How to Uninstall Office 365 on Mac: A Step by Step Guide

Written by

Ojash

Reviewed by

Hashir Ibrahim

Last updated: July 27, 2024

Expert verified

You may need to uninstall Microsoft Office 365 from your Mac if you’re switching to a different office suite, optimizing storage on your Mac, or experiencing technical difficulties. In this guide, I’ll go over the step-by-step process to uninstall Office 365 on Mac and provide additional tips to make the process as smooth as possible.

1. Uninstall Office 365 Using MacKeeper

If you’re looking for a thorough but quick way to uninstall Office 365 on Mac, I suggest using MacKeeper, a third-party uninstaller. This reliable toolkit can remove the Office applications, related files, preferences, and license files left behind during a manual uninstallation.

Here’s how to uninstall Microsoft 365 on Mac using MacKeeper:

1. Download and install MacKeeper on your Mac.
2. Launch MacKeeper and navigate to the Smart Uninstaller under Cleaning.

3. Click Start Scan.

4. Wait for the scan to complete, click Applications in the left panel, and select Office 365 apps, like Microsoft Word, OneDrive, Microsoft Excel, etc., from the list.

5. Click the Remove Selected button.

6. Confirm the deletion by clicking Remove on the pop-up.

7. This will remove Microsoft Office from your Mac, and you’ll get a Removal Completed message. Click Rescan if you want to scan your Mac again.

Now, let’s remove the leftover files related to Office 365 on Mac:

1. After deleting Microsoft Office from the list of Applications in MacKeeper, click Leftovers in the left panel.

2. Select the Leftovers you want to delete in the right panel and click Remove Selected.

3. You’ll be prompted to confirm the deletion. Click Remove on the pop-up.

4. This will get rid of any leftover files associated with Microsoft 365 on your Mac, and you’ll get a Removal Completed message on your screen.

2. Uninstall Office 365 on Mac Manually

Although you can manually uninstall Office for Mac, I find the manual method pretty time-consuming and a little risky, to be honest. Unlike Windows, Mac doesn’t offer an Office uninstall utility. So, you have to individually uninstall each Office 365 app, find its leftover files, and delete the junk files on your Mac.

Instead of following the manual uninstallation process, I really suggest using MacKeeper for a simpler solution. But if you want to do it manually, the method may vary slightly depending on your Office version.

Here’s how to uninstall the different versions of Office 365 manually:

a. Uninstalling Office 2011

To remove Office 2011 from your Mac, follow these steps:

1. Open the Applications folder on your Mac.

2. Locate and select the Microsoft Excel app.

3. While holding down the Command ⌘ key, select Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.

4. Drag all the selected Office 2011 apps to the Bin or right-click them and select Move to Bin.

5. Once all the apps are in the Bin, right-click the Bin icon and select Empty Bin.

6. Office 2011 is now uninstalled from your Mac.

b. Uninstalling Office 365 2016

Removing Office 2016 from your system is more intricate than uninstalling the 2011 version. You have to search for files in multiple folders and delete them by moving them to the Bin.

Here’s how to uninstall Office 365 on Mac manually:

Step 1: Remove Microsoft Office from Applications

To remove Microsoft Office from Applications, follow these steps:

1. Open Finder and navigate to the Applications folder.

2. Hold the Command ⌘ button and click to select all Office 365 applications.

3. Press the Control ^ button and right-click the selected apps.

4. Choose Move to Bin from the context menu.

Step 2: Delete Microsoft Office Files on Mac

The Applications folder contains all executable files, but service files may be in hidden folders on your drive. So, to completely uninstall Office 365 on Mac, you must find and delete all its components.

Here’s how to remove Microsoft Office files:

1. Open Finder and click Go > Go to Folder in the Apple menu.

2. Enter the following as the path in the box and press Enter:

~/Library/

3. Locate and open the Containers folder.

4. Now, navigate to the following folders and delete any Microsoft Office files:
   • com.microsoft.errorreporting
   • com.microsoft.Excel
   • com.microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess
   • com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
   • com.microsoft.Outlook
   • com.microsoft.Powerpoint
   • com.microsoft.RMS-XPCService
   • com.microsoft.Word
   • com.microsoft.onenote.mac
   • com.microsoft.OneDrive.FinderSync
5. Return to the Library folder and find the Group Containers folder.

