Many a company has hopped on Microsoft 365 and used Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.īut those who have Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 2019 in use will experience an unpleasant surprise from October 2023. Microsoft is promoting the move away from on-premises solutions to the cloud. The most important thing for administrators and users of Microsoft Office 20 products, which are still in support for a longer period of time, is what will happen to access to Microsoft 365 services. The article linked above discusses many topics. Access to MS 365 services ends October 2023 Microsoft's Jeremy Chapman answers key questions about Office and Microsoft 365 app deployment and maintenance in the article. To reactivate your Office applications, reconnect to the Internet.I've already been alerted to the issue by a reader this week, which is touched on here but disclosed by Microsoft in the JTechcommunity article Office and Microsoft 365 Apps Deployment & Update Management 2022. If you don’t connect to the Internet at least every 31 days, your applications will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents but cannot edit the documents or create new ones. You should also connect to the Internet regularly to keep your version of Office up to date and benefit from automatic upgrades. Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the OneDrive desktop app. For Microsoft 365 plans, Internet access is also needed to manage your subscription account, for example to install Office on other PCs or to change billing options. However, Internet access is required to install and activate all the latest releases of Office suites and all Microsoft 365 subscription plans.

You don’t need to be connected to the Internet to use Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the applications are fully installed on your computer.

Office 2016 vs 2021