How to fix Office 2016 Activation Error Code 0xC004F074

While activating office 2016 volume licensed client Error 0xC004F074 is reported. The exact error message is “The Software Licensing Service determined that the specified Key Management Service (KMS) cannot be used. Error Code 0xC004F074”

Sometimes the problem could have occurred just because of the time and date sync issue on the system. Sometimes it is a DNS update issue or maybe office 2013 and 2016 co-hosted on the same server. Here in this article, we will see if one of the above is the issue and steps to solve the problem.

Method 1: Download and Install Latest Microsoft Office 2016 Volume License Pack

As mentioned in Microsoft support article, if your system co-hosts the Office 2013 KMS host and Office 2016 KMS host and the operating system is either Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you might get this error. This is a bug and downloading and installing the latest Volume License pack will solve the problem.

Method 2: Disable and Re-enable DNS Host

Sometimes we may face this error due to DNS not updating and disabling and enabling DNS publishing would help. To disable DNS publishing, we can use “Slmgr.vbs” script can be used, however, you can do this manually by following the below steps.

1. Press Windows key and type Regedit. Now, in the search results, right-click on Registry Editor and select Run as Administrator.

   

2. Now in the registry editor, go to

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

3. Create a New DWORD Value called “DisableDnsPublishing” and set its value to 1. This will disable DNS publishing.
4. To re-enable DNS publishing set the value of this Key to 0. And check if you can activate Office 2016.

Method 3: Check System time and date

It could be possible that your client system’s time and date are not in sync with the server and this could also can the error 0xC004F074 during Office 2016 client activation. It is observed that if the system time on the client computer and system time on the KMS host differ by more than 4 hours, this error occurs. To take care of system time and date sync issues, it is recommended to use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) time source. You can also configure Active Directory Service to synchronize time between client and server systems on the network.

Method 4: Check Firewall Settings on Server Host

If ‘Key Management Service (TCP-In) – All‘ and Key Management Service (TCP-In) – Domain are not enabled on your KMS host, then you will have the current Office 2016 activation error. Enabling that service in the Firewall’s settings may solve the problem.

1. Launch Firewall Settings on your KMS host.
2. Now in the left pane of the window, go to Inbound Rules.
3. Now in the right pane of the window, filter by Key Management Service.
4. You will have 2 values

   Key Management Service (TCP-In) - Domain
   
   Key Management Service (TCP-In) - All

   

5. If any of these two services is disabled, then enable it.