6. Find these folders and move them to Bin.
   • UBF8T346G9.ms
   • UBF8T346G9.Office
   • UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost
   • UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite
   • UBF8T346G9.OneDriveSyncClientSuite
   • UBF8T346G9.OfficeOneDriveSyncIntegration
7. Finally, Empty the Bin to remove Microsoft Office 365 completely.

Step 3: Remove Microsoft Office Apps From The Dock

To remove Microsoft Office apps from the Dock on Mac, follow these steps:

1. Find the Microsoft Office app (like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) you want to remove in the Dock. I’m using Microsoft Word as an example.

2. Right-click the app icon in the Dock. This will open a context menu.
3. In the context menu, hover over Options. This will expand to show more options.
4. Click Keep in Dock to uncheck this option to remove the app icon from the Dock.

Remember, it only removes the shortcut from the Dock; it does not uninstall the application from your Mac.

Which Errors Can Occur While Uninstalling Office 365 on Mac

Uninstalling Office 365 on a Mac can sometimes lead to various errors or issues. Some of the common problems that you might encounter include:

1. 🗑 Incomplete Uninstallation: Sometimes, not all components of Office 365 get uninstalled properly. This can leave residual files on your system, which might cause conflicts or take up unnecessary space.
2. 🔒 Permission Issues: You might face issues related to permissions, where the uninstaller is unable to remove certain files or folders due to restricted access.
3. ⚠️ Error Messages: During the uninstallation process, you might encounter specific error messages, often without a clear indication of what the problem is or how to resolve it.
4. 🔄 Application Dependencies: Some Mac applications might have dependencies on Office 365 components. Uninstalling Office might disrupt the functioning of these applications.
5. 🛠 Corrupted Application Files: If your Office 365 installation is corrupted, the standard uninstallation process might fail or not remove all components.
6. 💻 System Stability Issues: Rarely, uninstalling Office 365 might lead to system instability or conflicts with other software, especially if the uninstallation is not done correctly.

Tips to Uninstall Office 365 on Mac

Uninstalling Office 365 from your Mac can be a straightforward process, but you should keep some tips in mind to ensure a complete and effective uninstallation.

Here are some tips to completely uninstall Office 365 on Mac:

• 🔎 Check for Other Microsoft Office Components: In my own clean-ups, I’ve found that Office 365 likes to download other components besides the main apps. Find other components like AutoUpdate and OneDrive and uninstall them to remove all traces of Office 365 from your Mac.
• ❌ Disable Office 365 Updates: I learned the hard way that leaving updates on can cause a mess if you reinstall later. So, if you plan to reinstall Office 365 in the future, disable automatic updates by opening any Office app, clicking Help > Check for Updates > Advanced, and unchecking the box next to Automatically keep Microsoft Apps up to date.
• 🚫 Remove Office 365 Apps from Login Items: If your Office 365 apps launch automatically when you log in to your Mac, remove them from the Login Items list. Go to System Settings > General > Login Items and select an Office 365 app. Then, click the – button to remove it from the list.
• 🧹 Clear Out Remaining Office 365 Files: Even after uninstalling Office 365 and its components, some leftover files or folders may still be found within the system. To ensure a complete uninstallation, use MacKeeper to scan for and remove any leftover Office 365 files.

Uninstall Office 365 on Mac to Free Up Space

Now that you know how to uninstall Office 365 on Mac manually and using a third-party app, you may want to further optimize your Mac. Here’s how you can do it:

• Clean up your Mac to improve its speed and eliminate Office 365 errors like “Your account doesn’t allow editing on a Mac”.
• Optimize your system’s performance by freeing up RAM on your Mac.
• Declutter your Mac to free up space for important files.

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