Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac Will Soon Stop Letting You Edit Documents

[SpotOnT]

I had the 'reduced functionality' show up in my Office 2021 suddenly on my 2017 Air (running Monterey).
I regained full accessibility to it - required a full uninstall of program (using their own uninstall app found on internet) and full reinstall. BUT that only worked because I had still had the original installer - the one on offer now for download only works for OS 14 and above.

If it packs it in again, I've got LibreOffice ready. Apple's own Suite doesn't really do it for me, and isn't really meant to be competition / option to MS Office.

Good to know! Any idea why a reinstall should work?

Official installers going back 6 years or so can be found here, so that should be a working solution for most people if it holds out.

Update history for Office for Mac - Office release notes

Provides IT Pros with information about the latest updates for Office for Mac, including links to download packages, and an update history

learn.microsoft.com

 

[Bazza1]

Good to know! Any idea why a reinstall should work?

Official installers going back 6 years or so can be found here, so that should be a working solution for most people if it holds out.

Update history for Office for Mac - Office release notes

Provides IT Pros with information about the latest updates for Office for Mac, including links to download packages, and an update history

learn.microsoft.com

No idea why this full reinstall works. This info I found online as posted by someone who had identical situation and - after much to'ing and fro'ing with Apple - found a Support person who offered this as a suggestion.

- uninstall all office products from computer. Delete from Trash.
- uninstall Office license (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...g/how-to-remove-office-license-files-on-a-mac).
- sign into your Microsoft account online and use Office Installer link found there. (or, in my case, I used the original installer, as noted in earlier post). Don't panic if its name also includes 365. Works for both.
- once installed, open an Office app (I used Word) and it should produce a pop-up to link it all back to your original purchase / Microsoft account.

I mean, it would seem to reactivate the original license - but why the license was deactivated in the first place remains a mystery. Beyond that Microsoft wants everyone on 365. As it is, their support (updates) for Office 2021 craps out in October. But you shouldn't need updates to keep this 'lifetime' standalone app running!

Your link to past installer packs is a good find!!

 

[FeliApple]

Garbage, pathetic, appalling developers deliberately killing hardware by removing essential software support for no reason at all.

What’s new?

 

[martinchivers]

10th July, today & my version has already stopped working! Was looking at 2024 office standard. @£30. I have a late 2014 running Big Sur. will this run on my machine?

 

[Bazza1]

10th July, today & my version has already stopped working! Was looking at 2024 office standard. @£30. I have a late 2014 running Big Sur. will this run on my machine?

No idea if Office 2024 will run on Big Sur, but you may find the actual installer file won't work on it - see notes above and link to older installer files. That said, the found installer might not be compatible with app itself.

Also note Office 2024 will lose updates as of October. Might be worth the £30 for the Suite for as long as Microsoft chooses to keep it running afterwards. Or not. Your call. As i mentioned above, I'm prepared to go to LibreOffice if Office upchucks again. I don't have a lot of faith in iWorks.

 

[martinchivers]

I've done some digging around today but still not 100% convinced that 2024 will work. I definatly do not want to go for the subscription version. I also don't want to buy software that won't install/ work on my old Mac. I cannot afford a new computer. I have tried libra office but really disliked that (a few years ago). I suppose I'll have to give it another go. Not sure what the equivalent of excel is called. Its a con, in so far as it was all working fine and I'm not even bothered about receiving the latest security updates. I spent an hour in excel this morning (thinking I had a few days left) and now cannot save those changes, an issue, as it was fairly complex stuff I'd done.

 

[chrfr]

No idea if Office 2024 will run on Big Sur, but you may find the actual installer file won't work on it - see notes above and link to older installer files. That said, the found installer might not be compatible with app itself.

Also note Office 2024 will lose updates as of October. Might be worth the £30 for the Suite for as long as Microsoft chooses to keep it running afterwards. Or not. Your call. As i mentioned above, I'm prepared to go to LibreOffice if Office upchucks again. I don't have a lot of faith in iWorks.

Office 2021 goes out of support in October. Office 2024 is supported until 2029: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/office-2024

 

[martinchivers]

2021 would be a very short fix! But 2024 will not work period. So my options are
1....new mac
or
2....Use an alternative (libre)

 

[martinchivers]

I've been onto App Store and found Libre office which looks like my best bet. Its £8.99 (which is fine) but is that a once only, one off? I'm very surprised there hasn't been more made of this underhand action by Microsoft, as it seems to me to be unlawful.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm so glad I stopped giving Microsoft money a long long time ago.

