Additional permissions are required to access the files (Word for Mac)

Anonymous
2019-05-06T07:05:57+00:00

Split from this thread.

Hello

I am trying to open a docx file and I keep getting a message that additional permissions are required to access the files. 

After selecting the grant access option I get the message "Word cannot open the document:  user does not have access privileges" and I cannot open the document.

My current version of office is 16.24

Version of Mac is 10.14.4

When I perform a computer restart I can open my Word docs then, after a while, I can't open any docs. 

attached is a screen shot of the error message.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2019-07-19T04:22:23+00:00

This is a fix, but the specific steps are a bit drastic by removing your whole keychain, which contains a lot of other useful things.

You can fix this in a different way without messing up your whole keychain.

Make sure the office Applications are closed.

Within KeyChain Access, just search for ADAL, remove the entries starting with 

MicrosoftOffice as the kind plus com.microsoft.adalcache

The 16.27 update release July 16 2019 should fix most of the issues with this Bug.

Additionally the following are some fixes that will fix this specific error and similar permission errors with Office Mac products

  1. Update Office to 16.27 or later (choose Check For Update from the Help menu in any Office Application)
  2. Remove Microsoft ADAL keychain entries (search for ADAL in the keychain and remove those items)
  3. Remove the securebookmarks preference files

Press Command+Shift+G in the finder then paste the following

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/

Within this folder remove the following file

com.microsoft.Excel.securebookmarks.plist

Press Command+Shift+G again and then paste in the following

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/

Within this folder remove the following file

com.microsoft.Word.securebookmarks.plist

After any and all of the above steps, please reboot your machine (manually removing preferences and keychain items does not guarantee they will be recreated properly unless you restart)

Additionally if the files are located on a shared drive, the files may be open by someone else. The other users may also just have the files highlighted in the finder (whereby it is then generating a preview of the file and therefore the file is marked as open)

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-05-25T18:16:50+00:00

    Please excuse for considering that your contributions to this discussion are completely unhelpful.

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  2. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2019-05-25T17:49:15+00:00

    Please excuse me for repeating the correct answer:

    Grant permission

    How to fix permissions errors

    http://dreamlight.com/how-to-fix-mac-os-x-file-permissions/

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  3. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2019-05-20T17:45:01+00:00

    Office 2016 and 2019 adhere to sandboxing rules

    Older versions of Office do not follow Apple's sandboxing guidelines

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  4. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2019-05-16T14:32:30+00:00

    Here's what I don't get: Why do people keep attacking Microsoft when Apple does things that break Microsoft's perfectly good software?

    Sandboxing pulled the rug out from under Microsoft and many other developers. It was Apple's choice to require stricter rules that they knew would break countless scenarios and wreck a lot of software in ways developers can't fix due to new restrictions by Apple. Nobody forced Apple to institute these new restrictions. Apple obviously could allow apps in the App store that don't adhere to their ridiculous sandboxing rules, but they chose not to knowing that the rules break all sorts of basic activity.

    Why on earth would you attack Microsoft when this problem is caused by Apple and no one else? Apple's own choices and decisions might be questionable, but last I heard, they have a monopoly in the app store. You either play by their rules or you don't play. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-let-apple-app-store-customers-sue-over-n1004956

    Supreme Court says Apple customers can sue over App Store monopoly claims

    In a 5-4 decision, the high court allowed a class action lawsuit brought by iPhone users to move …

    NBC News · 2d

    Apple: The App Store isn't a monopoly 'by any metric'

    Apple begs to differ with my opinion.

    While the lawsuit is about the mobile app store, the same thing applies to the desktop store. Apple charges a 30% markup on software sold in their store. Often, this is more than the developer makes on the sale.

    Personally, I sell my software through Paddle. I find their fee structure to be far more realistic than Apple's. Microsoft decided to use the App store. That's their business decision.

    From a technical point of view, Microsoft can't do anything about the grant permission issue. Mac OS does not allow apps to go around and change permissions.

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