Word cannot complete the operation because too many files open

Anonymous

I've upgraded to Lion and am now having this error message every time Word 2011 tries to auto save:

word cannot complete the operation because too many files open

I click OK and then it says:

Word is unable to save the AutoRecover file in the location you have specified. Make sure that you have specified a valid location for AutoRecover files in Preferences, and that you have permission to write files to the location you specified.

I've tried changing the location for autosave and also made sure that the folder has read/write privileges for all users. I've done some Googling and not been able to find any other references to this problem since 2004ish.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

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Anonymous

You should have added "for me" because that solution did work for at least 18 other users.

So let's try this, which I'm surprised we did not suggest before. It's called a safe boot. It's a simple procedure that will attempt to load in your Mac only software, add-ins, fonts, etc. etc. that are official versions of Apple software and other approved vendors. If Word works, it probably means that some software is interfering with it (i.e. software that was not allowed to execute under safe boot conditions).

Shut down you Mac
Turn it on
As soon as you hear the initial "boing" sound, press Shift (that's Apple's instructions; I press is as soon as I see the screen turn on)
Hold it down until you see the Finder and it seems to stop loading

Once the Finder loads, test Word. If it works, the problem is caused by non-Apple software added to your user account or your Mac.

There is a similar procedure involving the creation of a brand new user. This ensures the user does not have any additional stuff in their account. You could try that and then test word from that new user.

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43 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-12-30T10:15:50+00:00

Done :

Last login: Sun Dec 30 11:09:45 on console

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$ launchd limit maxfiles

launchd: This program is not meant to be run directly.

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$ launchctl limit maxfiles

maxfiles 16500 16500

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$

Just an afterthought : why choosing such a high value ?

Will it affect system or root in any way ?
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Anonymous

2012-12-30T10:25:22+00:00

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$ launchctl limit maxfiles

maxfiles 16500 16500

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$

Just an afterthought : why choosing such a high value ?

Will it affect system or root in any way ?

Great. Is the issue gone now?

I had a different issue - when copying large amount of files from Windows machine to Samba share on a mac I would get the same error about "too many open files". The similar limit on windows is 16384; I increased this number a little to account for system stuff. Then I've set the same limit to samba server and to launchd. This resolved the issue. While looking for the solution though I stumbled upon this thread - thought to share my solution :)
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Anonymous

2012-12-30T10:33:14+00:00

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$ launchctl limit maxfiles

maxfiles 16500 16500

MacBook-Pro-de-Macbook:~ macbookpro$

Just an afterthought : why choosing such a high value ?

Will it affect system or root in any way ?

Great. Is the issue gone now?

I had a different issue - when copying large amount of files from Windows machine to Samba share on a mac I would get the same error about "too many open files". The similar limit on windows is 16384; I increased this number a little to account for system stuff. Then I've set the same limit to samba server and to launchd. This resolved the issue. While looking for the solution though I stumbled upon this thread - thought to share my solution :)

Thanx.

To soon to tell if solved. Usually problem occurs when queue of saves temp files in Office exceeds a few dozen (but sometimes it occurs when the count is just 15 or 20).
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Anonymous

2013-02-20T12:04:01+00:00

The solution to the similar problem was to increase the limit for simultaneously open files (which is 256 by default:

In the in /etc/launchd.conf add line

limit maxfiles 16500

and reboot.

Already tried this too. Infamous message continues.
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