Microsoft Confirms ‘Product Deactivated’ Errors in Office Apps Caused by Licensing Changes

Microsoft is currently investigating a new issue affecting its Office apps, including Word, Outlook, and Excel. The company acknowledged in a support document that users are encountering unexpected “Product Deactivated” errors.

According to Microsoft, this problem might be triggered when an administrator makes changes at licensing level. Specifically, this issue could be caused while moving a user from one licensing group to another. This applies to both Azure Active Directory (AD) groups and security groups synced from on-premises Active Directory.

Microsoft noted that changing a user’s license, such as switching from an Office 365 E3 subscription to a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription, can lead to errors. These issues can also occur when users are removed from a license group and then re-added, whether to the same group or a different one.

Microsoft also highlighted that enabling or disabling specific licenses or service plans for users can cause issues. For example, users may encounter “Product Deactivated” error messages if administrators turn off the “Latest version of Desktop Apps” service plan in a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Workaround to fix ‘Product Deactivated’ Errors in Office Apps

The only workaround right now is to click the “Reactivate” button on the error banner and sign in again. Alternatively, users can log out of all Microsoft 365 apps, close them, restart the app, and sign back in when prompted.

Microsoft recommends that users should contact their IT admin to check if the Microsoft 365 subscription has expired. Administrators can navigate to the Microsoft 365 subscription management portal to check subscription details.

Lastly, Microsoft advises affected users to share the logs stored in the %temp%/diagnostics directory with support engineers. “For those that have support cases open, please collect the Office Logs and the file information below and share them with your support engineer,” Microsoft explained.

Microsoft is currently working on a resolution, but the company has not yet provided a timeline for the fix. The company advises users and administrators affected by the issue to monitor support channels for updates and further information.