Microsoft Releases a Remedy For Office 365 Apps Deactivation

There was a problem activating Microsoft 365 apps. Users have reported for months that the (Office) apps included in their subscriptions are deactivated on their own and cannot be used. Microsoft has issued a support article on the issue, stating that they are examining it. On December 20, 2024, they announced the release of a fix.

A user complained in the US Microsoft Answers site on September 14, 2024, in a post titled School license deactivation alert. A Turkish government employee complained that the Office 365 packages licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Education’s IT department had been disabled on the 26 smartboards in the corresponding classrooms. The billboard implies that this will affect all Turkish schools and inquires whether it is necessary to convert to LibreOffice. The post has since been banned from receiving comments.

On the reddit.com site, a user submitted the above screenshot in April 2024 and questioned what was wrong with his account in the post What is wrong with my account? The screenshot shows him receiving an error message because the Microsoft 365 product has been cancelled. He can no longer access any of his Office modules.

He tried Microsoft’s Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) without result. In this post, the affected person also claims that SaRA did not assist. A Microsoft moderator offers some additional suggestions on what he can do.

On December 19, 2024, Microsoft published the support article customers may get a Product Deactivated error in Microsoft 365 Office apps, which confirms the deactivation of Microsoft 365 for individual customers. 

Microsoft has corrected a Microsoft Account (MSA)-related flaw that prevented customers with legitimate Office 2024 licenses from installing the software. The subject is discussed in full in this article.

Aside from that, the business stated that it was looking into another Microsoft 365-related fault in which Office products like Word, among others, would display a deactivation notice that read: “Your Microsoft 365 license will be deactivated soon…. most features of Word will be disabled.” Request that your Admin reactivate your license.

At the time, Microsoft offered a remedy and encouraged impacted users to assist them. The research appears to have paid off, as the tech giant has officially closed the issue and labelled the flaw as repaired. A patch to address the deactivation issue has been deployed on the server side.

Microsoft also explained that any change made by the administrator at the license level can cause the problem. Microsoft lists a number of possible causes for this situation.

However, it invites impacted consumers to contact the Microsoft Engineering team working on such vulnerabilities. And you can advise your company’s admin to learn that the Microsoft Engineering team has published a patch on the service side to address unexpected product deactivations.

For individuals with open support cases, please collect the Office Logs and file information listed below and share them with your support engineer. To collect the office license diagnostics and to learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Download Center and download the Office Licensing Diagnostic Tool.

Find below the issue, cause, the fixed status and the walk around on this remedy, if you encounter this.

The Issue user may encounter – Users may randomly encounter a Product Deactivated error in Microsoft 365 Office programs.

The likely cause;

Any change made by the administrator at the license level may result in the issue. The following are potential causes of this issue:

• Change in license group, when a user is changed from one group to another.
• Changes to license/product assignment at the user level. For example, converting a user license from an Office 365 E3 subscription to a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription.
• Removing and adding users to the same or separate license groups.
• Toggling the licensing or service plan for users.
• If administrators disabled the “Latest version of Desktop Apps” service plan for users with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

How to FIX the status encountered

The engineering team has published a patch on the service side to address unexpected product deactivation.

For individuals with open support cases, please collect the Office Logs and file information listed below and share them with your support engineer.

Collect office license diagnostics. For additional information, visit the official Microsoft Download Center and download the Office Licensing Diagnostic Tool.

Close all Office applications, then zip up the logs in this directory and attach them to your support case.

Logs:%temp%/diagnostics.

Alternatively, you can use the walkaround trick to resolve this issue

Select the Reactivate button in the banner. You will be requested to sign in to reactivate.

OR

Sign out and close all Microsoft 365 applications, including Outlook. Then, restart your Microsoft 365 app and login back in.

If you are still experiencing problems, please contact your administrator to check for subscription expiration. For further information, see Find out when your Microsoft 365 subscription expires.