People all over the world use Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. From time to time, the error “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac” arises. Office 365 may stop working on your Mac because of corrupt cache files or a lack of free storage space. To quickly fix both of these issues, you can use MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup, which removes old and unnecessary junk—including bad cache files—from your system in just a few clicks.
According to Statista, users at over 2 million companies worldwide use Office 365, including more than 1.3 million businesses in the US alone. In other words, Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have become essential tools for many workers, and it can be incredibly frustrating when they suddenly break.
If you use Office 365 on a Mac, you may have run into the common “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac” error at some point. It prevents you from making changes to an Office document, and therefore disrupts your workflow. Fortunately, there are some simple ways you can fix it, which we’ll look at here.
Why does the message “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac” appear?
If Microsoft 365 doesn’t allow editing on a Mac, it could be due to several factors. In many instances, you mightn’t have the right license, which could indicate your subscription has expired. If you’ve already purchased an Office 365 license, it could be that you simply need to verify or activate it.
Sometimes, you might not be able to edit documents for reasons unrelated to your subscription. For example, many errors can occur because of corrupt cache files, or issues that have arisen within the Office applications themselves, which means they need to be reset.
A note from our experts:
When Microsoft Office 365 shows errors, it’s high time to clean your Mac of junk files. A cluttered device works poorly and with failures. MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup removes old and unnecessary cache files, logs and other junk.
Ways to fix “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac” error in Office 365
When your account can view documents but it doesn't allow editing on a Mac, it’s certainly annoying, but you don’t have to let it slow you down for long. The “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac” error can be eliminated in many easy ways, including:
Log out your Office 365 account and log back in
Verify your Office 365 license
Activate Office
Update Office 365 applications
Clear caches, logs, and other junk
Reset Microsoft Word to its default state
Uninstall and reinstall Office 365
1. Log out your Office 365 account and log back in
Because license errors are often the reason why Microsoft Word keeps crashing on Mac, and why you can’t edit Office documents, simply logging out of your account and then logging back in can be enough to fix the problem. Try this:
Open an Office 365 app. For our example, we’ll use Microsoft Word.
Click on your avatar on the left-hand toolbar, then select Sign Out.
Click Sign out again when prompted to continue.
Once you’re signed out, click the Sign in button in the top-left corner.
Enter your Microsoft account details to sign in again.
Step 1. Click your avatar, then select Sign OutStep 2. Select Sign out to confirmStep 3. Click Sign in then enter your Microsoft details
This process forces Microsoft 365 to check your license again. Assuming you have a valid license, this should solve any subscription problems that have occurred.
2. Verify your Office 365 license
If you’re unsure whether your Office 365 subscription is still active, verify your license on the Microsoft website like so:
Click on your profile picture or logo in the top right-hand corner and select My Microsoft account.
Under the Subscriptions section, find your plan.
You can select Manage if you need to make changes to it.
Step 1. On the Office website, select My Microsoft accountStep 2. Check your active plans under Subscriptions
A hint from us: If you don’t see an active Office 365 subscription here, you’ll need to renew or purchase a new plan. Without an active license, Office 365 doesn’t allow editing on a Mac. You’ll be able to open documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but you won’t have permission to edit them.
3. Activate Office
You can buy Office 365 plans from another supplier, and doing so is often less expensive. But before you use Microsoft’s apps, you’ll need to activate your plan. Follow these steps:
Type the product key when asked to do so, then click Next to proceed.
Step 1. Click Get started on office.com/setupStep 2. Sign in to your Microsoft accountStep 3. Enter your Office key to continue
Once you’ve completed the final activation steps shown on the screen, your Office 365 plan should be active. Sign into the same Microsoft account inside an Office app on your Mac to unlock full editing access.
A tip from our team:
If you only need to make minor changes to a document, or you plan to use Office temporarily, you may not want to purchase an Office 365 license. Sadly, there’s no free Microsoft Word for Mac, but you may be able to enjoy a trial if you haven’t already. You can also use Word for free in your browser.
4. Update Office 365 applications
Office applications can be unstable on Mac when they become outdated. This is especially true if you’ve installed macOS updates, but you’re running older versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that haven’t been optimized. Below, we’ll explain how to update them.
