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 Tried all those troubleshooting steps, so please don't reply with a link to a clearly outdated KB article.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
    2020-01-27T19:53:27+00:00

    Doug,

    Thank you very much for taking a look at my document.  Unfortunately, I'm still running into issues.  While the document is more stable now,  it still crashes after a period of time.  I'm in a "make change/save new version/make change/save new version" mode now until I can get the root problem fixed.

    Thanks again,

    Douglas

    We spent about three days getting the damaged manuscript back in good order after Doug gave us a vastly improved copy.

    Because the bug SEEMS to have something to do with section breaks and blank lines, I used the "Find section breaks" method described here:

    https://www.howtogeek.com/228906/how-to-find-section-breaks-in-a-word-document/

    I also learned how to change the type of a section break:

    https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/word-changing-a-section-breaks-type/

    Dunno if either of those approaches will help you break the vicious circles in the document.  :o(

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-27T19:04:50+00:00

    Doug,

    Thank you very much for taking a look at my document.  Unfortunately, I'm still running into issues.  While the document is more stable now,  it still crashes after a period of time.  I'm in a "make change/save new version/make change/save new version" mode now until I can get the root problem fixed.

    Thanks again,

    Douglas

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-25T13:09:11+00:00

    In the case of your document, there was an irrational number of Continuous Section Breaks, Manual Page Breaks and empty paragraphs.

    A re-built document has been returned to you.

    I think that was also true of the document that you fixed for me, Doug.

    We made all of those irrational choices using Office 365, and got the first edition of the book published.  It was only some later update of Office 365 that entered an "infinite" loop somewhere and counted the same page over and over until memory was exhausted.  

    Thanks again for getting us unstuck!

    Marty

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-01-25T04:44:55+00:00

    Irrational use of

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