Forum Discussion
Office Home & Business 2019 license no longer recognized after reinstall ("No license found")
This issue isn't related to hardware,it's a known issue affecting all Office 2019 Mac users.
Microsoft used an embedded license validation certificate for Office 2019 Mac. This certificate expired on July 13, 2026. Main support for Office 2019 Mac ended in October 2023, and extended support in October 2025. Therefore, Microsoft hasn't issued a new certificate. Once the certificate expired, the license validation system stopped working.
Office only opens in view/print mode; creation, editing, and saving functions are disabled. Reinstalling, clearing the cache, or trying different versions doesn't work because the problem is with the certificate, not the device. This isn't related to older Mac hardware; it occurs on newer devices as well.
Solution options:
Free: Use the web versions of Word/Excel/PowerPoint via Office.com.
One-time purchase: Office 2024 for Mac.
Subscription: Microsoft 365.
I’m in the same situation, and I agree that this is not a hardware issue. My Office 2019 for Mac licence was legitimately purchased as a perpetual licence, and I am not asking for continued support or updates.
The web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are not equivalent replacements for the desktop applications. PowerPoint for the web, for example, is missing functionality that is essential to my work, such as access to the Slide Master. I have tried using it, and it simply cannot do what my existing PowerPoint 2019 installation could do.
Buying Office 2024 or a Microsoft 365 subscription is not an acceptable solution either. It means purchasing another product to replace software we have already purchased, and in my case it also requires a newer macOS.
I understand that Office 2019 is no longer supported. I am not asking Microsoft to support it, update it, or add new features. I simply want to continue using the software I already paid for.
The issue is that our perpetual licences have effectively been rendered unusable, and none of the proposed options restores what we purchased. They all require us to either accept a significantly more limited product or purchase another Microsoft product. That is not an acceptable solution. 😡
