Word 16.31 turning server files invisible

Anonymous
2019-11-20T17:12:10+00:00

Microsoft Word 16.31 for macOS seems to be turning server files invisible.

This has been observed in mulitple locations with multiple Macs (macOS 10.13.16 and 10.14.6) saving to macOS Server 10.12.

The file's UNIX chflags bit is turned to "hidden" and to make it visible we have to find the file using "ls -la" and then "sudo chflags nohidden file/path.docx?" to fix the file and make it visible again.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2019-11-24T15:20:28+00:00

With help from Adam Berti or Berti Group we have found that this script can fix a folder or share's invisible word documents:

find basedir/ -name '*.docx' -exec chflags nohidden {} ;

Where "basedir/" is the full path to a server share (including the trailing slash)

Adding -print will list what is happening.

find basedir/ -name '*.docx' -exec chflags nohidden {} ; -print

But it would be far more helpful if Microsoft would just fix Word 16.31 !

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-01-19T17:19:33+00:00

    Anyone install 16.33 yet? Did it finally resolve this?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-14T19:22:20+00:00

    Has there been any progress on this issue?

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-12-24T10:06:55+00:00

    Hi jscooper22,

    Thanks for the updates. Sorry about the late reply.

    We have already involved the related resources for further investigation on this issue.

    I understand that it's hard to record on an inconsistent issue, however, it will be a great help on the investigation if anyone who have the same issue could provide us with a video recording on this issue.

    Your assistance is highly appreciated.

    @Luc, Thanks for sharing us the detailed steps to reproduce this issue, we will forward this information to our related resources.

    Regards,

    Alex Chen

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-12-23T15:35:40+00:00

    I appear to have found a solution to the hidden file issue, however in addition to the files being hidden, I am also observing that saving the file immediately after being created fails.   Here are the steps to reproduce:

    Running OS X 10.14.6

    Word 16.32 (19120802)

    1. Create a new file in word
    2. Save file on network share
    3. File will save, and disappear.
    4. Make changes to the file, try and close word.
    5. Word prompts to save, hit save.
    6. Word appears to close, but then reopens.
    7. Turns out it is impossible to save the changes to this file - the only way to exit is to tell Word to discard the changes - subsequently opening the file confirms only the initial save worked
    8. Opening the file again, saving works normally.

    Clearing the hidden flag does not fix the save issue... I noticed the com.apple.quarantine flag is set on the file, sure enough examining the logs I see that sandboxd has denied write access to create temporary files.

    The behaviour occurs using both AFP and SMB protocols.

    The sandboxd error that occurs when I initially create a file:

    Violation:       deny(1) file-read-xattr /Volumes/Public/

    The sandboxd errors that occur when trying to save that same file immediately afterwards:

    Violation:       deny(1) file-write-create /Volumes/Public/Test.docx.sb-118eafb8-ncgFo2 

    Violation:       deny(1) file-write-create /Volumes/Public/.~WRD0001 

    When I first started testing, there was an additional sandboxd violation in the ~/Library/Group Containers/UB*.Office folder... running the following command in this folder appears to have fixed the hidden file issue:

    xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Group\ Containers/UB*.Office

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