Mac Microsoft Office 2016 users will lose 365 cloud services in October
Users of all Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac apps will cease getting security updates in October, and will increasingly face performance and reliability issues as Microsoft drops support.
The main apps in Office 2016 for Mac
From October 13, 2020, Mac users of Office 2016 will no longer be officially supported on Microsoft's Office 365 or Microsoft 365 services. This means the business versions of OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange Online will not be supported, although they may continue to function.
Microsoft's official announcement is contradictory, stating first that Office 2016 will remain in the list of supported versions. This is the Windows version, however, as the company later specifies that: "Office 2016 for Mac isn't supported."
That's because the company is officially ending all support for Office 2016 for Mac on that date. Office 2016, like the Office 2019 which followed it and will still be supported, is a standalone copy of the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook bundle which was sold as a single purchase.
While Office began as a single purchase, Microsoft has been promoting a subscription version called Office 365 since 2011. As part of that promotion, subscribers have received continually updated support plus new features that are exclusive to Office 365.
Similarly, Microsoft has tied new versions of Office such as Microsoft Office for iPad, to the 365 subscription service. To use the iPad versions of the app, you have to subscribe to Office 365.
"We won't take any active measures to block other versions of the Office client, such as Office 2013, from connecting to Office 365 services," says Microsoft in a support statement, "but these older clients may encounter performance or reliability issues over time."
Companies who have bought Office 2016 for Mac will notice the lack of support first, as it affects how Word and the other apps can save and share data.
The main apps in Office 2016 for Mac
From October 13, 2020, Mac users of Office 2016 will no longer be officially supported on Microsoft's Office 365 or Microsoft 365 services. This means the business versions of OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange Online will not be supported, although they may continue to function.
Microsoft's official announcement is contradictory, stating first that Office 2016 will remain in the list of supported versions. This is the Windows version, however, as the company later specifies that: "Office 2016 for Mac isn't supported."
That's because the company is officially ending all support for Office 2016 for Mac on that date. Office 2016, like the Office 2019 which followed it and will still be supported, is a standalone copy of the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook bundle which was sold as a single purchase.
While Office began as a single purchase, Microsoft has been promoting a subscription version called Office 365 since 2011. As part of that promotion, subscribers have received continually updated support plus new features that are exclusive to Office 365.
Similarly, Microsoft has tied new versions of Office such as Microsoft Office for iPad, to the 365 subscription service. To use the iPad versions of the app, you have to subscribe to Office 365.
"We won't take any active measures to block other versions of the Office client, such as Office 2013, from connecting to Office 365 services," says Microsoft in a support statement, "but these older clients may encounter performance or reliability issues over time."
Companies who have bought Office 2016 for Mac will notice the lack of support first, as it affects how Word and the other apps can save and share data.
Comments
Microsoft is doubling down on the subscription model and is doing whatever it can to move people to it.
From a personal perspective I've always failed to see the benefit of Google's offerings. Slow, requires a persistent connection, and little in the way of privacy guarantees... and for business use M365 isn't really that much more than G-suite. I can't stand Google's email either. It's just not for me. But again, it's my personal opinion.
Not promoting or defending Microsoft here. Just saying that a cloud-based application where a desktop front end is merely one of many user interfaces to it (Microsoft Office after Microsoft got sick of losing users to Google Docs and dumped Ballmer for Nadella) is miles superior to a desktop application (the original Microsoft Office of Gates) or even a primarily desktop application with only syncing and backup functionality and frequently broken Sharepoint server APIs (Microsoft Office under Ballmer).
As far as Word is concerned, I've always hated with a passion, it but it was a required tool for collaboration, especially when working with other folks on open standards documents. In addition to Excel, I've always loved Visio, but it's on the outside of the Microsoft 365 rodeo and requires a separate purchase. PowerPoint is nothing special, used it a lot but if you spend too much time in PowerPoint you should probably find a new job where you can actually get some real work done, where "real work" is defined as pretty much anything that doesn't involve using PowerPoint, or its comparable offerings from other vendors.
At least with the Microsoft 365 subscription I get a big hunk of OneDrive storage and can install Excel, et al, on every device I own, Mac, PC, iOS, and iPadOS. My only question to Microsoft is why no support for Microsoft 365 on Linux, especially with all the hoopla around WSL? Very odd.
while I also use Pages for a lot of my work, it just drives me crazy with some of its idiosyncrasies and missing features....
I haven’t used numbers enough to know much about it, but I do love Excel and am pretty proficient with it...
I’d buy a newer version of office for the Mac if one were available, but I suppose sooner or later I’ll need to buy a 365 subscription...