What Causes The Occurrence Of The Unlicensed Product Message In Excel?
The unlicensed product message comes up mostly for users of excel whenever the application is unable to confirm whether the user has a genuine active version of Microsoft office installed on their computer. This can be caused by several factors;
Subscription Expired: The period for which the office was subscribed to or licensed has elapsed and the Excel is not able to authenticate.
Activation Problems: The failure to successfully activate excel could also be as a result of inadequate internet connection, problems with the server or wrong configurations.
Incompatible Office Versions: You could be having an older version of office software that does not conform to the present activation standards.
Damaged Installation: Damaged installation of office and presence of other files may stop excel from seeing its license as intended.
Wrong Microsoft Account: While signing in, if the account is a personal account or organizational one without the respective Office license, this could lead to the error appearing in the first place.
How to Resolve the “Excel Unlicensed Product” Issue
1. Verify Your Office Subscription or License Status:
a. Microsoft 365 Subscription: If you are using Microsoft Office 365, confirm that the subscription is still valid.
Launch Excel and click on the File menu > Account.
Under Product Information, check whether the subscription is active. In this case, a message that reads “Unlicensed Product’ comes about which is possible that the subscription service is inactive and needs to be reactivated.
In case you are part of a work or education account, reach out to your IT department in order to check if your license is still valid.
One-time Purchase: If you bought Office as a one-time purchase such as Office Home & Student, check whether the product key has been entered and activated properly.
2. Make Sure to Use the Right Microsoft Account.
In case you are having Microsoft 365, Excel will want you to sign in with a Microsoft account which is linked to your Office license.
Open Excel then navigate to File > Account.
In User Information check whether you are signed in the Office subscription account. In case you haven’t log in, click Sign In and provide the right login information instead.
In case you are signed in with a school or work account, make sure that account is licensed to use Office by your organization.
3. Activate Office By the Use of Product Key.
It could be the case that you might be required to enter a product key manually when launching for the first time a version of Excel or an Office suite that is stand-alone (for example, Office 2021 or Office 2019).
Open Excel then click on File > Account.
