establishing that your Mac was hacked, and buying Microsoft 365 is not the only option. First select Cancel at the close warning and keep Excel open while you preserve the unsaved changes; record critical formulas and values separately, and back up the existing workbook. Do not reinstall or remove licences before protecting that work. Then verify the Office 2019 purchase under the Microsoft account used to redeem it. To continue with that licence, you need an Office 2019-compatible installation, although its support ended in October 2023. Office 2024 for Mac is Microsoft’s newer one-time-purchase alternative if you want a supported product without a subscription.
Thank you for explaining what happened! I spent several hours constructing a backup using "Numbers" but, as I expected, a number of the functions in Excel either did not operate the same in Numbers OR were not available; I needed the backup in case I could not resolve the Excel issue.
I had "automatic updates" enabled and that seems to have caused Microsoft Updater to install updates later than 16.78; I cannot recall what version was installed before 16.114.2 but it was the one immediately prior to "114" and there was no problem with the licence -- as I said I had been using the spreadsheet virtually every day since October 1.
In desperation, I opened the old (Excel) spreadsheet using Numbers AND IT WORKED EXACTLY AS I WANTED IT! Printing the spreadsheet / report is the only problem; I need to do a lot more research to specify the different areas which make up the "report", as I have not yet found a "Print Setup" function in Numbers and printing is a bit "clunky" without it.
THANK YOU and the two others who responded; while you did not resolve the licensing issue, you set me on the track to using Numbers as a usable substitute, ending my 37-year love affair with Excel! (I once made the outrageous statement that "the world's computing problems could be solved by Excel + Word + a Macintosh" 😂😂😂😂😂
Thank you again, and goodbye!
MS (Microsoft) Office ürünleri ve tek seferlik satın alma sonucu 🤔 , windows sistemli bilgisayarlarda 🖥️ , 1 veya 2 cihaz için, kullanım ömrü (MS ürün desteklenmesi değil) kaç yıldır?
