Help! Ms Office Product Key

[The Dark Knight]

I bought MS office for Mac 2011 from eBay back in 2011. I've now upgraded to SSD and MS office won't work without the product key.

I've tried putting the old HDD back in and scouring the menus and files for it to no avail. I've also followed many tips online including copying special files from 'preferences' folder on the HDD onto a USB. Then I've 'replaced' those special files by pasting from the USB to the SSD. The website tip says this works fine but oh no it doesn't! I'm still stuck with unusable MS Office! I threw the box away like an idiot back in 2011 so I have no idea what the product key is.

Any advice guys? (I emailed MS last week but no reply)

Thanks

[alexp999]

I think there are software tools which can dig it out of the registry but not sure how well that works on an old HDD, as in not the booted OS...

[ed12]

Macs don't have a centralised database like windows machines. Pretty sure a call to M$ is in order, with your PID (the code it gives you in the help/about section in word if you boot to the old hard drive. They might be helpful and give you a fresh key with this code as it shows you had a genuine copy.

[bensambrook]

When I changed to an SSD in my MacBook I backed up all my applications to a time machine back up and then restored my applications and settings from this backup onto the new SSD. Probably doesn't help you unless you can back up the old HD and do it that way?

[Stoney871]

You have to be able to access the hard drive you migrated from.

Make sure all Office programs are closed.

On the new hard drive/computer you migrated to, delete the following file:

/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist

Go to the HD you had a working copy on, and copy that same file from the same location to the new HD.

It should have an older date from when you installed it and activated it.

[The Dark Knight]

When I changed to an SSD in my MacBook I backed up all my applications to a time machine back up and then restored my applications and settings from this backup onto the new SSD. Probably doesn't help you unless you can back up the old HD and do it that way?

I backed up my entire system to an external HDD using time machine but it makes no difference with MS Office 2011 apparently. It just knows you have done an upgrade of some kind and demands the product ID.

You have to be able to access the hard drive you migrated from.

Make sure all Office programs are closed.

On the new hard drive/computer you migrated to, delete the following file:

/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist

Go to the HD you had a working copy on, and copy that same file from the same location to the new HD.

It should have an older date from when you installed it and activated it.

Did that having read it online and it failed miserably. From what I read, I am basically stuffed. My last chance is to ring MS and quote the ID's from Word etc. Failing that, a new MS Office for Mac is due out in the autumn apparently.

[jeebowhite]

yeah, Microsoft basically tag down the license key to a unique machine ID. This is basically a list of serial numbers from your machine, such as mobo and hdd, when you change one it no longer ties in. sadly a call to MS is the only valid answer, and prepare to answer the spanish inquisition!