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
    2019-07-10T03:55:07+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

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    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-15T02:51:33+00:00

    Dear Pierre,

    I read the thread from May, and I tried a number of the proposed solutions offered by others, but the fastest and most reliable way for me to solve the problem was to follow your suggestion which I quote:

    "(T)he only solution that works for sure for me, whenever Word starts acting up, is to quit and relaunch it.  It's a horrible kludge (especially since Word fails to reopen document windows automatically), but I don't see any other solution that works."

    Quitting Word and relaunching is what consistently works for me.  It is a hassle to be required to do repeatedly, but it works!

    Thank you for having taken the time to explain the problem and to have provided such a practical solution.

    Kindest regards,

    Ron

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-15T04:54:08+00:00

    A lot of people use programs/apps to be productive. Having to close all the documents and restart a program is not a solution. It's like having your car randomly die while you're driving around. No problem, I'll just restart it! Where do we go to get our money back?

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-07-17T16:47:38+00:00

    I was fully updated on Office 365 and OS, but now there appears to be an update available for Word. However, when I attempt to update to 16.27 I get a warning prompt that "An update is currently being installed." and it prevents me from installing the 16.27 file. I have rebooted the app and my computer multiple times. Sometimes it ends the file permission nonsense and sometimes it does not, but it continues to come back as an issue. It will not allow me to save any new documents, open previous documents, or save and rename previous documents that were already open. I am not using 3rd party fonts either. Considering my work depends on being able to use Office, I hope you get this **** figured out and fast!!

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