Office LTSC 2024 MAK Activation Periodically Lost on Windows Server

Question

Office LTSC 2024 MAK Activation Periodically Lost on Windows Server

Troy Murray 0

We are experiencing an issue where Microsoft Office LTSC Standard 2024 on a Windows Server intermittently becomes unlicensed and prompts for activation.

What we've verified:

Office is activated using a MAK key (not KMS).
Windows is also activated using a MAK key.
ospp.vbs /dstatusall shows only one licensed Office product.
No KMS server is configured.
Re-entering the MAK key immediately restores activation.
The issue has occurred multiple times.
The server is replicated via Hyper-V Replica but has not been reverted to a snapshot or restored from backup.

Could you advise:

Whether there are any known issues with Office LTSC 2024 MAK activations being lost on Windows Server.
What logs or diagnostics should be collected to determine why the activation state is being lost.
Whether there are known licensing token or activation store issues that could cause this behavior.We are experiencing an issue where Microsoft Office LTSC Standard 2024 on a Windows Server intermittently becomes unlicensed and prompts for activation. What we've verified:
- Office is activated using a MAK key (not KMS).
- Windows is also activated using a MAK key.
- ospp.vbs /dstatusall shows only one licensed Office product.
- No KMS server is configured.
- Re-entering the MAK key immediately restores activation.
- The issue has occurred multiple times.
- The server is replicated via Hyper-V Replica but has not been reverted to a snapshot or restored from backup.

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1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi Troy,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

This issue typically occurs when the Software Licensing Service (sppsvc) loses its hardware binding or when the activation token store becomes corrupted or reset due to underlying system changes.

Please refer to the following information and diagnostic steps to isolate and resolve the issue:

Hyper-V Replica Hardware Hash Changes: Even if the server is not being reverted to a snapshot, Hyper-V Replica sync operations or live failovers can trigger subtle changes to underlying virtual hardware identifiers (like virtual NIC MAC addresses or CPU topologies). Office MAK activation binds directly to the specific hardware hash. If sppsvc detects a hash mismatch, it invalidates the activation token.
Diagnostic Event Logs to Collect:
- Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc).
- Navigate to Windows Logs > Application.
- Filter for Event Sources Security-SPP and Office Software Protection Platform.
- Look for Event ID 1003, Event ID 1014, Event ID 8200, or Event ID 1058. The event details will contain specific error codes (such as 0xC004C003 or 0xC004F00F) explaining why the license check failed.
Check Licensing Token Store & Access Rights:
- Verify that third-party security agents or antivirus software are not locking or clearing the Tokens.dat file located at %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\tokens.dat.
- Ensure the Network Service account has full read/write permissions to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\SoftwareProtectionPlatform.
Troubleshooting & Repair Steps:
- Run Command Prompt as Administrator and execute cscript slmgr.vbs /dli to confirm the Windows licensing state remains stable when Office drops activation.
- Clear stale Office activation caches by running cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:<Last5CharsOfKey> followed by cscript ospp.vbs /act to re-establish a clean activation token.
- Consider deploying Office LTSC 2024 via KMS or Active Directory-Based Activation (ADBA) if this server is part of an Active Directory domain, as ADBA completely eliminates per-machine MAK token loss on replicated virtual machines.

Please try checking the Security-SPP event logs and let me know the specific error codes logged during the failure state so we can investigate further!

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