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?

Daniel,

Excluded from TMBU preference file: Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences

Respectfully,

John

Hi Daniel,

AM report:

3/2/2012 11:26 I started with the Control doc:

• Last TMBU @ 10:49am, Next TMBU @ 11:47am.
• Test save of Control doc@ 11:30am required renaming and location – attempt to rename resulted in the "Cannot save – Read only". Saved to the desktop, attempted to move to original Control doc folder and open. Message: “Word failed reading … then a progress box titled “converting” – spinning disk for 5 minutes, then “Cannot open.. "
• Repeat several times same result. Word not responding – Force quit. Message: “You have Forced Word to quit – Report” “You quit Word because of a problem – OK”.
• Restart Word after Force Quit – Test docappears with complete notes (no lost data) – able to save the doc successfully to the correct folder.  Retry to open the Control doc(desktop) and can successfully open and doc is complete with latest notes (no lost data) and able to save to the correct folder.
• Note: no TMBU has yet occurred since the last save - I then checked the Preferences for "Always create a back-up copy" (Control doc) and not checked - checked and attempted to save doc - Message "read only..." rename and attempt to re-save to original doc folder - unsuccessful - rename doc and attempt to save to desktop - Message: "Cannot save while in use by...." rename and save to the desktop, then drag doc to original folder.

Note that the Test doc has not yet failed since excluding the two files from TMBU (Original doc folder and AutoRecovery) and I'll start by excluding the preference file per your recommendation.

Respectfully, John

I just discovered something weird. File com.microsoft.Word.plist is continuously being recreated in the user's /Library/Preferences. Even clicking on another document or switching to Word creates a new instance of the file, and the old version gets deleted. It's not a write update, but a deletion and creation of a new file. (This is easy to confirm by highlighting the file in the Finder—the highlight goes away and a new time stamp is shown. Other applications also do this, but not constantly like Word.)

In addition, if the .plist file is already open in Word, this produces an "out of memory" error (?).

This could be happening

TM runs and attempts to backup that .plist file (it's sure to be a new version) but since you are working and clicking, Word is trying to delete it and create a new one. That's a potential source of conflict.

Something similar happens with .tmp files. When you save a file, a .tmp file is created to reflect the current contents of the file, then the saved version of the file is deleted and the .tmp is renamed. In your case, this renaming does not happen and you are left with the .tmp file. (See Description of how Word creates temporary files.) Why is this not happening? Perhaps because Word cannot access the .plist it so repeatedly creates?

The paths are HD_NAME/System, HD_NAME/Applications and HD_NAME/Users/YOUR_NAME/Library (also called ~/Library), but I would start smaller, with just HD_NAME/Users/YOUR_NAME/Library/Preferences (a.k.a. ~/Library/Preferences). Maybe excluding your Preferences folder is all you need. I don't know if TM lets you specify individual files, but if so then start by excluding the .plist file named at the top.

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the great reply.

• I do have the whole AutoRecovery folder excluded from the TMBU, and additionally the folder where the test doc is stored, but not the control doc folder.
• Upon continued testing, the test doc has not lost it's name or location through several TMBU cycles.
• The control doc has lost name, location, and reverted to a read-only doc that would not save to the original folder, and required saving to my desktop and then dragging to the folder.
• Give me the file path to the System and Application folders and I'll exclude them from TMBU. Its not obvious to me if they are excluded from back-up by default.

Respectfully,

John

The problem is probably happening when both Word tries to access files that are being copied by TM. The converse is not likely, given that one can effectively copy a file from the Finder even if it is currently open by Word, so TM should not be causing that problem.

Thus, what you experienced could have been triggered by your "control" file remaining open and unsaved, but more likely by Word trying to open a file that is in use by TM at the moment. So you should have excluded the whole AutoRecovery folder, where files are constantly created and deleted. Disabling AR could be the key.

Word's backup setting would be saved as a preference when quitting Word, so if Word crashes the preferences file is not written. That's why it did not stick.

Are you also excluding the System and Applications folders (I believe this is the default)? I would test by also excluding the user's LIbrary folder.