Word Always Opens Documents In Read-Only Mode / Subscription

If I open the file from Explorer, it's fine. If I open that same file from Word, 99% of the time, it's read-only

Interesting.  In my case, it doesn't seem to make a difference; double-clicking the file in Windows Explorer or opening it form within Word both cause it to open in read-only mode (but not all the time, just most of the time).  Closing Word and double-clicking the file again opens it up in editing mode.

So far, nothing in this thread has changed or altered Office 2013 (running under Windows 8.1) from opening files in read-only mode. If I open the file from Explorer, it's fine. If I open that same file from Word, 99% of the time, it's read-only. Nothing from any other thread that I've located has helped either.

Here's what I've tried from this thread and others:

Repaired Office 2013 - Files still came up read-only

Started Word in safe mode - Files still came up read-only

Disabled Protected View - Files still came up read-only

Added "My Documents" as a trusted location - Files still came up read-only

There is no "Unblock" option when I right-click on the file

Moved the file to the desktop  - Files still came up read-only

Killed the registry entry for Word/Data - Files still came up read-only

Opening the file using Explorer and then doing the "New Blank Document" thing was 100% pointless - Files still came up read-only

I have wasted so much time with this. I am absolutely sick of the issues that Microsoft has with fixing anything and that we're not hearing from a MS Tech on how to fix this.

Does anyone else have other pointless things for us to try in an effort to fix what Microsoft won't talk about or fix themselves? Should I just give up with all attempts to understand and fix MSWord and instead learn to open my files using Explorer until that work around is broken by the next "fix" implemented by Microsoft?

Yeah, I'm not very happy. I suspect that many of you suffering from this same thing are unhappy too!

You should create a new thread so that we do know what environment you are using.  In the case of this thread, the OP was using 8.1, and as you had not specified your version of Windows, it was not unreasonable to assume that it might have been Windows 10.

If you are running Windows 10, see the article "Known issues with Office and Windows 10" at:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Known-issues-with-Office-and-Windows-10-28d56d84-c16c-4763-8eac-e51e05a37a16?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Microsoft will be updating that article to include fixes for other issues as they are developed.

No, I am running Windows 7. However, I was able to solve the problem. I did a web-repair (Control Panel > Programs and Features, right-click on Office 2013 > Web Repair). This finally fixed the problem. It also fixed another problem I had with emailed attachments from within Word or Excel sending the attachment, but not the message body.

If you are running Windows 10, see the article "Known issues with Office and Windows 10" at:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Known-issues-with-Office-and-Windows-10-28d56d84-c16c-4763-8eac-e51e05a37a16?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Microsoft will be updating that article to include fixes for other issues as they are developed.