Word starts deleting my document one letter at a time. Nothing will stop it.

Anonymous

This has happened on two different computers with Word 2010 about once a month for a year.

First Word starts throwing in extra letters as you type. For example you type "hello" and word will type "heffffffffffhhhhhhhhhhhh".

Then you hit the back space key to undo the error.

With the error fixed you continue typing. Next you see an error and hit the delete key to fix it. Word starts to auto replete the delete key.

There is nothing you can do to stop it. It will continue until the complete document is deleted one character at a time. The only solution is to use task manager to shut down word and reopen an old version of the file. This has happened to more than one file on more than one computer. I have found other people looking for a solution to the same problem on other internet forums and also here, but I've never found a solution posted. Just generic answers like maybe its a virus or check everything in the registry. I have a short video of it on YouTube called "Word auto deleting a file. Nothing will stop it". if anyone wants to see it. Any ideas for resolving this?

Thanks

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Anonymous

Thanks for the idea but that's not it.

If you try holding down the Del key in Word until it auto repeats, all you have to do is hit the esc key to stop it. Try it yourself.

When this happens to me NOTHING will stop it except closing Word in the task manager.

It's not a stuck key. (on both my computers)

I looked at the stuff Stefan linked to but it had to do with problems starting Word. Word starts fine on both my systems. It's a generic install using the defaults at every turn. I've made no changes to the defaults and I have no addin's.

It's a software bug and it's been in Word for at least a year.

My Word installations (yes multiple) misbehave that way. Which is why I strongly agree with Stefan's suggestion that it is an add-in or some other 3rd party tool. Here are examples of unexpected behavior caused by 3rd party tools:

Clipboard functionality no longer allows ability to paste formatting in Office Apps – Skype error – Official notice

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2697462

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/excel/thread/0cffef67-afca-45ad-b75d-3eeb4a859983

Starting in March 2012, "Skype click to Call" has been causing problems File Open problems, and Copy/Paste problems in Office Apps.

The quick test for this problem is to close all open browsers. If the problem goes away it is probably Skype.

March 30 – MS has released an update to Skype that fixes the problem.

<snip>

For anyone reading this, I figured out the problem after surfing the web for the past 3-4 weeks. Painful process. I have a paid version of Advanced SystemCare Pro, v5.2.0. 3-4 weeks ago, while scanning through it's vast offerings, I came across a feature I could activate called "Smart RAM". I turned it on and checked the 5 boxes it offers in the settings. The last of those 5 is "Clean Clipboard". I unchecked this box a few minutes ago and it fixed my issues. I now have no problems with copy/paste. Info only, it case it helps anyone.

<snip>

Bluetooth Fix: “Microsoft Word has stopped working”

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/fix-microsoft-word-has-stopped-working

Alright, well, I found the answer to this final issue: I only needed to disable the Bluetooth add-in on Options. I have no idea why that would have been the problem, but I found it as a suggested fix here. Now every single thing opens quickly and without error.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

As a recap:

My Office 2010 was a Click-to-Run version
Word suddenly giving me messages about "Downloading the Required Feature," freezing up, slowing down...
Ultimately had to uninstall Office
Reinstalled it from the Microsoft website with my product key, choosing the 64-bit version instead of the Click-to-Run version
Installed all new updates from Windows Updates
Restarted computer
Word working quickly with no messages, but became unresponsive when trying to open old files
Went to File->Options->Add-Ins->Go-> and unchecked Bluetooth.
Everything seems to be back to normal, if not better than before.

My problem is if I copy text from a web site or from Excel, Access etc into Word all I get is a black spot.

I have tried a repair install and checking all the settings against my laptop - where this function works properly.

The problem is caused by a defective Bluetooth add-in for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, turn off the Com Addin.

