Older Macs and iPhones May Lose Major Office 365 Features in a Few Weeks

If you want to organize your own Microsoft Office 2019 files in your Macyou will be able to do so until next month.

Starting July 13, Office 2019 applications for Mac — including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote — will feature a “reduced operating mode” that disables editing, saving or creating new files, while only allowing viewing and printing. This limitation also affects outdated iPhone and iPad apps, according to Microsoft.

That’s because Microsoft Office 2019 officially ended support in October 2023, and the version no longer receives software or security updates.

Microsoft 365 subscribers to the new supported versions of Office on macOS, as well as non-subscriber Office 2021 customers, will have to update their software before July to avoid the same fate.

The crux of the matter is the expiring security certificate that verifies Office licenses. Microsoft has renewed the certificate and updated other versions of Office to recognize it correctly, but not the 2019 version for Mac. Microsoft Office versions for Windows are not affected by this security certificate.

Pulling the plug on Office 2019

Microsoft’s end-of-support notice for Office 2019 cites a five-year support lifecycle for the software package. Office 2019 was released in September 2018, making it almost 8 years old.

With software updates, that’s a no-brainer. But this certification issue doesn’t seem to be due to broken code that would pull resources from other new projects to fix. The 2019 office, which was sold as a one-time purchase, is still working fine.

The problem is that Microsoft will not provide an update that will activate the renewed certificate. Expiration of security certificates is a standard industry practice designed to limit the risk of cryptographic keys being compromised.

But some critics say Microsoft’s deadline is self-imposed. Compounding the setback, Microsoft quietly removed an earlier online promise that the software would “continue to work.”

When reached for comment by email, a Microsoft spokesperson responded: “Microsoft does not intentionally decide or change Office 2019; the product cannot receive a renewed certificate because there is no renewal method available for an unsupported product.”

The last full purchase version of Office for Mac is Office 2024, which will continue to be supported. Its predecessor, Office 2021, will also continue to work but will enter end-of-support mode in October 2026.

Office 2019 was around not so long ago, before Microsoft started integrating artificial intelligence features into all of its products. It’s safe to assume that some customers are sticking with their apps because they want basic word processing, spreadsheet and presentation features without today’s distractions.

If you decide to upgrade to a new version from Office 2019, you will need to download and run the License Removal Tool, open the Office application and go to. Help > See Reviews to open it.

As an alternative, you can use Microsoft 365 on the web for free.