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
    2019-08-02T17:56:56+00:00

    James, I feel your pain. I've spent an immense amount of time trying to fix the problem, too. And for me that means a bunch of lost revenue. I wish I could send Microsoft a bill! 

    If I could just use Apple, Google and Adobe products exclusively, I would happily do so. But that's just not realistic. All of my clients use Microsoft Office, and I'd be out of business if I refused to use it too.

    The really sucky thing for me is that Office 2011 is being phased out. If Microsoft doesn't fix their problem on the new version, I'm dead in the water.

    For the Microsoft Moderator on this thread,

    • Play nice with Dropbox - I know you want to force everyone to use OneDrive, but that's completely unrealistic too, and will only create more problems for you and your users.
    • Play nice with 3rd party font management tools like Suitcase - You don't get to dictate how users manage their fonts. You provide the software that renders fonts, so make it work.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-08-06T15:07:50+00:00

    Hi Everyone,

    We understand your frustration. As we have exhausted all troubleshooting steps, if the issue persists, we suggest you send your feedback directly inside Office; this feedback will go directly to the related team so that they can take a look at the issue.

    This will also increase awareness of the impact the issue has, as a lot of people are experiencing this problem.

    We really appreciate everyone reporting the issue here, and if other community members has a suggestion, we encourage them to share it here.

    Regards,

    Sheen

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