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Microsoft Office can't find your license for this application. A repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled. Microsoft Office will now close.

Question

Friday, February 22, 2019 8:32 PM | 1 vote

Hello all! I'm about at my wits end here. We have 2 users (was 3 at one point) who are getting an error when they use Office 2016 programs. This error is random in time so it could happen 10 seconds after opening Excel, Word, etc. or it could be 6 hours.

The error is "Microsoft Office can't find your license for this application. A repair attempt was unsuccessful or was cancelled. Microsoft Office will now exit."

I have searched high and low and tried about 15 different "fixes" all to no avail. So far I have attempted:

  • Uninstalling Office, then running CCleaner/disk cleanup

  • Running in safe mode

  • Running as administrator

  • Running a few various "cscript" commands I have found people mention (commands show that the license is install and is active)

Office 2016 Standard Edition

16.0.4738.1000 32-bit

All replies (6)

Monday, February 25, 2019 3:17 AM

Hi,

The error “Microsoft Office can’t Find your License for this Application” occurs when the Microsoft application is unable to verify the license of your Office software. Based on your description, I suggest you try to repair Office 2016 firstly to have a check. 

  1. Open Control Panel.
  2. From Category view, under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
  3. Click the Office 2016, and then click Change.
  4. In Change your installation, select Repair and then click Continue.

If the issue persists, please restart sppsvc.exe to have a check.

The service “sppsvc.exe” can be easily found in your listed services. We will navigate there, make sure the startup type is “automatic” and force the service to start immediately.

  1. Press Windows + R, type “services.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
  2. Once in the services tab, navigate through the list until you find the process"Software Protection". Right-click it and select “Properties”.
  3. If the process is stopped, the option to start it will be enabled. Click on “Start” underneath the heading of Service Status.
  4. Make sure you have an active internet connection. Close all the open windows and try launching the Office product again. If you have a valid office key entered, the process will automatically verify it and you will be able to use the software.

If you have anything unclear or any updates, feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Herb

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Tuesday, February 26, 2019 4:27 PM

Thanks for the reply, but I have tried this multiple times and it only fixes the problem temporarily. If I use the method that you mentioned above, the user is able to use office for anywhere between 5 minutes and a few hours before the problem comes back.

Monday, May 20, 2019 11:12 PM

This issue is also plaguing my users.  Two RDS hosts running Server 2012 R2  - Office 2016 Std - Open Licensing - MSI install.

Have applied all updates from Windows Updates.

Have done a repair-installation via Appwiz.cpl

Cannot duplicate easily - issue is seemingly random.

Short of ripping out Office completely, wiping reg keys and program directories, I'm also at my wits end.

Did anyone come up with a solution to this?

Thank you,

David

~ David.

Friday, July 5, 2019 1:37 PM

Hey nbarr,

were you able to figure this one out? We are having the same issue with Office2013/2016 MSI-installations and MS-Support already gave up on us.

Friday, September 27, 2019 7:00 PM

Nbarr or tt ah, were either of you able to find a resolution to this issue? Seeing it on Office 2016 MSI install on Windows 10.

Regards,

James

Thursday, October 24, 2019 1:27 PM

All,

I never did find a fix for this. In some cases the problem just seemed to go away on it's own while others would spring up. The issue still seems to be completely random with no explanation attached to it. I see that 8 months later Microsoft has yet to actually respond to this issue with any solutions.