If you're having Microsoft AutoUpdate issues...

[sdagley]

(Not Jamf Pro specific but I figure this is the most appropriate channel)

If you've been using Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) to manage updates to Office for Mac you might have noticed that your Office apps have been stuck on the October 2023 Office 16.78 release (the last release to support an Office 2019 license). This appears to be due MAU's license detection mechanism failing to properly detect a Microsoft 365 Subscription license since MAU 4.65 released in November 2023.

If you aren't seeing the post 16.78 Office releases, and your users have Microsoft 365 Subscription licenses, deploy a Configuration Profile with an Application & Custom Settings payload for the com.microsoft.autoupdate2 preferences domain and the .plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>AppCustomPref</key>
    <dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft Excel.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>Subscription</string>
        </dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>Subscription</string>
        </dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft PowerPoint.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>Subscription</string>
        </dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft Word.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>Subscription</string>
        </dict>
        <key>com.microsoft.office</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>Subscription</string>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Once that Configuration Profile is deployed push MAU 4.67 to your Macs and with MAU configured to use the Current channel for updates that should allow the January 2024 Office 16.81 updates to install.

If you are using MAU configured to use one of the Deferred Update Channels that Microsoft announced at JNUC 2021 Microsoft has failed to push the 16.81 updates to those channels as of this writing, and the 16.80 updates from December 2023 are the latest available there.

[LeFLO]

@sdagley  Thank you very much.

[AVmcclint]

I encountered this too. I ended up running the License Reset Package from here https://office-reset.com/macadmins/ the next time the user launches an Office app, it prompts them to activate and that resets the license.

[sdagley]

@AVmcclint That's interesting to know, but resetting the Office license on a few thousand Macs isn't a practical solution for my org. Nor should it be necessary. Our licenses are all Microsoft 365 Subscriptions licenses, and we've never used a volume Office 2019 license, so I don't think it's too much to expect that MAU would properly determine the installed license.

[AVmcclint]

The License Reset basically deletes the local files that tell the apps what license it has (2016, 2019, 365, whatever). If you’re using 365 for licensing, all they need to do after running this pkg is to activate with their 365 ID.  If every computer in your org is affected, it might be worth pushing it out to all Mac’s with the instructions on what to do on the next office app launch. If it’s only a few Macs, then you can put it in Self Service and direct users to that.  I’m using Self Service since it can also address other oddities I’ve seen with license files.  I think the core of the issue is “something” went wrong that conflicted with the license file. 

[sdagley]

The core issue is that once again a fundamental feature of MAU was broken in an update, and trying to get the team responsible for it to understand and address the problem is about as pleasant as micturating into the wind.

The whole reason I switched to using the automatic update configuration for deploying Office updates is that scripted updates using the msupdate tool embedded in MAU became extremely unreliable and the the advice I was given when I raised the issue was that msupdate wasn't the focus of the MAU team and automatic updates were. Frankly I'd really prefer to not use MAU at all, but since it's the only way to apply delta updates for the apps instead of updating with a full installer  it is the better update tool, when it works that is.

The .plist I posted above forces MAU to evaluate all of the Office apps as being subscription licensed and that's my solution until Microsoft actually fixes MAU because asking every Mac user in my org to re-license Office because Microsoft broke the license files won't fly.

[BCPeteo]

Having the same issue here. We have office 2019 deployed and Microsoft AutoUpdate updated it self to 4.67. All office apps also updated to 16.78 and they say up to date but with the caution ! and red update required next to them. I tried running the 2021 VL serializer on it, which did change the license to 2021, but even after a reboot Microsoft AutoUpdate is still showing the same issue. Hope there is an easy deployable fix, or Microsoft AutoUpdate gets fixed rather not have to update 1000+ systems with the newest version of each office app.

When I Look at the com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist everything looks correct and it shows that the apps need to be updated to 16.81 but its not updating nor does it give an option to update

[BCPeteo]

Update on this. Microsoft has updated Microsoft auto update that has a fix for this. 2019 is still EOL and will not get updates, but 2021 & 365 licensed Mac for office will get updates now.

[cbrewer]

If you're using 2021 volume licensing you will want a slightly different version of this profile.

Swap Subscription for 2021-Commercial.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>AppCustomPref</key>
    <dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft Excel.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>2021-Commercial</string>
        </dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>2021-Commercial</string>
        </dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft PowerPoint.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>2021-Commercial</string>
        </dict>
        <key>/Applications/Microsoft Word.app</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>2021-Commercial</string>
        </dict>
        <key>com.microsoft.office</key>
        <dict>
            <key>OfficeActivationLicense</key>
            <string>2021-Commercial</string>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

[BCPeteo]

This is just overwriting the com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist correct?

[sdagley]

@BCPeteo You can either add the AppCustomPref key entry to an existing Configuration Profile with a Application & Custom Settings payload for the com.microsoft.autoupdate2 domain you're using to configure MAU, or create an additional Configuration Profile with just the AppCustomPref settings which will merge the setting into the com.microsoft.autoupdate2 domain prefs on the targeted Macs.

[sdagley]

Thanks for 2021 VL info @cbrewer 

[timdsmith72]

Reviving an old topic.  @sdagley Do you (or anybody else) know of a way to register the apps with AutoUpdate after applying this setting?  It currently will update but only after each application is opened and then closed.  

[timdsmith72]

Programmatically register, I mean.  In a script.

[RLR]

Did you manage to find anything out about this. I am having the same issue in that auto update will only work on apps that have previously been opened. If a user never uses Powerpoint then it won't update.

[BCPeteo]

Microsoft autoupdate has command line options. So maybe you can write a script to do this. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/mac/update-office-for-mac-using-msupdate