Office Activation Errors
Hello,
Several of my clients have been getting Office activation errors over the last couple of weeks. The common thread seems to be that they're still on Windows 7, with Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plans. The Office subscriptions have all be active (i.e. no billing or payment issues, and not signed in on more than 5 devices). Office apps show that they're unlicensed in the Title Bar. Going to File->Account, it shows "Activation Required. We're trying to activate Office, but you can keep using it". I've also seen "We're having trouble activating Office. This might be due to a network or temporary service issue. Please make sure you're connected to the Internet". I checked and confirmed that Office is up to date. I also did a Quick Repair and an Online Repair. But the problem persisted. I've been able to resolve the issue in every case by downloading and running the Microsoft SARA Tool. On a couple of occasions, the SARA tool seemed to stall at the "Running the license checks" phase. I canceled it after waiting 15 minutes, and when I re-launched any Office app, it showed that it was activated. So, the tool fixed the issue, despite getting stuck.
Just curious if this is something that other IT Pro's have also been seeing out in the field recently, and what might be causing it (and how to proactively prevent it).
Thanks - Bruce
Several of my clients have been getting Office activation errors over the last couple of weeks. The common thread seems to be that they're still on Windows 7, with Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plans. The Office subscriptions have all be active (i.e. no billing or payment issues, and not signed in on more than 5 devices). Office apps show that they're unlicensed in the Title Bar. Going to File->Account, it shows "Activation Required. We're trying to activate Office, but you can keep using it". I've also seen "We're having trouble activating Office. This might be due to a network or temporary service issue. Please make sure you're connected to the Internet". I checked and confirmed that Office is up to date. I also did a Quick Repair and an Online Repair. But the problem persisted. I've been able to resolve the issue in every case by downloading and running the Microsoft SARA Tool. On a couple of occasions, the SARA tool seemed to stall at the "Running the license checks" phase. I canceled it after waiting 15 minutes, and when I re-launched any Office app, it showed that it was activated. So, the tool fixed the issue, despite getting stuck.
Just curious if this is something that other IT Pro's have also been seeing out in the field recently, and what might be causing it (and how to proactively prevent it).
Thanks - Bruce
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