If you downloaded Office apps from the App Store:
Open the App Store on your Mac, then click Updates in the sidebar.
Download any updates that are available for Office apps.
Step 1. In the App Store, select UpdatesStep 2. Install any Office updates
If you downloaded Office apps from Microsoft:
Office apps downloaded directly from Microsoft come with the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool, which makes installing new app releases easy. To run it, first open an Office app, then select Help > Check for Updates in the menu bar.
AutoUpdate will search for the latest Office releases. Once it’s done, click the Update All button to install them.
Step 1. Select Help > Check for Updates in the menu barStep 2. Install any available updates
5. Clear caches, logs, and other junk
A common reason why you’re unable to edit Word documents on Mac is that your Office apps have been broken by corrupt caches, logs, or other system junk. A lack of free space also causes stability issues. Use MacKeeper Safe Cleanup to put things right:
Open MacKeeper, then select Safe Cleanup in the sidebar.
Click Start Scan to find all system junk.
Select the files you want to remove, making sure you select Caches and Logs. We also recommend selecting other file types to free up space.
Click Clean Junk Files to delete all the data from your Mac.
It’s possible to manually delete caches and logs on Mac, but this requires digging around in system folders that are difficult to find. From our experience, it’s also very easy to delete critical files when you try cleaning your Mac manually, whereas Safe Cleanup only removes unnecessary data.
6. Reset Microsoft Word to its default state
If you’ve recently changed your settings in Word, you may have accidentally activated or deactivated a feature that’s now preventing it from working as intended. Unfortunately, there’s no Reset function, so you’ll need to delete the preferences file manually:
Close Microsoft Word and any other Office apps you have running.
Open Finder, then click Go > Go to Folder in the menu bar.
Enter ~/Library/Preferences, then hit Enter.
Locate and delete the com.microsoft.Word.plist.
Reopen Word, and it’ll rebuild a fresh preferences file.
Step 1. In Finder, select Go > Go to FolderStep 2. Enter ~/Library/Preferences then press EnterStep 3. Delete any Office .plist files, then relaunch the app
You can follow the same process for other Office apps to reset their settings. This will obviously restore each program to its default state, so you may need to adjust things later to restore any preferences that you really need.
7. Uninstall and reinstall Office 365
If you’ve tried all the solutions above, and you’re still seeing errors inside your Office apps, it’s time to uninstall and reinstall Office 365. Let’s look at how to uninstall Microsoft 365 on Mac before downloading the programs again:
Open Finder, then select Applications in the sidebar.
Right-click an Office app you want to uninstall, then select Move to Bin. Repeat this process for all Office apps.
Right-click the Trash icon in your Mac’s dock, then select Empty Bin to finish uninstalling all your Microsoft programs.
Redownload and reinstall the Office apps you need from the App Store, or from the Microsoft website.
Step 1. In Finder, select ApplicationsStep 2. Right-click the Office app, then Move to BinStep 3. Right-click the trash icon, then Empty BinStep 4. Reinstall your Office apps
Reinstalling Office apps ensures any corrupted data is cleared and replaced by fresh app packages. This should fix all issues. However, we must note that you’ll need admin rights to uninstall Microsoft apps, so if you’re using a managed Mac, ask your employer, school, or other provider for help.
Office 365 view only is irritating, but also fixable
We know how frustrating it can be when Office 365 apps stop working properly on Mac—especially when you have work to do. However, in most cases, they’re easy to fix by simply logging into your account, clearing old cache files, or by reinstalling Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
The quickest and most effective way to clear potentially corrupt Office cache files that can cause stability issues is withMacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup. Our handy utility removes all unnecessary junk from your Mac, not only fixing apps that have become unstable, but also freeing up space.
We respect your privacy and
use cookies
for the best site experience.
Privacy Preferences Center
We use cookies along with other tools to give you the best possible experience while using the
MacKeeper website. Cookies are small text files that help the website load faster. The cookies we
use don’t contain any type of personal data meaning they never store information such as your
location, email address, or IP address.
Help us improve how you interact with our website by accepting the use of cookies. You can change
your privacy settings whenever you like.
Manage consent
All cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary for enabling basic website functionality (including page
navigation, form submission, language detection, post commenting), downloading and purchasing
software. The website might malfunction without these cookies.