Can't activate Office 2024 on Mac

Question

Can't activate Office 2024 on Mac

Aleš Sušnik 20

I've installed Office Home & Business 2024 on Mac, but when I start it and login with my Microsoft Account, only older/other licences I have are shown (2021, 2019), but not the 2024.

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How can I resolve this?

Aleš Sušnik 20 Reputation points

2025-12-06T08:23:56.1233333+00:00

as i have 2 more licences and 2 more macs to install office 2024 to, i've created a new Microsoft Account and added one of the licences there.

upon installing office and trying to activate office 2024, i receive no licences available at all with the newly created account, while I clearly see the licence added to my account:

UPDATE: this part resolved itself, i had to download again and reinstall again and it worked, but the first licence is still not working

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Aleš Sušnik 20 Reputation points

2025-12-06T08:23:56.1233333+00:00

as i have 2 more licences and 2 more macs to install office 2024 to, i've created a new Microsoft Account and added one of the licences there.

upon installing office and trying to activate office 2024, i receive no licences available at all with the newly created account, while I clearly see the licence added to my account:

UPDATE: this part resolved itself, i had to download again and reinstall again and it worked, but the first licence is still not working

Answer 1

Stefan Blom 324K MVP Volunteer Moderator

I suspect the issue here is that the number of keys that you can redeem in one and the same Microsoft account is limited. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-help-with-product-key-errors-on-office-com-setup-e5064f7b-2a8d-4e77-bd59-f1d828086851#bkmk_acctlimits . Maybe you have already seen the article.

Aleš Sušnik 20 Reputation points

2025-12-06T18:49:17.58+00:00

In the mean time managed to come up with this article also on my own.

So i've created a new account and put 2 out of 3 licences there, as the 1st one, appeared after 1 hour in the list and I could select it.

I do now have the issue that I also used one of the 2 licences which I put in the secondary account is reporting as used.

I've used the MS Removal Tool to remove the licence and use the 1st licence from the 1st account, but now I have an issue with a burned licence which I can't use (says Activated already).

I'm trying now to figure out how can I reset this... any pointers?
Stefan Blom 324K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-12-06T18:54:02.9333333+00:00

In the interface at https://setup.office.com , there is no way to redeem the same key a second time.

If you purchased directly from Microsoft, try contacting support and offer to show proof of purchase. Maybe they can retrieve the lost products for you.

Unfortunately, based on the reports we see in the Q&A forum, getting in touch with Microsoft support may be a time-consuming task and they may not always be able to assist with these kind of things. :-(
Aleš Sušnik 20 Reputation points

2025-12-06T18:58:11.8566667+00:00

the product key is in the right account, i just need to be able to activate it...

what is the procedure for example if you have a laptop which had to be replaced due to a failure?

I saw that regarding the Contact Support, waited for an hour, only for the chat to be started, and closed after 1 minute... got screenshots of it.

Answer 2

Stefan Blom 324K MVP Volunteer Moderator

the product key is in the right account, i just need to be able to activate it... what is the procedure for example if you have a laptop which had to be replaced due to a failure? I saw that regarding the Contact Support, waited for an hour, only for the chat to be started, and closed after 1 minute... got screenshots of it.

Thanks for the follow-up. Which error message is shown when you try and activate the product?

You mention transferring a license from an older to a newer computer. That is not an uncommon task, obviously. With all perpetual licenses, you may run into trouble when you need to transfer a license to a new computer. On a PC, phone activation may be an option.

EDIT:

To learn more about fixing activation issues on a Mac, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-to-try-if-you-can-t-install-or-activate-office-for-mac-5efba2b4-b1e6-4e5f-bf3c-6ab945d03dea#PickTab=Activation&picktab=activation.

Aleš Sušnik 20 Reputation points

2025-12-06T19:31:22.6633333+00:00

"This key/licence was already activated." or something along the line of maxximum activations achieved. Can't recall right now, apology.

Please note, this is on a Mac not a PC, it's Office 2024 for Mac.

It has no phone activation.
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Stefan Blom 324K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-12-06T19:43:09.77+00:00

I apologize for the confusion. I should have noted that you are using Office for Mac. I have now updated my previous reply.

Answer 3

Aleš Sušnik 20

Thank you.

All those links are for Office 365, and non actually relates to my issue.

I'll try to contact support on Monday and see how it goes.

Answer 4

Stefan Blom 324K MVP Volunteer Moderator

"This key/licence was already activated." or something along the line of maxximum activations achieved.

The following seems applicable to the issue you described (note that the link below is from the support article I linked to in a previous reply):

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/installation-limit-reached-error-when-activating-office-for-mac-3459c704-a673-47e2-94ee-5ea61e8260c7

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Can't activate Office 2024 on Mac

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