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Can't install licensed Office 2011 on a Macintosh computer

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DanielLewisUSA12345

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2020
1
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I have Microsoft Office 2011 that I purchased years ago. I still have the installer file and the product key for it. I am currently migrating to a different computer with the same operating system 10.12.6. I installed the Office 2011 on the new computer and opened one of the programs. It requires me to register. I put in the product key and submit. It says “Server is not available.” I have tried this several times. I also called the phone number given, gave the long code and received a new code. The new code does not work. I also tried this several times.
I did search for answers on the internet. I found the trick of replacing files in the LaunchDaemons, PrivilegedHelperTools, and Preferences folders. No success.
Any more ideas? Please help! Thanks.
 
DanielLewisUSA12345 said:
I have Microsoft Office 2011 that I purchased years ago. I still have the installer file and the product key for it. I am currently migrating to a different computer with the same operating system 10.12.6. I installed the Office 2011 on the new computer and opened one of the programs. It requires me to register. I put in the product key and submit. It says “Server is not available.” I have tried this several times. I also called the phone number given, gave the long code and received a new code. The new code does not work. I also tried this several times.
I did search for answers on the internet. I found the trick of replacing files in the LaunchDaemons, PrivilegedHelperTools, and Preferences folders. No success.
Any more ideas? Please help! Thanks.
Click to expand...

There's a thread about this here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...1/56ef2f0c-3854-4b61-9df0-56b9a284885f?page=1

Also, MS officially stopped supporting Office 2011 on October 10th, 2017. As a result there's always a possibility that this means you'll not be able to reactivate it with your key...
 
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Just installed 2011. First about 4 months ago, and then about 2 weeks ago (a failing drive finally failed). Had to use the phone system. It is a lot of numbers, and of course, they have to be exactly right.
 
DanielLewisUSA12345 said:
I still have the installer file and the product key for it. I am currently migrating to a different computer with the same operating system 10.12.6.
Click to expand...
Totally commiserate! (Funny how so few people actually read the OP.) I'm trying to use the SAME Mac with the SAME OS, (new SSD) and I cannot. I've even tried loading an older version of Office and moving the files you mentioned. There has to be another file somewhere that contains a link to the code embedded in the 3 files.

The Microsoft activation servers are indeed offline *for 2011,* though they'll let you enter your activation code, all ~30 digits, before vaguely telling you that they couldn't verify it. They could indicate that certain versions' codes are no longer going to be provided before we waste 20 minutes entering codes that worked even as recently as a month ago. The phone activation service IS still available. How much money can they be saving by refusing those of us who CANNOT upgrade due to OS requirements, other old software licenses, etc.

Certainly puts me off this subscription-service push. I don't need a new copy of Word, nor do my clients. Since we no longer have access to standalone product key options to support the computers we've been using for the last 10 years—if we're to follow big tech's recommendations—there would soon be many more machines in a landfill that otherwise are perfectly functional. Intuit, of all companies, still gives activation codes for QuickBooks at least as far back as 2013! Wow, Intuit beats Microsoft in support... Never thought I'd see the day!

There's always LibreOffice, and OpenOffice. We're investigating these options, because an El Cap Mac cannot run Office 2016, which is also now deprecated in favor of 2019.

I'm thinking about collectors, historians, and forensic analysts needing old hardware. Up to about 2011 — the point where commercial software started to be obtained/activated from app stores and the cloud — hardware could still be curated. After that, a great deal of major software requires some kind of IPv6 activation. In a few years, if you need to open a file created on hardware from 2015? Sorry, no software can be found or activated for any hardware in that year, including the OS.
 
Just to clarify, the license key number and physical hard drive are connected in the mysterious activation file…so even if you could figure out where that is it won't work with a new hard drive. My first experience with this was years ago cloning a system drive to a new hard drive. The clone needed a new key.

I'd say that if you're trying a phone activation make sure you're not connected to the internet.
 
BrianBaughn said:
Just to clarify, the license key number and physical hard drive are connected in the mysterious activation file…so even if you could figure out where that is it won't work with a new hard drive. My first experience with this was years ago cloning a system drive to a new hard drive. The clone needed a new key.

I'd say that if you're trying a phone activation make sure you're not connected to the internet.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'd suspected as much, but this doesn't explain why I cannot relicense on the same machine, on the same drive, when used externally (just tried it.) Perhaps the drive ID changes when it is connected via a different bus? I can swear that I've done a migration to a new computer and I wasn't required to reactivate...but memory can be faulty, I think. I can't remember.

Anyway, doesn't matter if the machine is connected to 'Net because the phone activation, which was the only method working even a month ago, is no longer. You won't get anywhere with tech support. I've tried 3 times, using different methods across several weeks. It's clear that this is dead software.

I think the only recourse for those of us changing hardware on a working system would be for Microsoft to reinstate the phone activation system, or they release a key that works in a standalone manner...or we all move to LibreOffice.
 
BrianBaughn said:
LibreOffice is cool and has a feature that Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote should have adopted…making .docx, .xlsx and .pptx the default file types.
Click to expand...
... up to a point. Try to save a file in MS format in LibreOffice, and you'll see a dialog box that informs you to consider saving in native Open Document format to capture all of the formatting. SoftMaker Office is better at using Microsoft's file formats as native.

LibroOffice is free, however.
 
sgtaylor5 said:
SoftMaker Office
Click to expand...
Thanks for this! I had not heard of it. Price beats MS. Anyone used this in a business setting? Good support? It would have to be a no-brainer translating/receiving/sending files, though, plus dead stable when editing docs on a server, etc.
 
Support is forum only.

There is no real translation if you pick Microsoft formats as the default in the settings for each module.

I never had any problems with SoftMaker Office when I used it but then I never had the need to edit server-based documents.
 
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It is interesting to note that while MS seems to have disallowed online (and now phone) activation for Office 2011 for Mac, there is no such limitation for Windows 7, or Access 2010, both of which I just activated successfully using the online method. Unfortunate inconsistency.
 
TechnicalMac said:
It is interesting to note that while MS seems to have disallowed online (and now phone) activation for Office 2011 for Mac, there is no such limitation for Windows 7, or Access 2010, both of which I just activated successfully using the online method. Unfortunate inconsistency.
Click to expand...
Yep. I easily activated an old copy of MS Office 2010 for Windows. It seems the MS activation process still works for old Windows versions but not for the Mac.

@OP: See if you can find a copy of MS Office 2008 for the Mac. That version does not require activation and is basically the same as the 2011 version with some minor differences.

Otherwise, I highly recommend SoftMaker Office for the Mac. Much nicer than LibreOffice and can be set to default to the MS Office file formats. They do have sales ongoing so watch for their "Black Friday" sale.
 
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