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Need help with installing MS Office 2024 on MacBook Pro

ChrisDFW

ChrisDFW

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2021
12
5
Dallas, Texas
I've been consulting with a startup for the past two years and they installed Microsoft 365 along with One Drive, Outlook, Teams, etc. on my Mac. I did not realize that this effectively replaced my existing MS Office 2020. So when I cancelled any further work with them, I discovered none of my Office programs work any longer. So I decided to buy the new MS Office 2024 but it will not install. My efforts to contact Microsoft for help have been futile. I called the IT guy at the company I had consulted for and he suggested removing all the old Office programs (just trash them as there is no "uninstall" program for this) and anything named Microsoft and then install the new MS Office after rebooting. No luck. I noticed that I cannot trash One Drive: each time I try it says "Cannot delete One Drive because it is in use." I have no idea of how to turn it off. That's the only MS program I still have as far as I can tell.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

NOTE: When I do try to install MS Office 2024, I get the attached error message. If there is customer support at Microsoft I sure can't find it.

My system: standalone MacBook Pro, M1 chip, OS Sonoma 14.7.3 no issues until this happened.

Chris
 

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I'm not able to assist with that installation issue, but do you need MS Office, or can you use a different office suite.

I recommend LibreOffice. It's compatible with MS Office formats, and does like 99% of the same stuff MS Office does. It is free to use, and with a few settings adjustments, can have the same look and feel as MS Office.
 
I've heard some weird things with Microsoft 365, and that is why I stay away from it and try to stick with the standalone version.

1) As for One Drive and how to stop and delete it, I searched for "macos how to stop one drive" and these seem worth looking into:



can't uninstall onedrive app - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com discussions.apple.com

macpaw.com

How to uninstall OneDrive from Mac: a complete guide

If you no longer use OneDrive, you should uninstall it. We’ll show you how to do that and how to reset it in case it’s misbehaving.
macpaw.com macpaw.com

2) I don't know if this will help, but here's my struggle with Office and how I resolved it.

I was on Office 2019 and when that expired, I found Microsoft offered Microsoft Office 2024 Preview, which will keep me in the Office ecosystem until Office 2024 arrived, so I installed that.

I bought Office Home 2024 and activated that with my Microsoft account. That worked but even after installing Office 2024 over 2024 Preview, my Mac still said it was running the expired Office 2024 Preview, and told me to update or buy it or whatever.

I tried a few combinations of deleting and activating, and the combination that finally worked for me was:

1. sign out of Office 2024 Preview (I was logged in with my Microsoft account)
2. then delete Office 2024 Preview
3. delete the Microsoft Office 2024 installer I had downloaded before
4. re-start Mac
5. re-download Office 2024 installer
6. install Office 2024
7. then sign into Word with my Microsoft account

Then when I clicked About Word, the dialog box that comes up would say the license is Office Home 2024.
 
Last edited:
MS stuff behaves pretty much like virus, it more or less cannot be untangled from the system after it is installed. It does not follow the macOS standards and appears in places it really shoudl not be in... Deleting app folder is not sufficient and uninstallers are also not working well enough.
And their system of packaging different apps in incompatible packages is infuriating. So many "different" versions of same apps like Teams, OneNote, ...
You have annoying option, which should reliably work. Backup your system to external disk, I suggest Carbon Copy Cloner or some other tool, but TimeMachine should work also. Make sure the backup works. Then reset the computer to get clean system and install your new office, reinstall software you need and move data manually.
I did not say it is pleasant, short or easy... I hope someone has better suggestion.
 
ChrisDFW said:
I've been consulting with a startup for the past two years and they installed Microsoft 365 along with One Drive, Outlook, Teams, etc. on my Mac. I did not realize that this effectively replaced my existing MS Office 2020. So when I cancelled any further work with them, I discovered none of my Office programs work any longer. So I decided to buy the new MS Office 2024 but it will not install. My efforts to contact Microsoft for help have been futile. I called the IT guy at the company I had consulted for and he suggested removing all the old Office programs (just trash them as there is no "uninstall" program for this) and anything named Microsoft and then install the new MS Office after rebooting. No luck. I noticed that I cannot trash One Drive: each time I try it says "Cannot delete One Drive because it is in use." I have no idea of how to turn it off. That's the only MS program I still have as far as I can tell.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

NOTE: When I do try to install MS Office 2024, I get the attached error message. If there is customer support at Microsoft I sure can't find it.

My system: standalone MacBook Pro, M1 chip, OS Sonoma 14.7.3 no issues until this happened.

Chris
Click to expand...

Look in the menubar at the top of the screen, if the OneDrive icon is there, click on it, then the cogwheel top right and Quit OneDrive. You should be able to trash the App now.

When you try the Office 2024 installer again, if it fails, you can view the Installer Log from under one of the installer menus to see what's gone wrong.
 
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S.B.G said:
I'm not able to assist with that installation issue, but do you need MS Office, or can you use a different office suite.

