Random people showing up in Track Changes??

Hi Brian,

I am sorry that Microsoft ghosted you. It's probably my fault for telling thousands of people to report this issue. You were the first one to bring this issue up 14 days ago. As replies to your question evolved it became apparent that this is a widespread problem affecting thousands. You initially did receive a response from Microsoft, but I am sure based on the number of views of your question that the person who gets the reports submitted by users was overwhelmed; swamped by the number of responses. While I can't speak for that person, I do have a little sympathy for the sudden, unexpected surge and increase in their workload.

That's actually a very good thing. Each report provides data that Microsoft uses to track (pun intended) problems and pin down their cause. From these reports they can look at what factors are in common. For example, does it affect only users with M1 Macs? Certain hardware only? Things like that. Having a lot of reports gives them a better picture of who is affected and why, which results in a faster turn-around time for bug fixing.

You asked your question here in the forum in a very helpful way. You started the ball rolling and in the process have helped thousands of other users. You have my personal thank-you for providing excellent replies and helping me to recognize that this is problem a big deal.

I have no doubt that with all of the feedback provided from users that by now Microsoft is fully aware of the problem and is working on a fix.

Now the question of timing comes up. Microsoft releases monthly updates to Microsoft Office during the 2nd week of each month. That was last week. Any fix will have to be tested before it is released. While it's possible a fix could come out next month, more likely it will be at least another month before a fix is fully vetted. That's why I suggested restoring the previous build of Microsoft Word.app using Time Machine so people can use Word in the meanwhile.

For brave souls, Microsoft offers users the opportunity to use beta channel builds. I would advise only computer savvy people consider running beta channel builds because they contain bug fixes, new bugs, and new features without any notification. It's always a surprise. Sometimes fun when you get to use a new feature. Sometimes a bummer when you notice a new bug. Microsoft wants to hear from beta channel users about everything both good and bad using the Help menu Feedback options.

The fact that the TracK Changes problem reached the general release build tells me that there are not enough Mac users testing the beta channel builds. This is the kind of problem that could have been reported and caught before being released to everyone. If you are computer savvy and are willing to report your experiences with beta builds to Microsoft, I urge you to sign up for the beta program. Beta channel builds are weekly, so turn-around time between initial trouble report and resolution is much faster than with current channel builds.

Welcome to the Office Insider for Mac community!

This has also started happening at our Org. I opened a support ticket and submitted feedback via Word. It triggered a mini panic as the random usernames were showing up inside internal private documentation. Seeing this thread calmed the situation down some, but hopefully we get an official acknowledgement.

Unless there's already a bug tracking thread posted somewhere that can be followed?

All,

The file in SharePoint/OneDrive does not show any changes to version history.

One person opens the file in their local Office client and experiences the problem.

Other people opening the same file in their local Office client, do "not" experience the problem.

I would therefore conclude that the problem is related to the local Office client and "not" SharePoint or OneDrive.

Can we confirm that this is a bug in Office and not a security concern for SharePoint or OneDrive?

In our instance multiple people were seeing the same issue, whether using MAC or Windows.

We have had occurrences of this issue in the last couple of weeks and it has been very frustrating to not know why its happening. Its causing much distress from users who think there has been a data breach and a significant amount of work on the IT support side to query audit and security logs to prove there hasn't been a breach. If there is a big fix reference that we can relay to our Information Security team that would be great.