Microsoft will disable Office 2019 for Mac next month

Microsoft Office 2019 applications for Mac will stop working next month because the company is not renewing a certificate that verifies the validity of Office licenses. Owners of Office 2019 for Mac are He is warned They’ll have to purchase an Office 2024 or Microsoft 365 subscription if they want to continue editing documents.

Microsoft I promised earlier “All your Office 2019 apps will continue to work,” it said when it announced the end of support in 2023. The company then Quietly updated This support memo last month removed the reference to apps continuing to work, replacing it with “Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps won’t lose any data.”

Starting July 13, both Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2021 for Mac will run in “reduced functionality mode,” allowing people to open files but not edit, save, or create new documents. Reduced functionality will affect Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

While Microsoft is offering a certification update for Office 2021 where it is still supported until October 13, 2026, the company is leaving Office 2019 for Mac users out in the cold as support for these apps ended a few years ago. “Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support on October 10, 2023, and is no longer receiving updates,” Microsoft says. “Because Office 2019 cannot be updated to the required version, this issue cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling Office 2019 for Mac.”

JimmyTech points out Older versions of Microsoft 365 apps on Mac and iOS will also be affected by this certificate issue, but a simple update will fix it for those users.

Microsoft regularly ends software support, and there’s always a risk of problems running apps or older versions of Windows. It’s still surprising to not see Microsoft making an exception here, especially since this certificate issue disables the main functionality of the app you paid a one-time license fee for.