I recommend LibreOffice. It's compatible with MS Office formats, and does like 99% of the same stuff MS Office does. It is free to use, and with a few settings adjustments, can have the same look and feel as MS Office.
Click to expand...
Thank you S.B.G. I will look into this but I have decades of Office files and I would likely have to spend a lot of time reformatting them to a new software, but I will keep this in mind should all else fail. I appreciate the advice.
 
MacPeasant123 said:
I've heard some weird things with Microsoft 365, and that is why I stay away from it and try to stick with the standalone version.

1) As for One Drive and how to stop and delete it, I searched for "macos how to stop one drive" and these seem worth looking into:



can't uninstall onedrive app - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com discussions.apple.com

macpaw.com

How to uninstall OneDrive from Mac: a complete guide

If you no longer use OneDrive, you should uninstall it. We’ll show you how to do that and how to reset it in case it’s misbehaving.
macpaw.com macpaw.com

2) I don't know if this will help, but here's my struggle with Office and how I resolved it.

I was on Office 2019 and when that expired, I found Microsoft offered Microsoft Office 2024 Preview, which will keep me in the Office ecosystem until Office 2024 arrived, so I installed that.

I bought Office Home 2024 and activated that with my Microsoft account. That worked but even after installing Office 2024 over 2024 Preview, my Mac still said it was running the expired Office 2024 Preview, and told me to update or buy it or whatever.

I tried a few combinations of deleting and activating, and the combination that finally worked for me was:

1. sign out of Office 2024 Preview (I was logged in with my Microsoft account)
2. then delete Office 2024 Preview
3. delete the Microsoft Office 2024 installer I had downloaded before
4. re-start Mac
5. re-download Office 2024 installer
6. install Office 2024
7. then sign into Word with my Microsoft account

Then when I clicked About Word, the dialog box that comes up would say the license is Office Home 2024.
Click to expand...
Thank you MacPeasant 123. I'll look into this.
 
Honza1 said:
MS stuff behaves pretty much like virus, it more or less cannot be untangled from the system after it is installed. It does not follow the macOS standards and appears in places it really shoudl not be in... Deleting app folder is not sufficient and uninstallers are also not working well enough.
And their system of packaging different apps in incompatible packages is infuriating. So many "different" versions of same apps like Teams, OneNote, ...
You have annoying option, which should reliably work. Backup your system to external disk, I suggest Carbon Copy Cloner or some other tool, but TimeMachine should work also. Make sure the backup works. Then reset the computer to get clean system and install your new office, reinstall software you need and move data manually.
I did not say it is pleasant, short or easy... I hope someone has better suggestion.
Click to expand...
Thank you Honza1. Hopefully I can find an easier fix, but will return here if all else fails.
 
kitKAC said:
Look in the menubar at the top of the screen, if the OneDrive icon is there, click on it, then the cogwheel top right and Quit OneDrive. You should be able to trash the App now.

When you try the Office 2024 installer again, if it fails, you can view the Installer Log from under one of the installer menus to see what's gone wrong.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a plan. Thank you very much. I'll let you know if it works.
 
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THANK YOU: MS OFFICE 2024 – INSTALL PROBLEM SOLVED

Thanks for all the suggestions regarding my issue with installing MS OFFICE 2024 on my MacBook Pro. It’s great to have so many helpful people chime in.

Here’s what worked. Hopefully, it will help some others that run into an issue.

Background: I was consulting for a startup company and their IT department installed MS 365 and Office along with One Drive, TEAMS, etc. What I did not know at the time is that the install overwrote my old MS OFFICE 2020 programs. So when my consulting gig was up, the company removed my permissions and when I went to use MS OFFICE I received messages to the effect I did not have a license to do so.

Okay, I understand that. So, I downloaded the latest version of MS OFFICE 2024 for home (I retired) and tried to install it. After several tries and the same “Validation Failed” message, I went back to the IT department at the old company and all they could say was to trash all the programs and try again. (Remember this was a MacBook Pro and no uninstall program was available as far as IT knew.)

I tried what they said and removed everything associated with MS OFFICE that I could find, but the “ONE DRIVE” program would not allow me to “Trash” it because the “program is in use.”

I received many suggestions from the online community, here’s what worked:

  • Log out from “One Drive” by going to the menu bar at upper right (Mac) and right-click on the cloud icon.
  • A dialog box will open and you should see a sprocket (gear) icon in the dialog box. Select the gear icon and preferences.
  • In preferences, click “account” and then click “unlink from this Mac”
  • Now, you can go to the applications folder on the Mac and move the One Drive program icon to the Trash. (Just to be safe I also trashed the previously downloaded MS OFFICE 2024 installer.)
  • Empty the Trash
  • Restart the Mac
  • Go back to your Microsoft email confirming your purchase of MS OFFICE 2024 and click INSTALL. A fresh copy of MS OFFIC 2024 will download an installer to your desktop.
  • Do the installation. It should complete this time.
  • After installation, open one of the programs such as Excel. In my case, it asked me to verify my license by signing back in to my Microsoft account and choose which email (account) I wanted to use with MS OFFICE 2024. In my case, there was an email for my former client and my personal email. I chose the latter.
  • After confirming that, all the Office programs worked fine.
Sorry for the book length email but hopefully it will help someone else who encounters this same issue.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Chris
 
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