We’re sorry, something went wrong error 0x8004FC12 when activating Office

When you try to activate Office 365, Office 2013, or Office 2016 after upgrading to Windows 10, you might get an error message:

We’re sorry, something went wrong and we can’t do this for you right now. Please try again later. (0x8004FC12).

Trying solutions like reinstalling office, removing the activation from your Office Online account, trying offline repair just doesn’t work.

Outlined in this post are some of the suggestions made by Microsoft, which you can try to fix the problem. The most common solutions are listed first. You can try each one separately and try activating Office again.

Error 0x8004FC12 when activating Office

1] Disable Windows firewall

Under ‘Search the web and Windows field’ type firewall, and then select Windows Firewall. Then, choose ‘Turn Windows Firewall on or off.  Switch it ‘Off’.

Once you have disabled the firewall, try to activate Office again. Once done, you can turn ‘On’ the firewall again.

2] Reset TCP/IP

Reset TCP/IP using the built-in NetShell tool or Microsoft Fix It. Then reboot your device and try activating Office again.

3] Add Net Local Group

To add a Net Local Group, you’ll need to open command prompt window, right-click it, and select Run as Administrator. Thereafter, copy the commands given below one at a time and paste them into the command prompt by right-clicking and selecting paste. Hit Enter after each command in the Command Prompt.

net localgroup Administrators localservice /add

fsutil resource setautoreset true C:\

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

Upon completing this step, reboot your device and try activating Office again.

4] Verify if TLS 1.2 is enabled

TLS is an abbreviated form of Transport Layer Security Protocol, an industry-standard developed with an intention to safeguard the privacy of information communicated over the internet. So, the step first involves in verifying whether TLS is enabled or not by viewing your internet properties. The box adjacent to Use TLS 1.2 should be checked.

For this, press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type inetcpl.cpl, and hit OK.

Then, in the Internet Properties window, select the Advanced tab, and under the Settings list, scroll down until you find Use TLS 1.2. Check the box if it is not checked, click Apply, and close the window.

Try activating Office again.

Let us know if any of this helped you.