Word 16.30 (macOS) corrupts document(s) after saving; error msg attached

It does seem that a change happened to Word. The Mac and Windows versions both use the same code base now, so it would be logical that both versions display the same behavior at the same update level.

There's a new build of Office for Mac 16.31 being released today. Use the Help menu and check for updates to get it. Test with that. If there was bug, perhaps others reported it already and it's been fixed.

If you want to engage with the Office team, join the Insider Fast track of the Office Insider program. You'll get the fixed version before anyone else does. But you'll be using pre-beta software that could have new, untested features in it.

Office Insiders - insider.office.com

Or you could go the other way

Uninstall Office for Mac - Office Support

Then, download and install the 16.29.1 buildof Office for Mac. When you launch an app, go to the Help menu and choose Check for Updates to launch AutoUpdate. In AutoUpdate set it to manual so it doesn't immediately put you right back to 16.30.

Thank you, Jim. Once the update drops (not seeing it yet; I'm on the Mac App Store copy), I'll test it and respond back. Thank you for the heads-up.

Dear Juan,

From your description, it seems that the issue only happens after the user edit the document and the issue doesn’t happen in the previous versions of the Word for Mac application. It also seems that you can open the document in Word Online and the issue only happens after you export the file as a .docx file. If yes, I’d like to confirm whether the issue happens on Mac High Sierra。

Meanwhile, I’d like to confirm whether the issue only occurs in the specific file exported and whether you can open the document in Word Online after you edit it in Word Online directly. If yes, I suggest you create a new document, copy the content from Word Online to the newly created document to check the result as well.

For the Excel issue, there may be different root causes. I suggest you post a new thread on our forum for expert help.

Best Regards,

Cliff

Hi Cliff.

Thank you for your message.

For me, the file being exported is the same as was being exported prior to October without the problem; only a few marginal changes have occurred since (e.g., fixing typos; nothing major).

I have attempted to export a few other documents and only one (1) other one had the issue but it was graphic/table-heavy.

As best I can tell it appears with large/larger documents with lots of tables and/or graphs in them.

John

It does seem that a change happened to Word. The Mac and Windows versions both use the same code base now, so it would be logical that both versions display the same behavior at the same update level.

There's a new build of Office for Mac 16.31 being released today. Use the Help menu and check for updates to get it. Test with that. If there was bug, perhaps others reported it already and it's been fixed.

If you want to engage with the Office team, join the Insider Fast track of the Office Insider program. You'll get the fixed version before anyone else does. But you'll be using pre-beta software that could have new, untested features in it.

Office Insiders - insider.office.com

Or you could go the other way

Uninstall Office for Mac - Office Support

Then, download and install the 16.29.1 buildof Office for Mac. When you launch an app, go to the Help menu and choose Check for Updates to launch AutoUpdate. In AutoUpdate set it to manual so it doesn't immediately put you right back to 16.30.

Dear Juan,

From your description, it seems that the issue only happens after the user edit the document and the issue doesn’t happen in the previous versions of the Word for Mac application. It also seems that you can open the document in Word Online and the issue only happens after you export the file as a .docx file. If yes, I’d like to confirm whether the issue happens on Mac High Sierra。

Meanwhile, I’d like to confirm whether the issue only occurs in the specific file exported and whether you can open the document in Word Online after you edit it in Word Online directly. If yes, I suggest you create a new document, copy the content from Word Online to the newly created document to check the result as well.

For the Excel issue, there may be different root causes. I suggest you post a new thread on our forum for expert help.

Best Regards,

Cliff

Juan, you may be onto something new here.

May I safely conclude you've successfully exported as  .docx this (and other) files successfully without issue from Pages?

And that this is a new behavior with Word build 16.30?

If so, those factors do suggest that there is a new bug in Word. However, by any chance is Catalina involved with this, too? If yes, then the problem could be with Catalina. If the OS has not changed, we can be pretty sure that the issue is Word, but if both Word and the OS changed, we have to figure out which one is the culprit.

BTW there is a huge issue with Word and Catalina when multiple monitors and/or graphics cards is involved. By any chance could your configuration match these parameters? If yes, that is yet another issue that would have to be accounted for by eliminating multiple monitors and graphics cards.

Good Morning, Jim.

I will endeavor to answer your questions as fully as I can.

a. I began noticing this issue this October so it would appear 16.30 or one of it's nearby updates for sure. I did not see this issue previously, and have happily been exporting Word DOCX without a problem previously (and same document). The XLSX issue mentioned previously started in October as well.

b. For my MacBook Pro, I am running Catalina 10.15.1. However, when exporting the file to Parallels (Windows 10 EDU Edition; Office 365), the issue is replicable in/on Windows as well. My colleague who is having the XLSX issue is on High Sierra.

c. I do have a Dual GPU MacBook Pro (2017) but at the time of the issue, I was not using either of my two monitors; only the main screen. Also, running under Parallels/Windows 10, I am seeing the same issue with Word (latest version; up to date as of 10/11/2019).

Exporting as DOC (not DOCX) appears to be the only workaround but the document will not move beyond Protected Mode. My recipients told me they can view the document but cannot edit it without disabling the Protected Mode first.