What you need to know
- Microsoft is shutting down Office 365 services for Office 2016 for Mac soon.
- As of October 13, Office 365 services will be unavailable.
- Office 2016 for Mac will no longer be supported.
Mac users who have Office 2016 for Mac installed might want to look at upgrading sooner rather than later, with Microsoft confirming it will not be supported beyond October 13, 2020.
In a support document spied by MacRumors, Microsoft says that Office 365 connectivity may be broken on that date, leaving Office 2016 for Mac users without access to their online data.
Connecting to Office 365 services using Office 2016 for Mac isn't supported after October 13, 2020. That's because Office 2016 for Mac reaches end of support on that date.
Microsoft says that the reason for the move is simple – it won't be able to keep supporting older versions of Office if it wants to be able to continue to invest in its Office 365 infrastructure.
After October 13, 2020, ongoing investments to our cloud services will not take into account older Office clients. Over time, these Office clients may encounter performance or reliability issues. Organizations that use these older clients will almost certainly face an increased security risk and may find themselves out of compliance depending upon specific regional or industry requirements.
There's a chance that Office 365 may still work for those running Office 2016 for Mac, but Microsoft won't guarantee it. If it breaks, it's on you.
