Word for Mac 2011 keeps crashing every time I work with a document, relatively large (50Mb), on MacBook Pro. When I work at the same document, in iMac, there is no problem. What could it be?

Anonymous
2012-02-15T23:33:07+00:00

Word for Mac 2011 keeps crashing every time I work with a document, relatively large (50Mb), on MacBook Pro. When I work at the same document, in iMac, there is no problem. What could it be?

I keep receiving these messages:

"This is not a valid time name. try one or more of the following..."

"You cannot save while the file is in use by another process. Try saving the file with a new name"

"There is an unrecoverable disk error on file.

The disk you're working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using it. Try the following:

*try formatting another disk

*save document to another disk"

And I'm sure there's no disk issues, as well as problem in file names.

Anyone could help?

Regards,

Muriel

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-07-04T09:29:06+00:00

    You should enable Word>Preferences>Save>"Always create backup copy".

    If you do, every time you manually save, the previous version will be saved in the same folder as the document, labelled "Backup of..."

    It's not automatic: you need to get into the habit of manually saving each time you pause to think.

    But the benefit is that it saves a complete copy of the document.  Autorecover saves only the changes.  So if something happens that prevents Word reading the original document, autorecover is useless.  The backup copy will always work...

    Personally, I would never work "across the network" -- Word 2011 is simply not that stable.  I would copy the document locally, work on it, then copy it back when I am finished.

    Hope this helps

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-03T20:08:03+00:00

    Start by disabling Word > Preferences > Save > Save AutoRecover info.

    I have another post I've added to this thread but would like to address this issue separately. 

    Right now, autorecover appears to be saving my bacon, in that at least I'm not losing everything.

    I have a possible separate issue that I'm in shared document through OneDrive.

    If I turn off Autorecover will I then lose my most recent changes, if Word decides to continue shutting down (apparently) randomly?

    thanks!

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-07-03T19:57:34+00:00

    By chance, do you have Endnote?  i have the same problem and the information on the Endnote forums establishes beyond any doubt that the problem is caused by the CWYW tool.  This was not a problem in v. X4, but is present for X5.  one can turn off some of the causes of the problem in Endnote, but I am still have crashes.  Endnote says it will be addressed in a release this fall, which is crazy to wait that long!

    MS Word 2011 in an Office 365 subscription pack has been shutting down spontaneously for me, and not because of closing the lid, or walking away and my Mac going to sleep. Often I haven't done anything, it seems to just happen for no reason I can discern.

    The second time it happened I sent an error report to Microsoft, and saw a message about EndNote and CWYW (I have X7), so I turned off X7. When it happened again, I just stopped having EndNote open so I pulled the folder <EndNote CWYW Word 2011.bundle> out of Word or Office or wherever it lived by default.

    This didn't change anything.

    I saw in this string suggestions to frequently restart Word, restart my computer, log out of my user profile. None of that has made any difference.

    I haven't read the string to the end, but one possibly essential fact in my case: I am using MS Word on a MS Exchange Server, so the document is updating and saving remotely on OneDrive, which I have open in Chrome on my OSX Mavericks on a MacBook Pro, mid-2009.

    I'm afraid I can't follow a lot of this conversation, as I don't have the technical knowledge to be checking so many backend files and processes. 

    I would like this to work on my Mac though. The alternative is seeing if the whole thing works any more efficiently on a company issued PC.

    >> I should add: I don't want to change autorecover settings, as right now Word is doing a good job saving the most recent version and changes.

    AND

    I don't have TimeMachine running. Not the problem

    AND

    The whole point here is for me to be able to work in documents through OneDrive in a group setting. Disabling that functionality is a non-starter.

    Right now, everytime it crashes, I let Word save it and open it on re-start of Word, then I save it with a new name so I can then upload it to OneDrive. Then I have to send an email to co-workers letting them know MS Word has crashed, and my latest version is in OD, and see if they were in document at the same time in case we need to go through line by line to create a new correct shared version.

    Better than pen and paper but pretty buggy.

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  4. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2013-11-25T07:37:20+00:00

    Perhaps the best way is to switch to Pages since Mac is offering it for free now. I doubt if Windows will solve this question in both system.

    Unfortunately, the topic of this question has branched into several different questions and answers. If you are having troubles with Word please start a new question. Be sure to include the version of Word you are using, the text of any error messages and/or error logs you are receiving, and any other pertinent information you think might be helpful in troubleshooting the problem.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-11-19T02:11:15+00:00

    Perhaps the best way is to switch to Pages since Mac is offering it for free now. I doubt if Windows will solve this question in both system.

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