Symptoms
You receive one of the following error messages when you try to uninstall Microsoft Office 2013 or Microsoft 365 suite.
Couldn't uninstall Office
We're sorry, Office couldn't be uninstalled. Please try uninstalling Office again.
Office is busy.
Office can't do that right now because your product is busy with another task. Please wait for this task to complete and try again.
Resolution
Restart Windows and try to uninstall Office again to fix the problem.
If restarting Windows doesn't help, use the automated troubleshooter or follow the manual uninstall steps in this article: Uninstall Microsoft Office 2013 or Microsoft 365 suites.
More Information
This error can occur when another program has control of certain files Microsoft Office needs to access and doesn't release them. When programs take control of files and keeps them open, the most effective way of releasing these files is to restart the computer. This shuts down all programs and closes all files. After a restart, Microsoft Office can then access these files and uninstall successfully.
