office 2016 on macs

[clareq]

We have a suite of Macs, onto which I have installed Office 2016. Users are asked to log-on to Office when they run it, but that's fine, we have a 365 tenancy, and they store their documents on One Drive anyway. However, on a few machines, intermittently, users are told they can only read documents, as they do not have a licence to run Office 2016 on a Mac. Move to another mac and they are fine. Any ideas?

[Arthur]

If you have an EES agreement you can download the Volume License Serializer package from VLSC which will activate Office and mean users won't be prompted to sign in to activate.

 

Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer_2.0.pkg can be found on the Office 2016 for Mac Standard ISO.

 

SW_DVD5_Office_Mac_Standard_2016_MultiLang_-9_.dmg_MLF_X21-58282.iso

 

[Michael]

Are all your Macs running the same flavour of Mac OS?

[clareq]

All macs were built from the same image. I'm going to try the serialiser recommended by @Arthur

[clareq]

I've just checked - the serialiser is run as part of the DeployStudio workflow.

[Arthur]

I've just checked - the serialiser is run as part of the DeployStudio workflow.

Are you deploying the Volume Licensed version of Office 2016 or the more up-to-date SKU-less version from macadmins.software which then gets licensed by the serializer?

Edited December 4, 2017 by Arthur

[clareq]

The volume licensed version - direct from the iso you linked earlier.

[Arthur]

All macs were built from the same image.

Is Office part of the image or is it being installed post-deployment via a "Package Install" task in your DeployStudio workflow? If the former, it will be because the license .plist contains the serial number of the boot drive the image was created on (see quote from Microsoft below).

 

Try deleting com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.plist and then reinstalling the serializer package.

 

rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.plist

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/3135924/volume-license-serializer-for-office-2016-for-mac

 

Q: Why isn’t it supported to copy the licensing plist between computers?

A: The licensing plist generated by the VL Serializer contains data that's encrypted by using the serial number of the boot drive on the computer where it was generated. Upon each Office application launch, the plist is decrypted by using the current boot drive serial number as the decryption key. If the data cannot be decrypted (for example, boot drive serial number is different), Office will go into an unlicensed state without warning.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Arthur

[clareq]

Yes, Office is on the image. I think it's time to build a new image! I assume there is no way to "rearm" Office in the same way you can on a PC?

[Arthur]

I assume there is no way to "rearm" Office in the same way you can on a PC?

Delete the .plist I mentioned above and then install the serializer pkg.

[clareq]

Can I just add the command to delete the plist to the Deploystudio workflow until I get time to build a new image?

[Arthur]

Can I just add the command to delete the plist to the Deploystudio workflow until I get time to build a new image?

Yes. That will work too.