Cannot save Word or Excel file on Mac Tahoe 26.3.1

Question

When saving Word or Excel file Word and Excel becomes non responsive.

What is needed to correct this.

Answer 1

Word and Excel becoming unresponsive when saving on Mac is a known issue that has been fixed in recent Office for Mac builds.

To correct this behavior on macOS Tahoe 26.3.1, install the latest updates for Microsoft 365/Office for Mac:

1. Open any Office app (Word or Excel).
2. On the Help menu, select Check for Updates.
3. Under How would you like to check for software updates?, select Automatically.
4. Choose how frequently to check for updates.
5. Select Check for Updates and install all available updates.

After updating, restart Word and Excel and test saving again. The hang when saving (including operations like Save as Picture) is resolved in updated versions (for example, version 16.33 and later for similar save issues).

If the problem persists after updating, use the Excel for Mac issues page to check for any newly listed problems and workarounds related to saving on your specific build.

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References:

• Word/Excel does not respond when using "Save as Picture"
• There is a serious disk error on when attempting to save, copy and paste or create auto recovery files in Office for Mac
• Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Excel for Mac
• Save a file in Office for Mac