Office 2016 lost activation after Creators Update

dmbyrnes · 28 Dec 2017

Wondering if anyone has had any issues with the latest Creators Update. My update happened a couple of days ago and I now can't use any Office 2016 Pro programs without being told they're not activated. Office programs all worked fine before the update. I'm getting a message that my MS account is not linked to the installed Office, but even after relinking it I still get that message.

I tried reentering my Office product key and that redownloaded Office - and maybe installed it on top of my existing install. It's not only Office either. Snagit 12 was also working perfectly before the update, and now all of the screen capture modes except full screen are gone.

Tried asking for help on MS tech support forums a couple of days ago but have not heard a peep from them. Any ideas are welcome!

Steve C · 29 Dec 2017

Try uninstalling then reinstalling Office 2016?

dmbyrnes · 29 Dec 2017

Well, I'm a little reluctant to do that cos I've just learned I have a deadline next week. And I'm not very trusting in Microsoft at this point. Still surprised I've had no response from posting in their support forums.

If I have to uninstall Office 2016 I might as well reinstall 2010. But it's a pisser cos I've paid for Office 2016 Pro and I do NOT think the CU should have effectively disabled it.

Later that same day...

I finally got to a screen that accepted my activation code and so far I'm not getting error messages. Yesterday's attempts would only let me proceed if I signed in to my MS account, and the AW kept saying there was no Office 2016 linked to that account. The screen I got just now had a tiny link down at the bottom that said something like activate withouth an account. Clicked that, entered my product key, and it now seems to be working. Hope it lasts... going to live dangerously and Mark as Solved.