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Microsoft to Stop Supporting Office 2016 for Mac in October

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Apr 12, 2001
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Microsoft's Office 2016 for Mac is set to reach its end of support date on October 13, 2020, and after that date, connecting to Office 365 services using the Office 2016 for Mac software will no longer be supported.

Office-2016-Mac.jpg

Microsoft shared the detail in a support document from July highlighting which versions of Office will be supported for connecting to Office 365 services in the future.
Connecting to Office 365 services using Office 2016 for Mac isn't supported after October 13, 2020. That's because Office 2016 for Mac reaches end of support on that date.
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Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows, Microsoft Office 2019, Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, and Microsoft Apps for business will all continue to work with Office 365.

According to Microsoft, no active measures will be taken to block other versions of the Office client, like Office 2013, but older clients could encounter performance or reliability issues over time.

This suggests that connecting to Office 365 services using Office for Mac 2016 could potentially work after the deadline, but it's not entirely clear if that will be the case.

Office 2016 for Mac users who rely on Microsoft's products and services can purchase Office 2019 for $150 or subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal for $70 per year. Office 2019 will be supported through 2023.

Article Link: Microsoft to Stop Supporting Office 2016 for Mac in October
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/03/microsoft-stop-supporting-office-2016-october/
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I will likely never have a personal office subscription again if I have to pay full price. I just don't need it anymore since I've been out of school and have to carry a 2nd work laptop.

The only reason I have it now is because my company is part of the Microsoft Home-Use Program and I can get it on my mac for $10, but it is never used. I use iWork whenever I need to for my personal spreadsheets and it meets my needs.
 
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centauratlas said:
And this is why subscription software is dreadful.
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Not sure your statement applies here.

This renders a non-subscription "perpetual" license potentially unusable, whereas the subscription version remains active.

Edit2: OK people. Here's the deal:

This has nothing to do with "subscription" software. Microsoft have deprecated a perpetual license when used to connect to other MS 365 services.

In fact, having a subscription here would have mitigated the issues.

The perpetual license still works, just as much as older versions do.

Again, my post has nothing to do with the merits of subscriptions. The statement made however doesn't fit the narrative of the story because this could have happened irrespective of any subscriptions.

So @Shirasaki , @chrfr, @KeithBN and @noraa : given that I'm not giving an opinion on the merits of subscriptions, mind doing the decency of explaining why you disagree with this statement and tell me how I'm wrong and why you feel @centauratlas is correct in that this has everything to do with subscriptions?


Edit:Before anyone else downvotes: My response has nothing to do with the merits or negatives of Subscribtion software. I have not taken a position on that.

I'm simply stating that the posters statement doesn't actuality have validity here given the actual situation as described.

And that's it.

Sheesh!
 
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I'm actually a bit surprised Microsoft still charges for MS Office for personal home use. Between Apple's and Google's free offerings for personal use, and Microsoft clearly making the bulk of their revenue from corporate and business clients, why bother anymore?
 
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I'm not a fan of the subscription model but with the price difference they've set for the standalone versus subscription, I'm feeling forced into the latter.

Does anyone know how a Microsoft 365 Family subscription (for up to six users at $100 per year instead of $70 for an individual) works? I have a couple of questions as I consider it:
  • Is it similar to the standalone, one-time purchase where you basically just get a serial number and input it?
  • Can all of the users see each other's names and email address, or only the administrator / main user?
  • If the subscription is via an account / email address for each person, can any email domain be used, or does it have to be a Microsoft-owned one? Can person A use a Gmail while person B uses Yahoo and person C uses a work email?
 
It says "no longer supported" it does not say "we will be killing your installation"
I have Office 2011 and it still runs just fine... I realize if/when I move to Catalina and/or Big Sur that will not be that case, but that would be because Apple no long supports 32 bit apps. And since I'm not planning on moving to Catalina, and still waiting for the jury on BigSur...
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
If a person finds benefit with the software and its timely upgrades, why is it bad for said person to pay a yearly fee? Developers need to be able to pay their bills just like the rest of us.
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And what they couldn't pay their bills before the subscription model become a thing? Must have missed the memo about Microsoft struggling to keep the lights on before this move.
 
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HOW DO I TURN OFF THESE STUPID NOTIFICATIONS.