Additional Notes:

The defective Bluetooth add-in is usually installed by a Bluetooth driver. (In my case - Intel Centrino Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed Adaptor (v1.1))
Updating your Bluetooth driver (or reverting to an older version) may also resolve the problem.
Unfortunately simply disabling the add-in through the Word options may result in a 3 second freeze when loading Word 2007. (If this is a problem, changing to a different bluetooth driver version may be the better option)

Another though just came to mind. Maybe you have a windows feature like "sticky keys" turned on. Take a look in Control Panel > Ease of Access > "Make your Keyboard Easier to Use" > Turn on Sticky Keys.

Don't guess! Work through the trouble shooting procedure that Stefan linked to. It will take 10 or 15 minutes to work though and then we will know for SURE. You may be pleasantly surprised.

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Anonymous

2013-12-05T17:35:15+00:00

I have the same problem. Use of the backspace key or the Delete key to delete an area of text may randomly trigger a non-stop deletion character by character that cannot be halted by ESC or similar mechanisms. Deletion is far faster if one has hit the Delete key and are moving forwards through the document. Only using Task manager to close Word down stops the deletion.

Sadly Auto Recover is of no help. Word saves the document as it is at the point of closure, and deletes all the previous auto recover versions. (This is a major weakness in Word - the fact that it does not automatically back up at least 2 generations of auto recovery files and make them available. Automatic recovery is also poor compared to Open Office and WordPro.)

The problem is clearly related to Word 2010 as I have tried replicate the problem with the same family of documents on other keyboards, Word 2003, Word 2007, not to mention WordPro and Open Office.

The problem may lie in an interaction between some hidden character attributes and Word 2010. (I've encountered issues in the past, as far back as 1995, where MS Office software behaves in a random fashion. The only solution has been to delete that section of the document and recreate it from scratch.) In this particular case, the documents where the problem occurs all go back to a common ancestor created in Office 2007. If I could display the attribute bytes I suspect I would find a combination that triggers this behaviour.
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Anonymous

2013-03-10T23:01:39+00:00

I just had the same behavior. I have an hp g62 laptop, windows 2010. sometimes word entered extra data. I just tried to delete a character and system kept deleting each character in the document. I had to use taskmgr to kill it. Key wasn't stuck, there either a bug in Word or in the laptop that controls repeated key press detection
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Anonymous

2012-05-07T21:50:30+00:00
Al right, I'll give it a try. I will say however that any fix that required you to edit the registry is a bit suspect. If you want more reports, here is a report in another forum:

Question

About one in every couple of weeks when I am editing a document in Word, it suddenly starts to delete the remainder of the document (from the cursor downwards)one character at a time (as if keeping finger on delete button)and it takes several minutes to get to the end of the document, During this time I cannot do anything with Word but can open other programs etc. Sometimes, when it has completed this process, I am able to recover the document by using the "undo" command. Any ideas how to stop this - maybe I am accidently hitting some key combination that equates to "delete to end of document"?

Here is a question from this forum that never got a usefull answer:

Word 2010 will lock and starts deleting everything after a certain point until the end of the documents.

Applies To:
- Office
- Office 2010
- Microsoft Office Word
- Windows 7
Running Office 2010 on Windows 7 and have had an issue every so often that as I'm reviewing a Word Document, it will lock to the point that no keys on the keyboard will respond, and everything after the cursor will delete character by character until it gets to the end of the document. So far I've been able to force a close of Word and reopen and start over, but in all the years I've worked with Word, I've never seen this up until 2010.

Any suggestions??

Sound familiar?
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Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2012-05-07T17:43:17+00:00

I looked at the stuff Stefan linked to but it had to do with problems starting Word. Word starts fine on both my systems. It's a generic install using the defaults at every turn. I've made no changes to the defaults and I have no addin's.

No, the article is about problems starting and/or running Word. Note that add-ins may be installed by third-party software, which is why it is worth a try looking at them.

You seem convinced that this is a Word bug, but we would have seen numerous posts about it here if that were the case.
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