Office for Home 2024 apps will not open on my MBP (macOS Tahoe)

Question

Office for Home 2024 apps will not open on my MBP (macOS Tahoe)

Richard Berling 5

I just purchased MS Office for Home 2024, but the apps won't open.

When I attempt to open them, I get the error message:

MS Word Quit Unexpectedly

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6 answers

Answer 1

Hooray!!! Office is now working. I received and applied these instructions to good effect from ******@stackcommerce.com:

Hi Richard,

Thank you for writing in about this. Sorry for the issue encountered while trying to redeem the purchase. Below includes the clean removal of any existing MS Office to make sure the purchased license takes effect. The license has already been redeemed, as shown in the photo:

Clean uninstall MS Office (if any) is required.

Go to the Applications folder, locate all Office-related apps, and delete or move them to the Trash.
Run the license removal tool for Mac here.
Click here for a walk-through.

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL:

Click here: https://account.microsoft.com/services, log in with your Microsoft account. click INSTALL to download
Proceed with the prompts to install.

OPEN AN APP: Go to Applications and double-click on any Microsoft Application. We are here if you need anything else.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Answer 2

I'm having a similar problem. I installed MS Office Home and Business 2024 today on my MacBooK Pro. The MacBook is on OS Tahoe 26.1 and previously was running MS Home and Business 2021 with zero issues. After the installation of 2024, none of my MS apps (Outlook, Word, Excel and Powerpoint) will open. When attempting to launch them from the doc, I get an Error message stating:

"Microsoft Excel (& PPT, Word and Outlook) cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Microsoft excel works with this version of macOS. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and macOS. ... Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple".

I've tried starting the MacBook in Safe Mode and have reinstalled the MS Office apps and nothing has worked. Very frustrating that my 2024 MS Office apps are all inoperable. I've tried to follow the AI recommendations but those haven't helped.

Richard Berling 5 Reputation points

2025-12-09T01:40:04.0133333+00:00

Following. Thanks, Donald, for your comments. Hopefully, a solution will appear.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Aymeric-B 29,250 Independent Advisor

Hello !

Which version of macOS are you using on your Mac ?
In addition to trying the solutions suggested in the AI response, make sure that macOS is up-to-date (you can check this in System Preferences) and that your Office applications are also up-to-date. You can check this by running Microsoft AutoUpdate.

Looking forward to your answer !

Richard Berling 5 Reputation points

2025-12-09T00:18:39.7366667+00:00

Thank you . I'm on Tahoe 26.1 on a 2022 M1 MBP. I ran MS Autoupdate twice. and restarted. Now I'm searching for the Library and plist per AI.

Thank you for being so helpful.

Richard
Aymeric-B 29,250 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-12-09T02:35:42.74+00:00

Thanks for your answer !

Let me know how it goes. Also, how did you install Office apps ? Did you use the Microsoft website or the Mac built-in App Store ?
Richard Berling 5 Reputation points

2025-12-09T08:54:52.5033333+00:00

I used the MS website. Thanks!

I just got an email that my "order has been processed." Would a delay in processing impact installation?

Richard
Aymeric-B 29,250 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-12-09T21:23:36.5033333+00:00

Thanks for your answer !

As long as you have Office 2024 showing in your Microsoft account dashboard, you should not have any issues with Office apps.
Did the reinstallation and file cleanup help ?
Donald Koliha 5 Reputation points

2025-12-10T00:06:51.9166667+00:00

Hello All! And thanks for your interest in this issues I've been dealing with regarding installing MS Office Home and Business for Mac! I noticed a followup message from Zoevi-V, one of the Microsoft External Staff Moderators in a separate thread (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5652365/installed-ms-office-2024-home-office-on-macbook-w for an update on my efforts.

Bottom line was I got the software installed after a remove/reinstall, however I've yet to reinstall the Outlook data files that include mail folders and messages and contacts, as soon as find out how that's done. I do have a time machine backup from prior to this Office 2024 "upgrade" from Office 2021, as well as a recent clone copy of my MacBook's hard disc.

I suspect that the errors I encountered on each of the Office apps may have been cause by my decision to do a "custom installation" of Office, excluding installing One Note and Teams. Following removal of the 1st installation, I allowed the software installer to include all of the 2024 apps, including One Note and Teams. The problems with getting errors when launching Outlook, Excel. Word and PowerPoint all disappeared when this "standard" installation was done. More details at the link above.
Donald Koliha 5 Reputation points

2025-12-10T03:39:43.75+00:00

Just a quick update to say that somehow, my Outlook data, including the email folders that I had set up in previous iterations of Office (2019, 2021) have now (somewhat mysteriously) reappeared, as have my Outlook contacts. After some cleanup effort, I've gotten back to Outlook being useable. The POP settings that I previously used are there as well, although now I don't have the option to remove messages from the mail server that I previously could do. No big deal there. Finally, I have to say that the "new" 2024 Office for Mac is not as nicely laid out and user friendly as Office 2021 is. Some functionality that I was accustomed to in 2021 no longer exists, and navigation and screen layout seems more difficult. Hopefully the developers will make incremental improvements over time to make the Outlook application a better product. My 2 cents ...

Answer 5

If you're experiencing issues with Microsoft Office for Home 2024 apps not opening and receiving the error message "MS Word Quit Unexpectedly," you can try the following troubleshooting steps:

Force Quit All Applications:
- Go to the Apple menu and select Force Quit.
- Choose any applications that are running and select Force Quit until all problematic applications are closed.
Remove Office Preferences:
- Ensure all Microsoft Office programs are closed.
- Open the Library folder by holding down the OPTION key while selecting the Go menu.
- Navigate to the Group Containers folder and look for a folder with a name ending in ".Office".
- Inside, find and delete the Com.microsoft.officeprefs.plist file. If issues persist, consider deleting the entire folder to reset Office settings.
Clean Restart:
- Perform a clean restart of your operating system to rule out any background programs interfering with Office.
Reinstall Office:
- If the problem continues, you may need to uninstall and then reinstall Office. Instructions can be found in the Microsoft support documentation.
Repair Disk Permissions:
- Use the Disk Utility program to repair disk permissions, which can help resolve issues related to application permissions.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, consider checking for updates for both macOS and Office applications, as compatibility issues may also cause such errors.

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Office for Home 2024 apps will not open on my MBP (macOS Tahoe)

6 answers