 

[UliBaer]

I've been onto App Store and found Libre office which looks like my best bet. Its £8.99 (which is fine) but is that a once only, one off? I'm very surprised there hasn't been more made of this underhand action by Microsoft, as it seems to me to be unlawful.

LibreOffice is $free! Who charges £8.99 for a $free product - Apple?
Get it for free from the official site: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/

[edit]
If you feel you want to give some money for that really good product, give a donation to LibreOffice instead of feeding a greedy giant for other peoples work: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

 

[Macky-Mac]

2021 would be a very short fix! But 2024 will not work period. So my options are
1....new mac
or
2....Use an alternative (libre)

I have Office 2024 working on Sonoma on a M1 Mini....just double checked to see if it's working, and yes it is.

But 2024 required a newer Mac OS to run.....can you update your computer to a supported Mac OS?

 

[ResolutionNZ]

Looking at Microsofts new support policy for office for mac, they'll only support the three most recent versions of macos, which means no extended support for any mac.

 

[martinchivers]

I have Office 2024 working on Sonoma on a M1 Mini....just double checked to see if it's working, and yes it is.

But 2024 required a newer Mac OS to run.....can you update your computer to a supported Mac OS?

no. the Late 2014 iMac can only run up to Big Sur

 

[martinchivers]

My plan is to find a newer (but secondhand) Mac mini and buy a monitor. Bloody ridiculous as my iMac is working perfectly well, with massive ram and storage. I'll then sell the 27in iMac once everything is up and running with the mini.

 

[martinchivers]

LibreOffice is $free! Who charges £8.99 for a $free product - Apple?
Get it for free from the official site: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/

[edit]
If you feel you want to give some money for that really good product, give a donation to LibreOffice instead of feeding a greedy giant for other peoples work: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

I've used your link and downloaded LibreOffice. I just spent 10 minutes or so having a look. Looks OK actually. It is however coming up with a pop up to purchase at £9.99 which isn't mandatory by the look of it. I'll change file allocations to it and give it a go over the next week or so. I suspect there will be user guides on uTube & will take a look there, to. Thanks.

 

[Ericplan]

I had to buy a license. I have one spreadsheet from my Dutch bank (ING) which I need for automatic invoicing. The spreadsheet has some protected cells, for instance on the invoice date. Tried to lift the protection and use Open Office, but then it won’t be accepted on uploading to the bank.

 

[Bazza1]

I've used your link and downloaded LibreOffice. I just spent 10 minutes or so having a look. Looks OK actually. It is however coming up with a pop up to purchase at £9.99 which isn't mandatory by the look of it. I'll change file allocations to it and give it a go over the next week or so. I suspect there will be user guides on uTube & will take a look there, to. Thanks.

LibreOffice is definitely free - donation only - from it's own site, so one hopes that popup is a one-off. I've not experienced it here.

I've yet to wade through all of the Settings (in fairness, just as Office has) to make it 'mine' (more familiar and working as I like my setup) but a couple of tweaks so far have helped. For example, In Appearance > Icons, I clicked the little zigsaw icon and then chose Colibre. It mimics earlier Office icons. More importantly, I have set all of the defaults to that of Office file types (Load/Save > General > Default File Format and ODF Settings > Always Save As). Much as I'd like to 'stick it to the man' and use ODF (Open Document Format) instead, its compatibility with others I may send files to still make it as relevant to me as using Pages, etc file formats. And PDF only goes so far...

If I ever get full-time into LibreOffice, I am sure I may see a few 'translation' issues between Office and it, but I feel those are easy fixes. And same issues if I was to use the iWorks Suite. Nothing is perfect.

 

[martinchivers]

I've spent a couple of hours trying to familiarise myself and set up Libre (writer) I don't like it as much as word. Its got a lot of functionality that I'll never use (mail merge for instance). I really wish Microsoft had left things as they were

 

[Bazza1]

I've spent a couple of hours trying to familiarise myself and set up Libre (writer) I don't like it as much as word. Its got a lot of functionality that I'll never use (mail merge for instance). I really wish Microsoft had left things as they were

One person's 'feature' is another's 'hassle'. Plenty of features I never use in Office - and offhand, I'd suggest most Office users regularly use a max of 20% of its capabilities and features. BTW - Office does have Mail Merge.
😉

I'm pretty sure its a familiarity thing (folks screamed bloody murder when the 'ribbon' was introduced in Office), while others are perfectly fine with using Pages, etc - and then Exporting new docs into Office file types.

Microsoft rarely leaves things alone - most especially now with Co-Pilot showing up more and more, whether we want it or not - but hey, the same could be said of Google and its Docs / Drive.

A case of re-learning the alternative to something that didn't need to be 'fixed'. Perfectly understandable not to like it as much.

