Microsoft will prevent Office 2019 for Mac owners from editing their documents from July 13, a restriction the company is attributing to the productivity suite's expiring digital certificate. The Office 2019 apps affected include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Once the certificate used to confirm the suite's license expires, these apps will drop into what Microsoft is calling "reduced functionality mode".

Microsoft’s messaging on the subject hasn’t done it any favors, either. Its end-of-support page for Office 2019 for Mac, originally posted in October 2023, once told owners to “Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function.” A revision now dated May 15, 2026 has dropped that line, replacing it with a note that their data “can be accessed in a supported Microsoft 365 or Office product.”

  • Geologist@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    1 天前

    It won’t help, Office relies on being digitally signed before it will run, and Microsoft is intentionally not renewing the certificate in order to force people off these older perpetual licenses.

    It should be illegal to pull this kind of digital theft from people who paid for the software. No one who paid for this was ever told their access was time limited.