Every other day, MS warns me that it's going to stop supporting Office 2016 on my mac. I can't figure out how to tell MS I don't care. lol If you click on the notification it just opens the website to try and get you to buy office 365.

I use Google Docs almost exclusively now, but would prefer not to uninstall Office, but damn are these notifications annoying. I turned off Auto Update as well, but still I get the popups.
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
If a person finds benefit with the software and its timely upgrades, why is it bad for said person to pay a yearly fee? Developers need to be able to pay their bills just like the rest of us.
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But not all software needs constant updating. Indeed you would think a word processor is a prime example of something that was essentially perfected in 2003 and since then the improvements have been superficial and mostly to tie in other non-word processor functionality, and updates to support newer hardware and newer operating systems. I think asking people to repurchase a newer version is a better business model than subscriptions for such software.

I'm fine with subscription software where it makes sense, but it doesn't make sense for all software. For example, subscribing education software makes sense since most people only need it for a finite amount of time. As another example, subscribing to accounting software makes sense since it needs to be constantly updated with changes in tax and accounting laws, forms, and procedures. I can get behind those.

But not all software makes sense like that. And when it doesn't make sense, the perpetual nature of paying for subscription software becomes insulting. In particular, it's annoying where the "timely upgrades" are actually just bug fixes or perfecting features that were promised at launch but not ideally implemented. If you're fixing bugs and polishing features, that's fine, but that should be priced into the original purchase price and supported for a reasonable time under a standard warranty. If hardware companies can offer 1-5 year warranties, then so should software companies. If you can't do that with a $5 app, then don't sell it for $5.

Also, subscription software usually means it's online activated and needs to phone home every use or every so often to verify it's subscription status. Without getting into details, there are lots of reasons that is undesirable to many users.

Everyone deserves to be paid for their labor, but nobody is guaranteed a certain business model. Guilt-tripping people by saying "developers need to be able to pay their bills" doesn't overcome that subscription software is just an ill-fitting business model for some types of software. Whether or not developers can pay their bills is irrelevant to that.
 
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I have Office 2016 license on both a PC and a Mac. The expiration notice I received stated that this version will continue to work as always. It just won't get anymore updates to the software or security updates. That is all.
 
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oneMadRssn said:
But not all software needs constant updating. Indeed you would think a word processor is a prime example of something that was essentially perfected in 2003 and since then the improvements have been superficial and mostly to tie in other non-word processor functionality.

I'm fine with subscription software where it makes sense, but it doesn't make sense for all software. For example, subscribing education software makes sense since most people only need it for a finite amount of time. As another example, subscribing to accounting software makes sense since it needs to be constantly updated with changes in tax and accounting laws, forms, and procedures. I can get behind those.

But not all software makes sense like that. And when it doesn't make sense, the perpetual nature of paying for subscription software becomes insulting. In particular, it's annoying where the "timely upgrades" are actually just bug fixes or perfecting features that were promised at launch but not ideally implemented. If you're fixing bugs and polishing features, that's fine, but that should be priced into the original purchase price and supported for a reasonable time under a standard warranty. If hardware companies can offer 1-5 year warranties, then so should software companies. If you can't do that with a $5 app, then don't sell it for $5.

Also, subscription software usually means it's online activated and needs to phone home every use or every so often to verify it's subscription status. Without getting into details, there are lots of reasons that is undesirable to many users.

Everyone deserves to be paid for their labor, but nobody is guaranteed a certain business model. Guilt-tripping people by saying "developers need to be able to pay their bills" doesn't overcome that subscription software is just an ill-fitting business model for some types of software. Whether or not developers can pay their bills is irrelevant to that.
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A Microsoft subscription isn’t for everyone. If people are unhappy, they can use something else. The real issue is many people here want to be able to use software indefinitely (expecting updates) without having to pay more than what they already paid 10 years ago.
 
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MacRumors said:
Office 2016 for Mac users who rely on Microsoft's products and services can purchase Office 2019 for $150 or subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal for $70 per year. Office 2019 will be supported through 2023.
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This is the reason why Microsoft is worth $5T. Come 2023 and they will have money coming out of their ears. All HUP (home user program) users will need to start paying.
 
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