Help, don't want to buy 365

xcjoy Said:

"Help, don't want to buy 365: how can I get my old version of office back? My mac deleted it after an update and now just wants me to pay for 365 I paid for a lifetime license for my previous version"

-------

Contact Microsoft Support:

They are the developer’s of the software.

Start Here:  Microsoft Contact Us Virtual Agent - Microsoft Support

You can buy Office 2019 if you don't want Office 365 subscription.

You can revert to a previous MacOS: Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple Support

If you have a problem with your Microsoft Office license terms you'll need to take that up with Microsoft.

And that's fine. But all software is written to work under the hardware and OS that was current at the time it was created. Yes, you can continue to use is forever, but there's absolutely no guarantee it will work on the most current computer/OS. If you truly want to use it forever, you have two choices:

1. Keep an old computer going the software will run on natively.
2. Install virtual machine software (Parallels, VMWare, VirtualBox). Then you can install an older OS within the VM that is capable of running your older software.

They both have downsides. The first is keeping an old computer running. Parts will become more and more difficult to find.

For the second, a VM is literal. The software is creating a virtual/pretend machine (computer) in RAM. This always includes much simpler, slower virtual video emulation. Older software will run, but don't expect it to behave as well as it would on an actual computer that has much better video hardware. It also shares your real computer's system resources - RAM, CPU, I/O. Don't even attempt a VM with less than 16 GB of RAM installed unless you don't mind watching both the host and virtual OS crawl.

Otherwise, BobTheFisherman already gave the best answer. Upgrade to Office 2019. It's the current, one-time cost perpetual license version of Office. $150 for the Home/Student version, and $250 for the Business edition which includes Outlook. Either is less than just about anyone pays for their 6 month auto insurance premium.

I paid for a lifetime license for my previous version.

Why do people keep saying this? Do you expect your car to last into infinity? Your toaster? TV? Clothes? The computer itself?

Software companies can't stay in business by selling you something once and then providing free updates and upgrades in perpetuity. That doesn't pay the programmer's salaries and other numerous daily expenses. They stay in business by getting you to purchase a newer version.

I can't even count how many software titles I've purchased over the decades that are no longer usable. Not unless I get an equally old computer to run them on. If I can even find one that old that still works.

Everyone can't pay for every softwares that's why we buy only what we can afford. I had been using microsoft office 2011 till 2 years back. Because that was fine for me.. that did good enough job for my needs. A software (a car, a toaster and even a computer) can last for years (BTW my old macbook pro early 11) is still working perfect for me. Should I throw that out even that is working perfectly fine for me just because apple released a new one..?? I don't think that make sense.. Oh i forgot to say, I'm using 4 and half years old iphone SE and IPhone 5C even older I guess 7 years old..

So brother this is not if software company has released a new version so we should buy the new version only because we care for their business... they are taking our money to give is a software "We are not paying for the whole company, we are only paying for one software which they sold and took our money)...

Please no offense .. if anything I wrote wrong. I'm not very good in english.