Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products
Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion (2026) is a scheduled remote degradation of perpetually-licensed Microsoft Office software for macOS and iOS, set for July 13, 2026 when a license-validation certificate used by the Office apps expires. [ 1 ] After Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support in October 2023, Microsoft assured customers their installed apps would "continue to function." [ 2 ] The July 13, 2026 conversion instead drops the apps into a Microsoft-defined "reduced functionality mode," in which files can be opened and viewed but not edited or saved. [ 1 ] [ 3 ] By May 30, 2026, the original 2023 end-of-support page had been re-dated and rewritten on Microsoft's site; the "continue to function" clause was removed. [ 4 ] [ 2 ]
Microsoft announced general availability of Office 2019 for Windows and Mac on September 24, 2018. In the launch blog post, Microsoft's Jared Spataro wrote that "Office 2019 is a one-time release and won't receive future feature updates," positioning the product as the on-premises alternative to the Office 365 subscription. [ 5 ] Contemporary Microsoft Store pages marketed Office Home & Student 2019 as a "One-time purchase for 1 PC or Mac" at $149.99, with copy that explicitly contrasted the perpetual product against the Office 365 subscription model: "One-time purchases don't have an upgrade option, which means if you plan to upgrade to the next major release, you'll have to buy it at full price." [ 6 ]
Office 2021 for Mac became generally available on October 5, 2021 under the same one-time-purchase model & is scheduled to reach end of support on October 13, 2026 per the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. [ 7 ]
Microsoft's edited end-of-support assurance
The June 3, 2023 snapshot of Microsoft's end-of-support page contained this passage: