Skip to content

Your account doesn't allow editing on a Mac

Updated 

Symptoms

When opening a document in any Office 365 for Mac application, it opens as read-only and the following error message appears: Your account doesn't allow editing on a Mac. To learn more, contact your Admin about your office plan.

Environment

  • MacOS
  • Office365

Solution

You can attempt to activate the license by doing the following:

  1. Select the application on the top-left of the Mac taskbar (i.e. 'Word", "PowerPoint", etc), a drop down menu will appear
  2. Click on "Activate Office" 
  3. Enter in your VCU email (eID@vcu.edu)
  4. When prompted, enter your VCU password and select your DUO method
  5. Once the application registers the account, you should see an option stating "Start using ..."
  6. You should now be able to edit using your VCU account

If the steps outlined above do not work, try the following:

  1. Use the Microsoft License removal tool, found here.
  2. The tool will automatically remove all Microsoft Office license files from the device.
  3. Once the tool has finished, open a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
  4. Sign in with your with eID@vcu.edu account when prompted.

Cause

There are several possible causes of this error:

  • Microsoft doesn’t recognize your Office 365 license.
  • There are corrupt files in your Mac’s Library folder.

Outcome

Active university affiliates will be able to edit files in Office apps on their Mac.