Cannot edit Word documents in Teams

Anonymous
2020-03-24T22:23:58+00:00

I've lost the ability to edit Word documents in Teams.  Is there anything I can do to fix that?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2020-03-27T03:14:33+00:00

Hi All

Thanks for all the feedback here.

We would like to inform that this change is just a temporary adjustment due to the COVIN-19.

You can get more information or keep track of this change in the message center:

To open the Message center, first, make sure that you have selected the Try the new admin center toggle on the admin center Home page, and then go to Health > Message center to check the post (MC 207443).

We will continue to monitor our Microsoft 365 services on an ongoing basis and share any further updates here.

Meanwhile, only the Office 365 Education license is affected by this change, if you are working with a different license but still have the same issue, or there is any other issue when using Teams or edit document online due to this change, we suggest you post a new thread on our community and we will keep working for you.

We highly appreciate your understanding. Please do take care during this specific period.

Best Regards

Higgins

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-03-26T14:24:21+00:00

    Thank you to this thread I found the answer I needed. This appears to be limited to Word documents in Teams and also seems to be temporary due to the massive load that has been put on the Teams/O365 server infrastructure.

    I am somewhat angry at the users in this thread that are referring to Teams as useless because of this, or Teams sucking. Working in a browser still allows for collaboration, and if this is the case of students working on their individual copy and turning in homework they shouldn't be collaborating anyway.

    Is this inconvenient? yes. Are we in the middle of a global pandemic? Yes. Make some sacrifices and stop blaming others for work you won't do. Here's an opportunity to brush up on your communication skills and communicate to your users and then stop and listen to their concerns and issues. If you are an IT admin, that is, in fact, your job.

    If you added useful information to this thread, please excuse this response, thank you very much.

    If you **** about this problem and didn't provide an answer, then you're PART of the problem, and right now, we need SOLUTIONS, so get over yourself and help people.

    Sam Misemer

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  2. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-03-25T13:34:33+00:00

    In Teams, Word documents now seem to open in a view mode. If I click the three dots and choose to open in browser, then editing will be enabled.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-03-25T11:03:56+00:00

    Excel an PowerPoint is OK. Its only Word documents. You can edit in dekstop app or web app but Teams client will not let you edit it. Teams in browser is OK. This issue is also reported thru the Office 365 admin by our organisation.

    /glenn

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-03-26T07:59:37+00:00

    Hi All,

    Sorry for the convenience caused by this change.

    To best support our Microsoft 365 Education customers worldwide and accommodate new growth and demand during these unprecedented times, we are making a temporary adjustment to Word document behavior within Microsoft Teams for students and teachers.

    As an Office 365 education user, when you try to open Word document in Teams, the default mode will switch to a read-only view instead. To edit the document, users need to click on the options in the top right of the white bar above the document content and select "Open in Browser" or (for users with Office for Windows installed on their device) "Open in Desktop App". This will open the document in Office in a separate window from Teams and allow the user to make changes.

    We truly hope that we can notify you proactively so that you can continue to understand how to edit your Word documents in Microsoft Teams without interruption.

    We hope that the information above will be helpful to you.

    Thanks for your support and cooperation.

    Best Regards,

    Higgins

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