Office 365 editing warning on a Mac

Owned by KARYN O'DELL
Last updated: Aug 11, 2023 by Kimberly Lyons
2 min read

Use this article to bypass the editing warnings you may be receiving on a Mac computer.

The prompt you may have received is: "Your account XXX@otc.edu doesn't allow editing on a Mac."

Instructions:

  1. Sign out of Office by clicking Word/Excel/whichever Office app you have open, and clicking Sign Out:

  2. Open a web browser and go to My Account (microsoft.com) and log in with your OTC email address and password.

  3. Select the device name that represents your Mac device and click Disable lost device.

  4. Return to Office and Sign In. Enter your OTC email address and password if prompted.

     

If the error persists…

  • Uninstall all Office365 apps from your computer.

  • Reinstall Office365 from the web portal (use your OTC email address).

  • Try accessing the Office app again and sign in with your OTC email address.

If the error still persists…

There is a more complex option that has shown good results. Try this only if the previous two methods do not work.

  • Launch each Office app installed on your Mac, click on the application name (eg Word) menu and choose Sign Out. Then quit the application.

  • In the Finder, click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder

  • In the box, type: ~/Library

  • Click on the Group Containers folder

  • Locate the following three files/folders and drag them to the Trash

    • UBF8T346G9.ms

    • UBF8T346G9.Office

    • UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost

  • Empty the Trash and launch an Office application to check if you can now edit documents.