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?

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.

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