Word for Mac Keeps Quitting

Question

About a week ago, Word for Mac began terminating. I cannot recreate the reasons why it does this. I'll be in the middle of typing and suddenly, it quits. What's unusual is that I don't get the usual Mac OS dialog box indicating that a program suddenly quit or a notice asking me to send a trouble report. Word simply quits, full stop.

Steps I've taken:

• Reloaded Office
• ~/Library/Preferences: Deleted com.microsoft.Word.plist (couldn't find that one), com.microsoft.Office.Word.plist (couldn't find that one) and com.microsoft.office.plist
• ~/Library/Containers: deleted com.microsoft.Word, com.microsoft.Office.Word
• ~/Library/Group Containers: deleted UBF8T346G9.Office and UBF8T346G9.Word
• ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports: There are no Word crash reports that I can find

By deleted, I moved them to the desktop so Word/Office would regenerate the files upon opening. None of this has helped. Same behavior.

I'm not sure if this is a file corruption problem or a problem with Word itself. All other Office applications are stable.

I'm running Word for Mac Version 16.106 (26020821) on Tahoe 26.3 (25D125).

Any ideas?

Many thanks,

Steven

Answer 1

I tried a new approach--creating a new file with data from the old one. It was stable all day today, and I posted that as a solution. A minute ago, it quit. I wish I could create the sequence of keystrokes that causes it to terminate like that, but it's so random--and it happens so fast--that I can't reproduce the error reliably.

I'll try a rollback to an earlier version and see if that solves it.

Answer 2

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Could you please try installing an earlier version of Word (16.105 or 16.104) from the Update History page and check whether it works normally?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

If you are still encountering the same error, please uninstall all Office applications and then reinstall them.

1. Quit all Office applications.
2. Open Finder > Applications.
3. Use Command button +click to select all of the Microsoft 365 for Mac applications.
4. Ctrl+click the application you selected and click Move to Trash.

Once done, in the Finder, click GO in the menu bar and go to folder - ~/Library/Containers/

Delete the folders starting with,

com.microsoft.Word

com.microsoft.Excel

com.microsoft.Powerpoint

com.microsoft.Outlook

com.microsoft.OneNote

Go back to the Library folder and open Group Containers. if present, and Move to Trash.

UBF8T346G9.ms

UBF8T346G9.Office

Once done, sign in with your Microsoft account here to reinstall the Office apps.

https://account.microsoft.com/services

Let me know if you still need more help.

Answer 3

It sounds like you're experiencing a frustrating issue with Word for Mac. Since you've already tried several troubleshooting steps, here are a few additional suggestions that might help resolve the problem:

1. Check for Updates: Ensure that you have the latest updates for both Word and macOS. Sometimes, updates can fix bugs that cause applications to crash.
2. Safe Mode: Try starting Word in Safe Mode. This can help determine if the issue is related to add-ins or other custom settings. To do this, hold down the Shift key while launching Word.
3. Create a New User Profile: Sometimes, user profiles can become corrupted. Create a new user account on your Mac and see if Word behaves the same way when logged into that account.
4. Run Online Repair: If you haven't already, consider running an Online Repair for Office. This can often fix issues that a standard reinstall does not address. You can find instructions for this on the Microsoft support site.
5. Check Console for Errors: Open the Console app on your Mac and check for any error messages that occur when Word crashes. This might give you more insight into what is causing the issue.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it may be beneficial to reach out to Microsoft support for further assistance, as they can provide more specific troubleshooting based on your system configuration.

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References:

• Microsoft Office apps for Mac quit unexpectedly - Microsoft Q&A
• "Microsoft program cannot be opened because of a problem" error when you start an Office program