Some installed fonts are not appearing in any Office applications

Question

Hello;

I'm a marketing and advertising professional with over 30 years of experience with design and Office software. I have a large handful of typefaces that do not show up in any of my Office applications (PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Excel) even though they are installed on my system and available to all other software. I have been struggling with this for years, and the problem is finally coming to a head where I no longer have work-arounds. I am desperate for an answer to this obnoxious problem.

Additional information:• I have 3 Macs running different OSs with different versions of Office, and this problem is present on all three although not always for the same fonts:.
— 2013 iMac OS Sierra (10.12) (Intel Core i7) running Office 2016 (16.16) for Mac
— 2020 MacBook Pro OS BigSur (M1) (11.6) running Office 365 (16.77) for Mac
— 2023 MacStudio OS Sonoma (14.6) (M2 Ultra) running Office 365 (16.94) for Mac

The problem appears most often and most severely on the newest Mac running the newest Office (bold), which is my primary machine.

Things I have tried:• Uninstalling and re-installing problem fonts. — Does nothing.• Making sure all fonts are installed at 'User' Level, and also tried at 'Computer (Admin)' Level. — Does nothing.• This problem applies to random fonts installed directly through Mac's Font Book, and also those applied through Adobe's Font Installer.
• This problem applies to fonts of OTF, TTF, and Variable. I've not found an obvious link.

• Exiting and relaunching the entire Office Suite — Does nothing.
• Rebooting the computer — Does nothing.
• When it was possible, 'forcing' the fonts into the Office font library using Terminal — Limited and does not work for all fonts.

• When it was possible, rebuilding the Office font library — Is this process still possible?
• Embedding fonts into documents using older versions of the app. — this no longer works, and gives a "restricted fonts" warning.

Some fonts I have trouble with: (and many others)
• Poppins
• Playfair
• Mandrel
• Unitext
• Nobel

ANY help would be deeply appreciated.

Answer 1

I would think the font foundry (the maker of the fonts) would be the first contact to ask their experience and advice for their fonts.

Answer 2

I have tried the cache clearing, and I've tried running the defaults write com.microsoft.office script in Terminal to prioritize the fonts I need, and they are still not showing up in Powerpoint. I used to be able to just run the Terminal script to prioritize the fonts using their PostScript names, but that hasn't worked in Powerpoint for the last two projects I've had to work on in there. Now, I'm up against a deadline and working with a file from a client that has no branded fonts loading. Are there any other workarounds for this, in lieu of Microsoft actually fixing this known issue?

Answer 3

Hello , Elizabeth Kotulis

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Thank you for providing a detailed description of this issue. I completely understand your frustration. As a marketing and advertising professional with over 30 years of experience in design and Office software, it must be incredibly aggravating to encounter a problem where fonts aren’t appearing in Office applications, especially after trying multiple solutions without success and with it now impacting your workflow. Don’t worry—I’ll do my best to offer some ideas and suggestions to help you resolve this vexing issue.  From your description, this problem occurs across multiple Mac devices (running different operating systems and Office versions), and it’s most severe on your latest Mac (Sonoma + Office 365 16.94). This could point to a compatibility issue between Office and macOS font management, or perhaps a limitation in Office’s own font-loading mechanism. Given your extensive background, I’m confident you’ve already tried most standard fixes, so we’ll need to explore solutions at a system or support level. Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions:  

1. Cross-Device Consistency:  
   • You mentioned the issue exists on three Macs (Sierra, Big Sur, Sonoma), but the affected fonts aren’t always the same. This could be due to differences in how various macOS and Office versions support or load font formats.
2. Office Font-Loading Mechanism:  
   • Unlike other software, Office for Mac doesn’t directly rely on macOS’s font cache; it maintains its own font library. This might cause certain fonts—especially newer formats like Variable or those installed via third-party tools (e.g., Adobe Font Installer)—to go unrecognized by Office.
3. Worse on New Systems and Office Versions:  
   • The problem is most pronounced on Sonoma with Office 365 16.94, possibly tied to Apple’s recent updates to font management and security (e.g., permission restrictions or changes in font format compatibility).
4. Why Previous Attempts Failed:  
   • Uninstalling/reinstalling, switching between User/Computer levels, and rebooting haven’t worked, suggesting the issue isn’t with font installation but rather how Office reads these fonts. Troubleshooting Ideas and Suggestions Here are some tailored approaches that might help, based on your specific situation:  
5. Verify Font Compatibility:  
   • Check the integrity of problematic fonts (e.g., Poppins, Playfair) by opening them in Font Book and selecting “Validate File” (Font > Validate File) to rule out file corruption.
   • Try downloading the latest versions of these fonts to see if they’re more compatible with the current Office release.
6. Clear Office Font Cache:  
   • Although you noted rebuilding the font library is no longer feasible, you can try manually clearing the cache:  
     • Close all Office applications.
     • Navigate to ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/FontCache (user-level cache) and delete the cache files there.
     • Restart your Mac and test Office again.
7. Check macOS Permissions:  
   • Recent system updates may have introduced stricter permissions that could restrict Office’s access to certain fonts.
   • Go to “System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files & Folders” and ensure Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) have permission to access the “Fonts” folder.
8. Temporary Workaround:  
   • On your primary machine, export documents with problematic fonts as PDFs (using software like Preview), then insert the PDFs into Office. While not a long-term fix, this can bypass Office’s font restrictions and help you meet deadlines.
9. Test Font Management Tools:  
   • Try installing these fonts using a third-party font manager (e.g., FontBase or RightFont) to see if it forces Office to recognize them. Ensure the fonts are activated, then restart Office. If these steps don’t resolve the issue, could you let me know the specific source of one problematic font file (e.g., official website or Adobe)? I’d be happy to assist further with testing or analysis.I hope this helps! Please let me know if there’s any progress or if you have additional details to share.

Best wishes

Leo Z | Microsoft Community Support Specialist