From the Office home page select Install Office. Select Install (or depending on your version, Install Office). From the Office 365 home page select Install Office apps (If you set a different start page, go to aka.ms/office-install.) Select Office 365 apps to begin the installation.
Question: I upgraded to Catalina on my Mac and now Microsoft Office won’t work; what can I do?
Answer: One of the side effects of tech companies taking their platforms to new levels is that, often times, older software programs will no longer work.
The most recent version of Apple’s MacOS — known as Catalina — is having a major impact on those who upgraded without understanding that their older 32-bit programs would no longer run.
If your version of Microsoft Office is older than Office 2016 v15.35, you’ll have to choose from a variety of costly or time consuming and complicated options.
If you have Office 2016, you should be able to upgrade to the 64-bit version through Microsoft’s standard upgrade process if for some reason it hasn’t already been updated.
Option 1: Purchase new software
You can purchase the Office Home & Student 2019 bundle from Microsoft for $149.99 or the Office Home & Business bundle for $249.99. The primary difference in the two packages is the business version includes Outlook.
Option 2: Start renting Microsoft Office
Microsoft is trying to get users to convert from a single purchase package that will eventually expire to their subscription 'SaaS' (Software as a Service) platform known as Office 365.
This means you either pay monthly ($6.99 for Home & Student) or annually ($69.99 for Home & Student or $99 for Business) from now on.
Option 3: Switch to Google’s offerings
If your needs for productivity software are very basic, you may find the free options available from Google through a Google Drive account to be acceptable.
It includes Docs, Sheets and Slides which are Google’s version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, although nowhere near as powerful. Though it’s a web-based tool, there are options for editing your documents when you are offline.
Option 4: Revert back to Mojave
There is no simple way to go back to the previous version (Mojave), so this option is very time consuming and complicated, as you’ll have to wipe your hard drive and reinstall everything. Depending upon which version of the MacOS your computer shipped with, you may have to use an external hard drive to complete the reversion.
How to check for 32-bit programs
For those who are considering an upgrade to Catalina, a good first step is to see what 32-bit programs you are currently running to determine if they are important to you or not.
To do this, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner, then on 'About This Mac' and then on 'System Report.' When the report opens up, scroll down to the 'Software' section and click on 'Applications.'
An alphabetical list of applications will appear with various details about each one. If you scroll to the far right, you should see a column that says '64-Bit' and the words 'Yes' or 'No' for each application. To make it easier to see the Application Name and whether it’s 64-bit or not, drag the 64-bit header from the far right to the far left so it’s right next to the 'Application Name' column.
Go through the list looking for your critical programs to make sure they are 64-bit or to see if a 64-bit version is available from the creator of the program before upgrading to Catalina.
Ken Colburn is the founder and CEO of Data Doctors Computer Services. Ask any tech question at: facebook.com/DataDoctors.
Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Why Won't Microsoft Office Install On My Mac
Summary
Existing Office 2016 for Mac customers will be seamlessly upgraded to 64-bit versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote as part of the August product release (version 15.25). This affects customers of all license types: Retail, Office 365 Consumer, Office 365 Commercial, and Volume License installations.
Why Won't Microsoft Office Download On My Mac
Deployment options for the 64-bit update
AutoUpdate (MAU)
Customers who use Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) to keep their Office applications up-to-date will see a 'regular' monthly update notification when their selected channel is upgraded to 64-bit builds. Depending on which version is installed on the local computer, MAU will offer either a delta or full update. The update package size does not change between 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Also, MAU can deliver a delta update when applicable to update a user from 32-bit to 64-bit applications. Therefore, customers won't experience a sharp increase in download activity. For the release to the Production channel, customers will see '(64-bit)' in the update title to make them aware that this is a 64-bit update.
Free Microsoft Office Install
For information about how to use the MAU, see Check for Office for Mac updates automatically.
Manual updates
The August release of Office for Mac is available for manual download. The following file provides a 64-bit package to replace existing 32-bit applications with 64-bit variants during installation:
Download the Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac August update package now.
Virus-scan claim
Microsoft scanned this file for viruses, using the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to it.
Volume License Service Center
Microsoft Office Not Installing On Mac
Volume License customers typically get their Office 2016 software from the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). These builds are refreshed infrequently and are typically aligned with new language editions. The VLSC will continue to offer 32-bit installers (15.23) until November 2016. However, all updater packages that are released after August will be based on 64-bit builds. Therefore, a VLSC customer who updates either manually or through AutoUpdate will be transitioned to 64-bit builds.
More Information
64-bit only
The Mac operating system has been 64-bit for several years. Unlike for Windows, there's no choice between running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of the Mac operating system. Similarly, we won't offer a choice between 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2016 for Mac. After each 'channel' is transitioned per the rollout schedule, only 64-bit builds will be available.
Effect on third-party applications and add-ins
The transition to 64-bit Office for Mac was announced on the Office developer blog in April 2016. This website is the primary reference for third-party vendors to understand the change and the effect on their products. IT Pros will want to understand which compiled add-ins are deployed to the users whom they manage so that they can assess the effect of the upgrade. The following Microsoft Office website summarizes the issues that affect the more common add-ins that are used together with Office 2016 for Mac:
Tools for inspecting product architecture
To verify the architecture of an Office application (that is, to understand whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit build), start the application, open the Activity Monitor, and then enable the Kind column.
You can also use the file command in a terminal session to inspect the binary. For this use, type file -N <path of binary>.This method can be used with for any binary file, including third-party add-ins.
The file command returns one of three values.
| Return value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64 | 64-bit binary |
| Mach-O executable i386 | 32-bit binary |
| Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64 | FAT binary (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit processes) |
| Mach-O executable i386 | FAT binary (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit processes) |
Options for reverting to 32-bit installations
There may be situations in which the customer has to change code that's not 64-bit ready. If customers can't immediately move forward to 64-bit builds, we will make available a one-time 32-bit update for the 15.25 release in addition to the default 64-bit updates. The 32-bit updates will be available only for manual download from the Office CDN.
The latest 32-bit release of Office 2016 for Mac (15.25.160818) can be downloaded from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=823192.
Why Won't Microsoft Office Install On My Mac Computer
Customers who manually install the 32-bit release won't be offered the 64-bit version of 15.25 through MAU. However, MAU will offer the 64-bit version of 15.26 in September 2016. Therefore, customers have a limited time to remain on 32-bit builds.
If a customer has already upgraded to the 64-bit update of Office for Mac 15.25 and wants to revert to the 32-bit version, follow these steps:
- Exit all open Office 2016 applications.
- Start Safari, and then browse to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=823192 to start the download of the 32-bit installer.
- Double-click the downloaded package, and then follow the instructions.
Microsoft Office Login
The 64-bit installation has a build date of 160817. The 32-bit version has a build date of 160818.