Office cannot be activated - you can do that

If your Office version cannot be activated even though you have a valid product key, you can use these steps to solve your problem.

Office can't be activated: General troubleshooting

Often it is not a big problem if your Office suite cannot be activated. Therefore, check the following steps to clear simple problems and narrow down the search for the cause.

• Make sure that the correct time and date are set on your computer. Otherwise, errors may occur when connecting to the Microsoft servers.
• Check whether you are using a trial version and whether it has expired. Read how to activate Microsoft Office 2016 or Office 365 in our other articles.
• Check your internet connection. This is necessary to activate your product. Also make sure that you do not use proxies or firewalls.
• Check that multiple copies of Microsoft Office are installed on your computer. Having two versions can cause activation problems.
• If your product key has already been used on an older computer, try online activation first. If this fails, you only have to activate the phone.
• To do this, select "Telephone activation", call 01806-672330 and follow the instructions. The Office package is then deactivated on the old computer and can now be used again.

Activate Office Online: Here's how

Read how to activate your Microsoft Office package online in the following points.

1. First, install the version of Microsoft Office you purchased on your computer.
2. During the installation, select the "I want to activate the software over the Internet" option.
3. If you have already used Office, open one of the programs and click on "File"> "Help" and then on "Activate Product Key".
4. Now enter your product key in the box provided. This is 25 characters long and is in the product packaging.