Due to a state the local profile gets into for many users Of Microsoft 365, when editing a file from a WebDav server and Track Changes and There Are a Number of Edits, The Application Come to a Crawl

Question

Update: The theory that this is (at least solely) due to the version of Microsoft 365 seems to be false based on the latest test. (See Peter Nys's response below as well as my reply)

Recently with Microsoft 365 Word many people I interact with have experienced extreme slowness when interacting with documents stored on a WebDav server, track changes is on, and there are a number of edits.

We have seen this from: *Version 2302 (Build 16130.20306) to latest Version 2304 (Build 16327.20214) (at time of writing)*Those on the Monthly Enterprise Channel do not experience this issue.

If track changes is not on, the issue is not experience.

If you aren't reading the file from a WebDav server the issue is not experienced.

We have tested two different WebDav servers across different server infrastructure and none of them have resolved the issue.

All known issue client have been on Windows (with confirmed cases on Windows 10 and 11)

Meeting the above requirements (right version of the client software, webdav server, and track changes) don't immediately lead to the issue occurring for everyone but for those it is occurring for removing one of those things resolves the issue.

We have tried many different documents. Large ones, small ones, etc.

We have tried clearing the cache of Office and that has also not helped.

The slowness does not only occur (or even usually occur) when interactions with the WebDav server are expected (when saving or reading the file). Simply scrolling through the file can lead to the software locking up for tens of seconds at a time. Typing in the document also doesn't show up on the screen for seconds.

No error messages are thrown, simply slowness and the application locking up.

Answer 1

We are experiencing the same issue with our clients. This has started a month or two ago. Not all users of the same office are affected, even though they seem to share the same configuration.

One thing that seemed to help was removing the pc from the AD-domain.

We are also looking for a better solution which we can spread to all our clients.

Things we tried

Situation: windows 10 with office build 2304.

• Clear recent file cache of office 365: did not work
• Reinstall office 365: did not work
• Have a new user part of the same domain use the same computer: DID WORK
• Have the user which was experiencing the problem use a different computer for the first time: DID WORK
• Downgrade the version of office 365 by switching to the semi-anual channel and roll back office to version 2208: did not work
• Clear registry for word: remove HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word: did not work
• Disable all COM-plugins: did not work
• Disable virus-scanner: did not work
• Remove the userprofile of the user on his computer and have him sign in again, recreating the profile: DID WORK

This made us conclude the problem lies somewhere within the local profile of the user. We were unable to locate where exactly. We'll now wait and see if the problem comes back or not.
We removed the profile for two seperate users (on two seperate computers), one with version 2208, one with version 2304, so perhaps it will show a difference at some point.

Answer 2

There is one possibility that can be checked easily. Go to File > Options > Advanced and, under the "Save" heading, turn on the option "Copy remotely stored files onto your computer, and update the remote file when saving" if it doesn't already have a check mark.

As you probably know, WebDAV is a protocol for transferring files over an HTTP connection. Word is designed to use temporary files, some of which are required to be stored in the same folder as the original document. For a large document, moving the data back and forth to the server could be slowing the program, so storing it locally during editing may improve the speed.

Answer 3

It's good to hear that we are not alone with this issue. I also appreciate you sharing your steps and what has worked for you and what hasn't worked for you. Trying what you explained worked to get our users out of the problematic state even if they were on what we thought were problematic versions of Office. Maybe those that said they had reverted back to the monthly patch channel and that fixed it for them actually were accidentally clearing out their profile as well.

We, as well, tried digging in deeper to see if there was anything surgically we could fix about the profile rather than just wiping it out entirely but were unsuccessful.

Answer 4

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately checking this box has no affect on the responsiveness.

Answer 5

Dear Kyle_Carter,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you

Based on your description, we understand that when you read a Word document from a WebDav server, the reading speed is abnormally slow

I want to confirm if this behavior is related to the WebDAV server first, I noticed that you mentioned file interaction, and I was wondering if you would still get the same behavior if you upload the file to SharePoint for editing along with document change tracking. If you are separated from the WebDAV server, this phenomenon will not occur, and I think this phenomenon should be related to WebDAV. 

If this is the case, in order to further deal with the issue,  regarding your query on WebDAV . Please understand that this query is outside of our support boundaries. For you to be assisted properly, please reach out to Microsoft supported products on Q&A | Microsoft Learn; I am sure that our experts from that team can address your query effectively and accurately.  

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Please do not hesitate to post your queries in Microsoft Community and we will always do our best to assist you!  

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator