Grant File Access: Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges

Anonymous
2015-07-20T23:38:33+00:00

I am unable to open some Word documents due to permission issues.

I used Disk Utility to repair permissions and created a new profile and still have the following problem.  See three screenshots below:

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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John Korchok 235.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-11-30T22:29:05+00:00

You'll most likely find that you must repeat this every month, when you install an update. Every time I've tested the updating process, the fonts get reinstalled in the package.

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John Korchok 235.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2018-01-04T22:31:59+00:00

It's worth a try creating a new user account on your colleague's Mac, sign in to it and test Office. If it works, you know it's some degree of corruption in the old account's installation.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has never published really complete uninstall/reinstall directions for Office 2016 for Mac. I think it likely they don't know how.

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Anonymous
2018-03-21T21:14:20+00:00

After working with my client for over a year, I have finally got higher ups in Microsoft Mac Development to acknowledge this bug and they are currently working on it. At least in our instance, the issue stems from activating too many fonts with a 3rd party font manager like Suitcase of FontExplorerX. The amount of fonts is usually in the 3k range, which then causes Office 2016 to act all loopy and throw up random error messages.

If you aren't using a 3rd party font manager, then your issue could be different. For those that are using a 3rd party font manager, Microsoft Developers are working on this and they expect a fix in the next couple of releases. I'll keep this thread up to date as I find out more information.

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Anonymous
2018-02-02T16:13:48+00:00

I had this problem too and it comes back sometimes after an Office update, like the most recent 16.9.1.

What I do is clearing the MS-Office font caches with Cocktail and then restart my Mac immediately. Word then opens the documents without error.

Worked for me with 10.10 Yosemite and 10.11 El Cap / Mac Pro 2008. I'm using FontExplorer X Pro 6.

Hope it helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-28T10:13:16+00:00

    Please allow me to repeat the essence of a post that occurred in this thread a couple of months ago.  This is how it is "supposed" to work...

    1. When the dialog appears that requests you to select the file, click SELECT.
    2. The file should now be visible in the Finder dialog that opens.
    3. Select it.
    4. Click Grant Access.
    5. That should solve the problem for that file, and any file in the same folder.

    The dialog is poorly labelled: it means "Select the entry shown above in this dialog, then click "Select"".

    Just a note:  This is not a "bug".  This is how Apple's sandboxing mechanism works.  Each application installed from the Apple Store starts with permission to access only three folders.  Apple requires the User to grant permission for the application to access any other locations.

    Once the user does grand permission, that location and its permission is stored within the application settings for that user.

    So you should be asked only once for any location.  But you will be asked for each location that is outside the standard set.

    (Edited to correct my error in steps 1 - 3)

    Hope this helps

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