Office 365 Won’t Activate? Here’s How you Fix the Problem

  

Mark Regan
Published: May 9th, 2025 • 6 Min Read

After purchasing your Office 365 license, you need to activate your account. Just install Microsoft 365 on your desktop and sign in to any Office app (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.) using the O365 credentials. It is very simple, however, some users may face problems in activating their account. For example this user,

This issue can also be encountered by old or existing users as well as new ones. But why is that?

Why Office 365 Activation Not Working?

There is not one but many reasons behind this issue, which we explained below.

• The main problem occurs because you are using an expired Office 365 subscription.
• The credentials of your account are incorrect or outdated.
• Network connectivity issues can also be the reason you can’t activate Microsoft 365.
• Microsoft Office 365 allows you to install it on a limited number of devices. Exceeding the limit will fail activation on your new device.
• You are using outdated or corrupt versions of Office applications.
• Sometimes updating your Windows server can break your account activation on Windows server 2019.
• Firewall or third-party antivirus programs block your activation endpoints.
• Due to the incompatibility of your Microsoft 365 for business, you are not able to activate your account.

These are some of the reasons why you are facing the Office 365 activation issue. To resolve this problem, we have it discussed with multiple experts and they advise solutions that we are going to explain to you below. So, follow these methods carefully and resolve the error.

Check your Office 365 Subscription

To know that you are using a valid subscription, we have to check it. For this, follow the steps below.

1. First, go to the Microsoft 365 site. Then, log in as a global administrator.
2. On the right-side of the administrator portal, select the user that has an activation issue.
3. Now, ensure that the subscription is correct. If there is not then you have to change it as soon as possible.

Remove Old Registered Account

When you are updating to a new subscription, and activating your Office 365. You have to remove the old account. If you have not done that then the Microsoft 365 app activation error will occur. Below are the steps to remove your old account.

1. Again go to the Microsoft 365 portal and login as administrator.
2. In the portal, go to the Active Users and select the user which has the issue.
3. Then, click the Edit button of the Office installs option. Lastly, remove all the invalid registered Office installations.

Sync the Proxy Server

The Office 365 won’t activate problem can also be due to an incorrect proxy server. So to correct that, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Settings window, then click on Network & Internet.
2. Select the Proxy option and switch on to use a proxy server.
3. Provide the IP address and port of the Proxy server and save it.

This way your Proxy server is configured and the issue will be resolved. If it does not, then follow the next solution.

Enable Shared Computer Activation

If the problem is related to the Windows server or VDI, then follow the steps to resolve it. This method can be done in different ways, below we explain all the ways.

1. Group Policy: In this we first download the current Administrative Template Files (ADMX/ADML) for office. Then enable the “Use shared computer activation“. This method is not applicable for Microsoft 365 Apps for business.
2. Registry Key: Open the command prompt and set a registry key by following this command:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration] “SharedComputerLicensing”=”1”
3. You can also install and run the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant to enable the shared computer activation.

Correct Date or Time Settings

Wrong date or time make can block your activation. Therefore, we have to sync our device with the Internet time server. There are two ways to do this.

• Method 1:
  1. Press windows+r hotkeys. In the search bar type services.msc and hit OK.
  2. After opening the window, scroll down to the Windows Time and right-click to it.
  3. Click on Properties and review the status of the service.
  4. Then, restart Windows Time and close the window. Lastly, restart your computer.
• Method 2:
  1. Go to the Control Panel and select the Clock and Region.
  2. Select Date and Time, and now click on the Internet Time.
  3. Press the Change Setting and click Synchronize with the Internet time server.
  4. Choose time.windows.com and update it. Press the OK to exit.

Troubleshoot the Office Activation

Microsoft provides you with a troubleshooter that can resolve Microsoft 365 app activation issues.

1. First, sign in to the Office using the correct account credentials.
2. Then, check the multiple copies by opening the control panel and selecting Programs and Features.
3. If you found multiple versions, uninstall the one that you are not required to install.
4. After that restart the computer. Open the Office again and check the status of your subscription.
5. Now, to troubleshoot the issue of Office 365 activation in windows server 2019, run the Microsoft 365 activation troubleshooter.
6. Click on the Start button, then click the Open button when you get a pop-up window.
7. Follow the instructions and troubleshoot the issue.

Here are the solutions to activate your Office 365 account, carefully follow them and if you are having any problem with this you can contact us anytime.

Summary

The Office 365 Activation issue is a serious issue. Therefore, in this article, we have provided several solutions. We have also explained the reasons behind this method so you know why this problem occurs. And by following the mentioned methods you can fix it. In addition, we also suggest a pro tip to secure your Microsoft 365 data when you are facing the problem of Office 365 activation not working.