Microsoft is about to cause a problem for a small subset of computer users, and I need to explain it in detail. Most of you won’t be affected by this, but it is awful enough and portentious enough that I think many Office users should take heed. Follow me into these weeds:
I’ve previously mentioned that if you want to use Microsoft Office, you either rent or buy it from Microsoft. If you rent your Word and Excel and the like, then you are paying an annual fee for Microsoft 365. For a one-time price, you can buy single license to Microsoft Office 2024 that is supposed to last forever.
When you buy an Office license, it has a year attached to its name, because it doesn’t upgrade like 365 does. That means that if you bought your Office license some years ago, it might call itself Office Home and Student 2013 or Office Home 2021. But up until now, that mattered very little. These purchased Office softwares worked fine for many years without issue, and only lacked the new bells and whistles of the latest edition. A significant number of people sought out these “lifetime licenses” because the recurring cost of 365 was unnecessary to them.
Redefining “Forever” and “Lifetime”
Microsoft has just changed the rules. But only for Apple users, and only for those who are running Microsoft Office 2019. If you’re on Windows, or if you use a newer edition of MS Office (or 365), then you don’t have any immediate worry.
But on 7/13/2026, Mac computers with Office 2019 will find that Word and Excel and the like don’t work anymore. Your files will still be there, and you can open them. But you won’t be able to edit or save anything in Office anymore, nor will you be able to create new files. MS Office 2019 will be neutered.
Microsoft has a wordy explanation for all of this. I don’t recommend you read it, as it will make your head spin and it might make you sympathetic to what they’re doing. Microsoft doesn’t deserve that. They’ve made a choice to revoke something that people bought, thinking it was forever. They’ve revised their website that previously assured people about their Office 2019 continuing to work. And they’re not offering refunds.
What to Do If You’re Affected
According to Microsoft, Office 2019 for MacOS users can:
- Use Microsoft 365 on the web for free at www.microsoft365.com
- Subscribe to Microsoft 365 for $100 or $130/yr
- Sit tight with your Office 2019 in read-only mode
But you do have other options, including:
- Try LibreOffice or OpenOffice for free
- Move your Office files up into Google Drive, and see if they open well via Google Docs and Google Sheets
- Buy another “lifetime” license for Office 2024
Looking Forward
If this doesn’t affect you, it still bodes poorly for the future of standalone licenses for Office software. Nothing is for certain, but here are my closing thoughts:
- If Microsoft kills the licenses for this small group of users, and gets away with it, it sets the stage for them to do it again. But next time, it will be a larger group of users. In a few years, they could sunset Office 2019 for all users. Or Office 2021.
- As Microsoft terminates more Office licenses, it teaches us that we cannot rely on any of their standalone licenses. The value is no longer there if you cannot determine how many years it will last. This psychology will drive more people to choose the rental (365) option.
- I will continue to promote open-source and free Office software, whenever appropriate. LibreOffice and OpenOffice have been around for decades and never pulled a stunt such as this! If you must remain with a 365 subscription, I also recommend you look into if you can save money by opting out of the Copilot component.