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?

John McGhie,

Per your suggestion:

• We set up a test Word doc (38MB)in a dedicated file this AM (clean start of Word). Made changes to the doc, but did not save. Minimized the doc to the Desktop Dock. Time Machine preformed back-up as scheduled. Note that the doc sits in the Dock with no activity.
• At lunch attempted to save the doc in preparation to shutting Word down per your suggestion. Immediately received the notice " You cannot save while the file is in use by another process. Try saving the file with a new name"  This requires entering the doc name again and showing the path to the file folder.  In the folder is a "Word Work File L_......tmp" which was the original doc.
• We then shut down Word and restarted to repeat.

Same behavior as originally described.

Respectfully,

John

Daniel,

Here is the result:

Per your suggestion, I set up a test doc (38MB) in a dedicated file folder that I excluded from Time Machine Back-Up, setting the Word preferences as you described ( Always create a back-up copy and auto-recovery was set  at 10 minutes. I also excluded the auto-recovery file from Time Machine back-up (TMBU)) Then made some changes to the doc and let it sit in the Desktop Dock awaiting the scheduled TMBU.

I also set up a control test doc in a dedicated file folder that was not excluded from TMBU.Then made some changes to the doc and let it sit in the Dock awaiting the scheduled TMBU.

• Immediately after the TMBU Word went into major failure mode: Hard drive spinning at full speed, with the Spinning Disk icon showing. Waited 10 minutes - no change. Then Force quit Word.
• Messages: "You have forced Word to quit" - Report " You quit Word because of a problem" - Report
• At this time HD still spinning at full speed, Word restarted, both docs reopened.  The Docs had lost their latest work.
• Close both docs - Force quit Word a second time.  HD still at full speed.
• Restart computer. HD still at full speed.
• As programs start over (2) minutes, HD costs down to normal speed.
• Open Word docs to confirm that both docs had lost their work. Upon reviewing the Word preferences "Always create a back-up copy" is no longer checked.

I'll run this again to check the results.

Respectfully,

John

Thanks John McGhie!

I have been trying this approach, and it's working. The problem is when we forget about it!

Best Regards,

Muriel

Hi Muriel:

OK, the work-around to your issue is "Never leave Word open when suspending/pausing/sleeping the OS".

It should work, but it doesn't.  Because when Word re-starts, it instantly attempts to lock the 20 or 30 files it has open for each document.

The OS then gets very confused because some of the files already are locked...

So:  Your answer is "Quit Word before closing the lid."  If you do, you will not see this problem again.

Microsoft will try to make this "better" in service packs, but I would not want you to hope that this issue will ever completely go away.

Close Word, then close the lid :-)

Hope this helps

John

My issue is the same that he described... Besides that, the order of problems is the same that he enlisted.

Best Regards,

Muriel

Hi John:

Your issue is completely different to Muriels :-)

You are suffering the "Can't Save" bug.  Microsoft is currently trying to find the cause of this one (I know this because I am sitting ion the Microsoft offices in Redmond as we type...).

It appears to be a file deadlock, and yes, Time Machine could be the culprit (but there are several other possible sources of bother).  It appears to be worse in OS 10.7.

The only thing I can recommend as a work-around is:

1.  Every two or three hours (e.g. morning tea, lunchtime, afternoon tea) close and re-open Word.  This releases Word's hold on all the files it holds open when you are working.  Whenever you are editing a Word document, you have between 20 and 30 other temporary files open; these can run the OS X file system out of resources.
2.  At the finish of work each day, log out of your Mac.  This cleans up the memory and enabels certain house-keeping tasks.
3.  At the end of each week, shut the Mac down.  When you restart on Monday or whenever, OS X will completely clean p the memory and temporary files for you.

Hope this helps

Thank you, Daniel

I'll try this on one machine for a week and recomment.

Respectfully,

John