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

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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...

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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

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  1. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2016-07-19T17:21:18+00:00

    Hi Steven,

    Then you can rule out MacKeeper as the culprit in your case. Microsoft is investigating the problem even as we type.

    BTW, the first version of Office for Mac was marketed during Super Bowl 1985 and was on the market the following March, so it is considerably older than the date you have in your signature. "Macintosh Office" is Microsoft Office for Mac.

    Apple Lemmings 1985

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-20T19:51:24+00:00

    Hi,

    I'm a member of the Word engineering team investigating this issue.

    I had some questions I was hoping those encountering this issue could answer to help us.

    1. What version of Office and OSX do you have?   Do you recall the earliest build of Office that you saw this issue?
    2. Do you have any of the following software installed?   MacKeeper, software from SmithMicro (ex. StuffIt), any sort of software that actively scans files or attempts to clean up disk space
    3. The error mentions a filename like “Word Work File <letter>{...}.tmp”.   What <letter>’s have you seen the error for?   (The letter indicates the type of temporary file that it is.  For example, “S” is a Scratch file. For more info, you can look at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/211632).
    4. Under what circumstances have you seen the error? For example,
      • Does it only show after Word has been running for a long time or after opening a lot of documents?
      • Does it only show when working with large/complex documents?
    5. Are you using a custom Normal.dotm file?
    6. Do you have any Add-ins installed?  See under "Tools / Templates and Add-ins...".
    7. On your Mac, what kind of user account are you logged in as?   Administrator? Standard?   You can check under "System Preferences / Users & Groups". On the left you should see "Current User" with your account name and type of account.
    8. Do any of the following seem to ease the issue?
      • Launch Word (or Outlook if that's where you've hit the issue). Quit cleanly (i.e. don't Force Quit). Launch and quit once more.
      • Rebooting your Mac

    Thanks,

    David

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-20T20:18:45+00:00
    1. Office 2016, OS X 10.11.5.  The problem showed up with update 15.22, which is also when I started seeing the same error in Outlook.  This is relevant because that's also when Outlook started using Word's editing code.
    2. No to all of the above. (But see my comment about Active Directory below.)
    3. I don't recall, but the next time I see that error, I'll come back here and report it.
    4. I most often notice it with documents that have been open for a long time, both Word and Outlook. It seems to pop up most often when when I hit ⌘-Z to undo.  It can happen with 1-page documents.
    5. No.
    6. No.
    7. I'm logged in as an admin.
    8. Quitting and relaunching always fixes the problem.  Presumably rebooting would also work, but since quitting and relaunching always works, I haven't bothered with reboots.

    Finally: I don't know if this is significant, but my Mac is joined to an Active Directory domain, and I use the OS X home folder syncing feature to sync my Desktop, Documents, and Library folder to my network home directory. I have it set to sync Automatically. So it's possible that it's trying to copy open Word files.

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