MICROSOFT has halted distribution of the optional KB5002907 preview update after reports that it caused licensing and installation problems in Office 2016 and Office 2019. The update was intended to help Microsoft 365 installations on the Current or Monthly Channel that had not received updates for more than 90 days, allowing them to resume normal update cycles. However, after a restart, some affected users found Office marked as unlicensed and were unable to edit documents. In rarer cases, the update reportedly removed the Office suite from the computer.
Microsoft’s stated workaround is to reactivate the affected installation manually using the original product key. If KB5002907 removed the Office applications entirely, users must reinstall the relevant Office version and then authenticate it with the original licence. The report does not provide figures for the number of affected systems or indicate that the issue has any security impact.