Intermittent permissions error in Word 365 for Mac

Anonymous
2019-04-24T18:11:45+00:00

I'm finding I'm getting an intermittent permissions error in Word 365 (16.24) on MacOS Mojave (10.14.4).

I'll generally be able to open and save documents for a couple of hours - then, I'll get an error telling me I don't have the required permissions to open the document(s) I'm trying to access. I can't save the current document I'm working on either. These are all documents that I have created - on the same Mac using Word 365 (usually within the last few days or weeks)

A restart helps with the issue - but only postpones it for another couple of hours. Plus I don't want to have to keep restarting!!

When I try to open a file I get the following popup:

After selecting to grant access I then get:

Then, after choosing the correct file and selecting 'grant access', I get:

Any help would be appreciated! I can obviously post more info if required.

Thank you.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-07-01T03:52:18+00:00

    So glad to see this thread here.  I thought I was crazy.  I have on-line chatted with Office365 support three time in the past 45 days.  I keep getting different "solutions" to this problem (restart the computer, start the computer in safe mode, change the Word template permissions, etc.).  They never said that this was a known problem.  It is so frustrating and time consuming.  The last solution was to uninstall and reinstall Office365 which I have not done.  I am hesitant to do that as it seems that people have tried that without success.  Just as an FYI, I have also had sporadic "permissions issues" with some of my Excel file.  So, for me, it is not just Word.  And, it has definitely only been since macOS Majave entered the picture.  I wish I had a solution.  This is infuriating.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-06-29T00:45:31+00:00

    Totally agree. This is still happening to me everyday and I have invested too much time in troubleshooting.  I am beginning to use Google Docs because I just can't risk losing my work.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-06-28T21:12:47+00:00

    I 2nd, 3rd and 4th these comments. No other apps we use exhibit this problem, but save problems have been on-again-off-again with MS Word v2016, & now v2019, for quite some time.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-06-28T20:22:44+00:00

    I manage about four dozen Macs and we are having widespread occurrences of this issue. It's not every computer, but it is many of them. The issue comes and goes, but can always be fixed by restarting word or excel. However, if someone has several documents open, none of them can be saved. This is resulting in lost work, or really weird workarounds to email documents to themselves. It is a major headache for us.

    I am experiencing the exact same problems and have also had to use the same work arounds to try and save work. The amount of time my business has lost due to this non-sense is significant. It's hard to fathom that we are now in 2019 and our basic word processing abilities are getting worse and not better. This is an unacceptable product, Microsoft. Unacceptable.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-06-24T15:58:21+00:00

    This is the error I get: 

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