Mac OS Word Crashes Daily with Large Document

Question

Hello,

Mac OS Word will shutdown randomly with no warning when I'm working on a 400-page word document. It has been happening ever since I got my mac a few months ago. The random shutdowns happen about 20-30 mins after I start using the document and there's no warning.

I've tried deleting the macros and reinstalling the app, but the issue persists. Additionally, the com.microsoft.Word.plist does not exist in my "~/Library/Preferences" folder, so I cannot delete it (a recommendation from one of the other Q&A threads). The "~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word" file does not exist on my computer, either.

Is there a fix for this yet? The bug is very frustrating and I've lost a lot of work as a result.

Thank you,

[Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed] 

Answer 1

Hi Ben

After wanting to pull my hair out (repeatedly!) I did find a fix but it is a nuisance.

I sent my Mac into an authorized Apple repairer and they uninstalled the latest iOS Tahoe and went back to the last iOS (Sequoia) when Word and endnotes worked perfectly. I didn’t know how to do that myself but if you do, just uninstall Tahoe since it seems to be the problem.

I have not had a single crash since so I am positive there must be something in Tahoe that does not like these large Word docs with endnotes

To figure this solution out we went through every other possible test to see if the problem repeated (it did) and the only thing that worked was changing from the most recent iOS. I hope this helps. It certainly saved me.

Good luck!!

[Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed] 

Answer 2

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Hello Ben S

I’m sorry this has been happening, especially with a large document where lost work can be very frustrating.

The missing com.microsoft.Word.plist file may not necessarily indicate a problem; if that preference file is not present, Word may simply be using default preferences.

First, please check the newer AutoRecovery location, because recent Word for Mac versions may use this path instead:

/Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery

You can open it from Finder by selecting Go > Go to Folder and pasting the path.

The AutoRecovery folder is hidden, so it may not appear by browsing normally. If Word finds recovered files after a crash, save them immediately before continuing to edit.

For the crashing itself, I would suggest testing these next:

• Save a copy of the document locally on the Mac, not only in a synced/cloud folder, then test whether the crash still happens.
• Open the document and use File > Save As to create a fresh copy under a new name.
• If the document may be damaged, try Word > Preferences > General, enable Confirm file format conversion at Open, then use File > Open > Recover Text to extract the content into a new file.
• If possible, split the 400-page document into smaller sections to check whether one section, image, table, citation, or embedded object is triggering the crash.
• Test Word from a new macOS user profile or macOS Safe Mode to rule out profile-level or background-app conflicts

Feel free reply back to this post and update me on this issue, I'll be happy to help.