Relevant error code: 0xC004F038

The Office 2013 KMS host must receive activation requests from at least five Office 2013 KMS clients before KMS clients on that network can be activated. If the KMS host doesn’t receive more than five requests, KMS clients won’t be activated. If you deploy Office 2013 to more than five computers, their initial activation requests will be used to build up the count. If activation fails, the computers will try to activate Office two hours later. At that time, if the KMS host has a sufficient count, activation will be successful. To trigger activation manually on the KMS client, run ospp.vbs /act. For more information about the ospp.vbs script, see Configure client computers for volume activation in Office 2013.

To determine the current count on the KMS host, at the command prompt (with administrator permissions), run the following command:

cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv 2E28138A-847F-42BC-9752-61B03FFF33CD

After Office 2013 is installed, the Office Software Protection Platform (OSPP) service automatically sends activation requests to the KMS host every two hours until activation occurs, regardless of whether Office 2013 is running. Once five of these KMS clients connect to the corporate network and successfully request activation against the KMS host, the KMS clients are activated. Clients that later connect to the corporate network are also activated. KMS clients that aren’t on the corporate network (at home, for example) become activated as soon as they connect to the network.

There might be several reasons why the Office 2013 Key Management Service (KMS) client isn’t activated. This section describes issues and how to resolve them.

The KMS host is not activated

Relevant error code: 0xC004F041

The KMS host must be activated first, and then you can activate the KMS clients. For more information, see Prepare and configure the Office KMS host in Deploy volume activation of Office 2013. On the Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack website, download and run office2013volumelicensepack_en-us_x86.exe. Then, follow the steps in the Instructions section on the website.

Note:
When you enable the firewall on a KMS host, the default TCP communications port number is 1688.

If you use slmgr.vbs, you must activate the KMS host within the command and include the following Office 2013 activation ID:

cscript slmgr.vbs /ato 2E28138A-847F-42BC-9752-61B03FFF33CD

The KMS host cannot be reached

Independent MAK activation requires an Internet connection. If the Office 2013 client is connected to the Internet through an authenticated proxy, you must activate the client over the telephone. For more information about how to resolve this issue, see Knowledge Base article 921471: Activation fails when you try to activate Windows over the Internet.

When you first install the Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack, you may see a dialog box that is labeled Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack Preview. "Preview" is incorrect: the final release Office 2013 version is installed correctly, and functionality isn’t affected. A workaround isn’t required.

An activation notification dialog box usually appears when a copy of Office 2013 isn’t yet activated. An error code is displayed on the lower corner of the dialog box to help you troubleshoot activation issues. No dialog box is shown until 25 days after installation, at which time the user sees a notification dialog box. If Office 2013 has not been activated 30 days after installation, the notification dialog box contains a red title bar.

When you install Office 2013, you must activate it by using either a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) or a Key Management System (KMS) key that is connected to a KMS host on the intranet.

If you install a MAK key, you must activate Office 2013 online.

The Office 2013 client software includes an embedded KMS client key. After the Office 2013 KMS client automatically discovers the Office 2013 KMS host on the intranet, and at least five Office 2013 KMS clients have already requested activation from the KMS host, the KMS client is automatically activated.

To display licensing information, on the File menu, choose Account. You must restart the Office 2013 applications for the licensing information to be updated. For example, if you open Word 2013 and then choose Account on the File menu, you might see that product activation is required. If you activate by using ospp.vbs /act or Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT), you must restart Word 2013 to see that the product is activated, even though Office 2013 is in the licensed state. For more information about the ospp.vbs script, see Configure client computers for volume activation in Office 2013.

All Office 2013 volume products have a Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) preinstalled to activate against an Office 2013 KMS host. If you entered a MAK key for a product and you want to change the activation method back to KMS, use the appropriate the KMS client key that is shown in the table later in this article. The recommended way to enter the key is by using VAMT. You can also use ospp.vbs /inpkey to enter the key. For more information about the ospp.vbs script, see Configure client computers for volume activation in Office 2013.

For Office 2013 suites, only one key is required for all the products in the suite. For example, if you use Office Professional Plus, you must enter only the Office Professional Plus 2013 key for the complete suite.

The following table shows the KMS client keys for the Office 2013 suites and stand-alone products.