In February 2024, some Mac users discovered that they were unable to use their installed copy of Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. When opening an existing document to discover that they could not edit it or there was a yellow horizontal bar at the top of the document window asking the user to Activate. Some users had a larger Microsoft registration screen pop up.
Solution
Solution 1: Click on the yellow bar to Activate
- Click the yellow bar across the top of the Office document
- When presented with a choice, choose "Already Bought Office? Sign in"
- Enter your full @maine.edu email address, and UMS password (In some instances, you may also see a UMS login screen, where just the UMS user account is entered)
INFO: Solution 1 also can apply to unmanaged/BYOD macOS computers
Solution 2: Reapply Microsoft Office 2021 license
- Open the UMS Application Catalog - in the Applications folder
- Search for "Office"
- Find the ""Microsoft Office 2021 Serializer" and install or re-install it
- After this is completed, open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. You still may see a Microsoft registration screen (see Solution 1) that you'll need to complete.
Detailed Information
Microsoft releases security and functional updates to their Microsoft 365 suite (formerly known as Office 365, or Office 2021 and earlier releases) once a month. On February 13, version 16.82 was released. It's been reported around the internet - and we've also experienced - that some computers running earlier versions, such as 16.78, have failed to apply and accept later updates (such as 16.82), or the update has been applied, but the licensing has been lost.
Why is a Microsoft screen asking for your @maine.edu email address and UMS account password? Tthe University of Maine System has a licensing agreement with Microsoft for UMS students, faculty, and staff to access certain Microsoft software, and UMS synchronizes user credentials with Microsoft.
Environment
- Office 365 Desktop Applications
- University-Managed
- macOS