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MS Word Stopped Working In Mac OS Catalina and Big Sur

Anonymous
2021-08-02T01:13:39+00:00

I subscribe to Office 365 for Mac, and today I could no longer open my MS Word app or documents. Excel and PowerPoint are still working fine.

I receive an error message that says "MS Word cannot be opened because of a problem." It suggested making sure both my Word and my OS were updated. (version 16.51). I ran MS Auto Update, which told me my Office apps were up to date. Then I upgraded from OS Catalina to OS Big Sur (OS 11.5.1) to see if that would fix the problem, but it did not.

Does anyone have any ideas to solve this problem? Can I re-install MS Word in Office 365? Do I have to re-install all of Office 365? If I do, will the re-installed versions access the existing documents stored on my laptop?

Thank you.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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  1. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-08-02T18:17:41+00:00

    Hi

    If your current install is version 15.anything, then AutoUpdate will tell you no updates are available, even though you are many updates behind. The current update level is 16.51

    I'm with you. I prefer simple, easy to do fixes.

    Download a copy of the current version of AutoUpdate from this link, install and then run AutoUpdate to bring your installation to current update level, then restart your Mac. If the updater does not open automatically after download, double-click the downloaded .pkg file. Click this link to download the updater. The update is free.

    https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=830196

    If there is no change after installing the latest version of AutoUpdate as just described, then it's no big deal to reinstall Microsoft Word.

    1. Go to the Applications folder in Finder
    2. Drag Microsoft Word.app to the trash
    3. Restart your Mac
    4. Use this installer to reinstall Microsoft Word Install package

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2021-08-02T20:33:14+00:00

    Thanks so much! I did have 16.51, so I went ahead and uninstalled and reinstalled Word following your instructions. And it is working fine now.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-08-02T18:04:32+00:00

    Thanks. I tried starting in safe mode and got the same message.

    When I tried to follow your second suggestion, I could not find a folder called com.Microsoft.Word in the Containers folder. Most of the com. files are com.apple; a couple are com.dropbox, com.google, or com.symantec.

    I do have folders containers for the various MS Office applications, including one called Microsoft Word; unlike the other Office folders it does not have a little logo on the folder, if that makes any difference. Inside the folder are container.plist and a Data folder that says it was last updated June 13, 2019; all of my other Office apps have data folders that say they were updated yesterday (when I checked to make sure my version of Office was up to date).

    My error message says

    Path:                  /Applications/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word

    Identifier:            com.microsoft.Word

    And then under the reasons:

    Dyld Error Message:

      Library not loaded: @rpath/Forms.framework/Versions/A/Forms

      Referenced from: /Applications/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word

      Reason: no suitable image found.  Did find:

    /Applications/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/../Frameworks/Forms.framework/Versions/A/Forms: code signature invalid for '/Applications/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/../Frameworks/Forms.framework/Versions/A/Forms

    I am not eager to try using Disk Utility, which is probably beyond my ability--I am a home user. And at present I don't have an external drive available on which I can fully back up my Mac, as they recommend before proceeding.

    So unless you have another suggestion for me based on this information, I think I may need to uninstall and reinstall MS Word--but I am not sure how to do that as an Office 365 Family subscriber. Can I do just Word or do I need to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing?

    Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-08-02T05:20:26+00:00

    Hi Saurabh,

    Per your description, MS Word stopped working In both Mac OS Catalina and Big Sur. And you already update the Word to the lastest version. So, we would suggest that:

    1.You can start Mac in safe mode to isolate certain software as Mac starts up.

    2.Another suggestion is to remove the Office folders to desktop:

    • Completely quit all Office apps
    • In Finder, press COMMAND +Shift+g.
    • Enter**~/Library** and click Go.
    • Go to Containers folder, find the folder called com.Microsoft.Word
    • Move this folder to your desktop by cut & paste.
    • Relaunch Word for Mac application and see the results.

    3.Also, I suggest starting by checking file system using Disk Utility. If there are file system problems, Disk Utility may be able to fix them. How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

    If the above suggestions do not help you, you can uninstall Word separately and reinstall it.

    Best regards,

    Tin

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