Exceeded maximum number of pages on Word

Anonymous
2019-12-10T03:29:26+00:00

Just today I began receiving an error message that states "You have exceeded the maximum number of pages supported by Word or this document may be damaged..."

Opening up a tried and true file that's been in use for the last 3 months...including just fine not 3 days ago (no updates to the file, nor a related template version from which the new file was constructed) Latest version of Office 365.

Symptoms beyond the error is that the file will not display in print view. File will not save. Will not print. Will not export.

Verified on multiple Win10 machines with latest updates and patches (as of this post). Tried it on an older computer that hasn't been used or updated since September. File works fine.

Saw older posts reference this issue, but nothing since 2014. Tried all those troubleshooting steps, so please don't reply with a link to a clearly outdated KB article.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2019-12-20T07:21:55+00:00

Hi All,

Thanks for all your effort in this thread.

As this thread has multiple replies, to help the user who having the same issue, I would like to make a quick summary on this issue:

Issue symptom:

After updating your Office to the version 1911, when using Word to work on the document with multiple pages, you might receive the error: "You have exceeded the maximum number of pages supported by MS Word."

 

Issue environment:

Office 365 Business Version 1911 (Build 12228.20364 Click to Run) Monthly Channel

Office 2016 Professional Plus 1911 (Build 1228.20364 Click to Run) Monthly Channel

Solution:

Thanks for Matt's confirmation, this issue seems to be resolved after he updating his Office application to the Monthly Targeted Channel version 1912 Build 12325.20172. As this is an insider update channel, we do not suggest updating into this channel as it has certain risks.

However, since the fix has been deployed in the insider channel, this means it will be roll out to the Monthly users in the future updates, please wait patiently. Thanks for your understanding.

Note: Join the insider channel require you to be an Office 365 subscriber, so if you are using Office 2016 Professional Plus(which is an One-Time purchase product), you won't be able to join the insider channel at this time. 

Workaround:

As Renato mentioned, he was benefit from the this thread. Although this is a Mac thread, but the method could be also applied to the Windows side. Here is the workaround:

1.Open the issued document, wait until the error prompt "You have exceeded the maximum number of pages.. " prompt out.

2.Leave the error prompt alone, create a new blank document.

3.Copy the content in the issued document and paste it to the blank document we just created.

4.Save&Close the new document. And open it again, check if the issue still persist.

Again, we greatly appreciate for all your effort in this thread.

Regards,

Alex Chen

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-14T20:12:21+00:00

    IT should be a bug in the last Word update.

    Different users in different parts of the world are suddenly facing exactly the same problem the same message in WORD.

    I Cannot see another possibility.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-14T18:29:59+00:00

    There is no specified upper page limit in Word.

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/word/operating-parameter-limitation

    .

    Word doesn't really track page numbers. In Word, "pages" are an artificial construct based on the printer driver limits.

    .

    Most commonly, when you see this error the problem is document corruption so word is counting each word or letter as a "page".

    .

    Sometimes "supermen" like Doug R can dig into the underlying XML structure of the file to fix bad XML code created by Word. Or in a worst case, he can sometimes recover part of the document.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-12-14T17:22:36+00:00

    I am facing exactly the same problem.

    I'm already getting desperate.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-12-14T17:04:55+00:00

    I have the same problem. My document is only about 290 pages but when it opens it says it has over 17,000 pages and then I get the error message:

    "You have exceeded the maximum number of pages supported by Microsoft Word or this document may be damaged. Microsoft Word will save the document, but to repair the document, use the Open and Repair command (click Open, and then click the arrow next to the Open button).

    I have tried this but to no avail. 

    After I get the error message, my document says it only has 27 pages in it and the view switches to draft mode. If I try to switch back to print mode, it switches back to draft mode. Then Word locks up. 

    I've tried all of the file recovery and renaming tips offered online but I still have the problem. It seems to be happening to the backups of this file. 

    Please help. 

    Thanks.

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