 

[martinchivers]

I’ve attempted to open a .XLSX file this morning. I’ve now changed all file allocations to Libreoffice. When opening the file from Finder the libreoffice start page opens but I’m then getting the whirly Wheel only and application not responding. So having to force quit. I can open Calc from the start screen. Then go to navigate and open the file from there however again the application is not responding. I’ve tried opening various Excel documents but most will not open (some will). I’ve also tried opening the file from the start page which again has not worked.

Just wondering if anybody has any pointers.

Secondly assuming I can get this to work is there any way to have the word processor and spreadsheet icon icons in my dock to enable me to be running both at the same time as I would normally do with word and excel.

Neither Pages or Numbers now work on my computer running BigSur. I installed WPS but thats a subscription & therefore no better than Office 365. I only want a word processor (word) and a spreadsheet program (excel). Wondering now what to do next!

Incidentally OUTLOOK appears to be working normally.

I've downloaded "Free Office". this appears to be the best alternative so far.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Incidentally OUTLOOK appears to be working normally.

I have an old version of Office 365 running on Catalina that supposedly should have stopped working today but also still works. Not sure the expiration is for some other timezone or it expires at the end of today or Microsoft backed out. I guess we'll find out by tomorrow one way or the other.

As an active subscription, I have the right to update but actually kept that version around as a "canary" to see how Microsoft handles this and whether we can find a workaround.

 

[bzgnyc2]

I have an old version of Office 365 running on Catalina that supposedly should have stopped working today but also still works. Not sure the expiration is for some other timezone or it expires at the end of today or Microsoft backed out. I guess we'll find out by tomorrow one way or the other.

As an active subscription, I have the right to update but actually kept that version around as a "canary" to see how Microsoft handles this and whether we can find a workaround.

FYI to all: Microsoft just cutoff my Office 365 on Catalina and guessing Office 2019 similarly won't be able to confirm a valid license.

I'm guessing something to do with the OneAuthAccount or related access token certificates.

 

[cyberdocwi2]

I’ve attempted to open a .XLSX file this morning. I’ve now changed all file allocations to Libreoffice. When opening the file from Finder the libreoffice start page opens but I’m then getting the whirly Wheel only and application not responding. So having to force quit. I can open Calc from the start screen. Then go to navigate and open the file from there however again the application is not responding. I’ve tried opening various Excel documents but most will not open (some will). I’ve also tried opening the file from the start page which again has not worked.

Just wondering if anybody has any pointers.

Secondly assuming I can get this to work is there any way to have the word processor and spreadsheet icon icons in my dock to enable me to be running both at the same time as I would normally do with word and excel.

Neither Pages or Numbers now work on my computer running BigSur. I installed WPS but thats a subscription & therefore no better than Office 365. I only want a word processor (word) and a spreadsheet program (excel). Wondering now what to do next!

Incidentally OUTLOOK appears to be working normally.

I've downloaded "Free Office". this appears to be the best alternative so far.

Hello,

I have worked with LibreOffice and OpenOffice (they are different programs) for years, as they both have a drawing program that has VisiCalc like features, and I have made many computer network diagrams with the software without laying out for VC, or CAD like programs. Simple and Effective.

You will find some differences with LibreOffice (LO) against Microsoft Office (MO) that may need some adjustments -

LO may corrupt some of MO's tables. Have to fix it out, save it in the native LO format, and then good to go. Don't walk into a meeting with an MO document on projector for the first time. Check to make sure.

LO will accept drag-n-drop graphics into the writer tool, however the word wrap may frame the text around it funny. That's ok. Change the framing around in the toolbar, and it will behave like MO. MO will plop the picture and take up the whole page; LO will try to wrap the words around it.

LO doesn't seem to scroll as quickly as MO did when using a mouse to highlight text over multiple pages. It works, but not as smooth as MO.

LO comes with a database, but you will need to manually connect to some JAVA thing running on your Mac. I don't use it that often, but yeah, database is not ready out of the box without the Java.

LO recognizes .csv files easier for me.


I have run LO on systems for many years - my current installations are OpenCore Ventura OS on MacBook 2013 and OC on iMac 2012, and Sequoia on MacMini 2020.

 

[Macky-Mac]

I've spent a couple of hours trying to familiarise myself and set up Libre (writer) I don't like it as much as word. Its got a lot of functionality that I'll never use (mail merge for instance). I really wish Microsoft had left things as they were

Have you tried the online version of Microsoft Office?

It's said to not have all the features of the subscription version, but it's free to use.

(I fully understand the impulse to simply leave Microsoft behind)