Microsoft will prevent Office 2019 for Mac owners from editing their documents from July 13, a restriction the company is attributing to the productivity suite's expiring digital certificate. The Office 2019 apps affected include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Once the certificate used to confirm the suite's license expires, these apps will drop into what Microsoft is calling "reduced functionality mode".

Microsoft’s messaging on the subject hasn’t done it any favors, either. Its end-of-support page for Office 2019 for Mac, originally posted in October 2023, once told owners to “Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function.” A revision now dated May 15, 2026 has dropped that line, replacing it with a note that their data “can be accessed in a supported Microsoft 365 or Office product.”

  • kurmudgeon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    6 hours ago

    This is a piss poor excuse from Microsoft for letting a certificate expire. How fucking hard is it to renew a certificate? I do it every fucking day at work. This is purely just forced/planned obsolescence. They want users to use their subscription-based platform on the web.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
      12·
      6 hours ago

      Ask anyone in IT or tech and they’ll confirm that this is the easiest thing for Microsoft to do, the veil is so thin here, it’s purely to get people to pay them a subscription.