Global Outage: Unexpected Bug Cripples Office Apps

A strange bug paralyzes Microsoft 365 apps: Users are suddenly confronted with deactivated Office applications. Microsoft has confirmed the issue and is working to fix it. Until then there is a temporary solution.

Unexpected deactivation causes trouble

The problem seems to be widespread and Microsoft still has no clue as to what exactly could be the cause. When starting one of the applications, users receive the following message: “Your Microsoft 365 license will soon be deactivated.” No further explanations follow. There is a mysterious bug behind this that causes Microsoft 365 apps to be deactivated seemingly for no reason. How Günter Born reports in his blogthe problem appears to occur worldwide.

Microsoft announced in a statement on December 19th published support article the problem was officially confirmed. The technology group explains that various administrative changes at the licensing level can trigger the error.

This includes switching license groups, changing product assignments, or removing and re-adding users to license groups. According to Microsoft, the problem has now been eliminated. End users should no longer be affected, but things are different for managed environments.

First aid for disabled Office apps

As an immediate measure, Microsoft recommends affected users click the “Reactivate” button in the warning banner. Alternatively, all Microsoft 365 applications, including Outlook, should be closed and logged in again after restarting the respective app.

If these steps are not successful and the notices continue to appear, the group advises contacting the responsible administrator to check possible problems with the expiration of the subscription. Microsoft provides additional diagnostic tools for administrators. The Office Licensing Diagnostic Tool can collect important information to help analyze errors.

The company is also asking users with open support cases to submit log files from the %temp%/diagnostics directory to assist in the investigation.