Microsoft Office apps stuck in 'Processing...' crashes

Anonymous

I recently installed Office 365 on my new Laptop and having issues when opening and saving documents in most apps particularly Word and PowerPoint.

Whenever I try and open an existing Word document it gets stuck at 'Processing..' and either opens 3- 5 minutes later or crashes completely, most often crashes. Similar happens with PowerPoint. I have not tested Excel. Outlook seems to be working fine.

I can open a blank document in Word and PowerPoint, the issues occur when trying to save or open an existing document.

I've tried the repair options and even uninstalling Office 365 and reinstalling. Issues still occur.

Is there a solution to this? Very frustrating as I work remotely and require Office.

Thanks

Josh

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Anonymous

This is the only option that I have found that works. Which is not beneficial for our system since we have several teams that utilize collaborative documents to update and share data.

Currently, I have reinstalled Windows on two devices which did remedy the issue. I have tried uninstalling suspect updates, online/offline repairs of Office, reinstalling OneDrive, etc., to no avail.

That was Friday and now that it is Monday there were calls first thing with the same issue. I have surveyed some details of the systems that are effected, and compiled the data in Excel in order to draw a conclusion or at least give me a lead as to what update/software version is the culprit.

So far, there are no leads with the Office Updates or OS Versions/Arch. This issue effects OS Versions 1909 to 20H2, Office Build Version 13127.21348 and 13127.21216, Excel version 16.0.13127.21336 and 16.0.13127.21210, 32-bit and 64-bit.

However, the Windows Updates that are installed show that KB4601554/4601556 might be the culprit. It is the Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework for Windows 10 Versions 2004/20H2 and 1909, respectively. Depending on the OS Version, the update is installed on the PCs that have the issue. The systems that do not, are the ones that do not have the issue.

I am going to try to uninstall these updates and report the findings. ****EDIT: This did not fix the issue****

**** EDIT

As discussed in a later post, I ended up with a solution that I will paste here for others:

Turned on option to allow Office to sync files.
Deleted "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache" folder
"%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset"
"%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe"

****

I attached the data discussed below. Green rows are the systems that are working.

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Anonymous

Hi Josh_324,

I'm very sorry for the trouble this issue has caused. Please let me do my best to assist you fix it.

Based on your description, issue only happen when you open file located on OneDrive desktop sync folder. However, when you open

existing document from locally and it work fine.

Since, issue happen to files/documents opening from OneDrive sync client folder, I suggest please try to Reset OneDrive and see the outcomes.

Also, try open documents from OneDrive online and then click on “Open in app” to open file in desktop client app and check if the documents can be opened by Office client.

Meanwhile, could you please confirm are you using OneDrive personal or OneDrive for business on your machine.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.

Best Regards

Waqas Muhammad

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31 additional answers

Anonymous

2021-03-17T15:52:44+00:00
Fixed.
1. Turned on option to allow Office to sync files.
2. Deleted "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache" folder
3. "%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset"
4. "%localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe"
Before, I renamed the OfficeFileCache folder, as suggested above, which did not work. I also deleted the *.fsd Files from the directory as well. Did not work. Deleted the entire folder and reset OneDrive, worked. Although, I did reset OneDrive, but I am not sure if it was before messing with the OfficeFileCache directory or not. My thoughts are that I didn't.

The Windows Updates Spreadsheet Whodunnit, well, that is one of those IT Coincidences that we find too often. Correlation != Causation.
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Anonymous

2021-02-15T04:00:31+00:00

Thanks David and all who posted in reply.

I haven't seen or found a resolution but did find a suggestion which alleviated the hanging on processing but it does disable synching and AutoSaving and thus is a temporary workaround only and may not be suitable for other users.

What avoided the very long "processing" message was deselecting the option to "Use Office Application to sync Office files that I open." found in the Office tab in Onedrive Settings.

Here's a link to the steps to enable or disable this setting.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-office-applications-to-sync-office-files-that-i-open-8a409b0c-ebe1-4bfa-a08e-998389a9d823?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

While I have to now save changes manually they do sync to Onedrive on closing the file and bypass the hanging.

However I hope someone from MS can review and and confirm a fix for this issue. Don't wish to do an OS reinstall.

Thanks All & Regards

Peter
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Anonymous

2021-03-15T01:03:35+00:00

I've encountered the issue and tested all troubleshooting listed here but only triggering pause to sync fixed the issue.
I got an extra time and tried to troubleshoot it with the hint that it is related to the syncing.

I've come across this option:

a. Right click OneDrive icon > Settings

b. Office tab > Untick "Use Office applications to sync Office files that I open"

I do not require file collaboration for my files, hence I tried to disable it. Having this option disabled resolves my issue even without the need to pause the synchronization.

It would be better if Microsoft can provide a permanent fix for this as everything is working fine previously.

I hope this helps.
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