Unable to connect to the Licensing Helper on Mac after installing Office 2021

Im unable to activate Office 21 & presented with the following message "License Storage - Unable to connect to the Licensing Helper"

on research this seems to be an age old problem

is there a updated fix?

iMac 27″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Feb 22, 2023 10:19 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 8, 2023 03:48 PM

The -s flag is not needed. This was a miscommunication from tech support. The two commands are:


sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist

sudo chmod 4755 /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper


This is just buggy and draconian Microsoft licensing that wastes people's time. In my case I lost many hours of work because the licensing failed before I could save the Excel document, at which point I could only close without saving. I'm quite infuriated at this needless software behavior.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 8, 2023 03:48 PM in response to Miche11e_P

The -s flag is not needed. This was a miscommunication from tech support. The two commands are:


sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist

sudo chmod 4755 /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper


This is just buggy and draconian Microsoft licensing that wastes people's time. In my case I lost many hours of work because the licensing failed before I could save the Excel document, at which point I could only close without saving. I'm quite infuriated at this needless software behavior.

Feb 23, 2023 09:12 AM in response to Gazavan

Hi Gazavan,


Thanks for contacting Apple Support Communities!


We understand that you're unable to activate Microsoft Office on your Mac.


Since Microsoft Office isn't an app developed by Apple, we'd suggest that you contact Microsoft directly to help you to activate Office. If you need help to locate their contact information, you can follow the steps outlined here to do so: How to contact an app developer - Apple Support

"Contact the developer of a macOS app

  1. Open the App Store on your Mac.
  2. Click the sign-in button  or your photo. 
  3. A list of apps appears. Click the app that you want. If you can't find the app, use the search bar.
  4. The app's product page appears. Click Support or App Support. If you don't see Support or App Support, make sure that you're signed in with the correct Apple ID."


Take care!

Feb 23, 2023 11:10 AM in response to Miche11e_P

Ive tried the Microsoft route & spent nearly 2 hours on chat last night

we've met a roadblock to enable the fix

we were trying to create a command on terminal with

sudo –s

launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist

chmod 4755

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper


But this was the reply in terminal

sudo: –s: command not found


Load failed: 5: Input/output error


usage: chmod [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-a | +a | =a  [i][# [ n]]] mode|entry file ...


chmod [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-E | -C | -N | -i | -I] file ...


zsh: no such file or directory: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper


basically i need to access the sudo: –s: command to be able to resolve the issue

Hence I've been redirected back to Apple


Hope you can resolve

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Unable to connect to the Licensing Helper on Mac after installing Office 2021

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