There is a serious disk error on file ~Word Work File S{A1F41F30-FB84-B649-9F8A-F0A7D2698BBF}.tmp

Anonymous
2016-05-30T19:08:24+00:00

everytime i save a word file on my mac i get this message. 

i'm using ms office v15.22.1. 

Please advise. Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2016-10-04T03:10:48+00:00

I had this issue for many months and it was very frustrating--It was so frequent that I switched to Pages for a while. Since I have updated Word (running V 15.28 (160927)) for 2-3 weeks, I have not had 1 serious error. I am keeping my fingers crossed. 

I'm on a late 2013 MBA 11, running El Cap 10.11.6

I thought it might be helpful to read a post from someone who has had some good luck...

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2016-09-14T17:39:21+00:00

Hi everyone,

On 9/13/16, we released update 15.26 (160910), the September feature update for Office 2016 for Mac. Please install the update by clicking Help > Check for Updates > Check for Updates. Our engineering team has been intensively working on the ‘serious disk error’ issue and feel that this latest update will resolve it.

If you continue to experience problems, please reply to this thread with the following so that we can further isolate the cause:

  1. A screenshot of the About dialog (that shows the Office build number).
  2. A screenshot of the serious disk error dialog.
  3. The output of running ls ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/Temp from Terminal.
  4. The output of the command defaults read  com.microsoft.Word from Terminal if the issue happens in Word; or defaults read com.microsoft.Outlook if the issue happens in Outlook.

If you continue to experience the same ‘serious disk error’ issue that you did before installing the update, let us know and we will reach out to you in a private message to see if you’re willing to have an engineer speak to you directly to get it resolved.

If you experience any other file-related issues (other than the ‘serious disk error’), let us know that, too.

Again, we apologize for the frustration around this issue, and hope that this solves it.

Best,

-Erik, Office Newsroom

Was this answer helpful?

0 comments

251 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-23T14:23:04+00:00

    I just updated the latest software yesterday and am now getting the same message.  Who can assist please?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-23T12:19:52+00:00

    As a consequence of getting this error my word file was corrupted.

    I don't want to single out Roderick, so…

    I want to remind everyone that you should be using Time Machine for file backups.  It performs hourly incremental backups.  So in the worst case, you'll lose an hour's worth of work.

    Yes, we are all eager for Microsoft to squash this bug, but even if they fix it this afternoon, there are still lots of reasons why you should back up:

    • Your hard drive might fail. (SSD drives are believed to be more reliable, but even they someties fail.)
    • You might experience some other hardware problem that makes it difficult to access your file.
    • For iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro users (none of which have batteries), a power outage can easily lead to file corruption and data loss.
    • People sometimes delete a needed file by accident.

    For all these reasons (and more), you should be backing up your data.

    The best backup is Time Machine. It runs hourly and keeps each changed version of a file.  If your file gets corrupt, you can simply restore the version you had an hour ago.  Or two hours ago.  Or three days ago. Or six weeks ago.

    When I wrote that Time Machine is the best backup, I was less than 100% honest.  Because an even better backup is to have two or three backups!

    Here's how I backup my MacBook Pro:

    1. My primary backup is an Apple Airport Time Capsule.  Because it's a network device, it can back up all the Macs in my home. (And Windows PCs too, if I had any.)  And because it's wireless, backups happen not only when I'm at my desk, but anywhere else in my home. For example, sometimes I take my laptop to our kitchen table, or even into my back yard!
    2. My secondary backup is a USB drive I keep on my desk.  I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of my boot drive.  I have this scheduled to run nightly, and that way, if my hard drive fails, I can simply boot off the clone and get right back to work.
    3. My tertiary backup is in the cloud.  I happen to use CrashPlan, but there are many good cloud-based backup services available.  The benefit of this backup is that it protects my data from catastrophes like (G-d forbid) a fire that burns down my house.

    I'm not saying everyone needs all three, but everyone should at least be using Time Machine. You don't need a Time Casule to use it -- any ordinary USB hard drive will work.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments