Word is slow to respond version 16.85 in unknown version of Mac OS

Anonymous
2024-05-17T19:39:47+00:00

Split from this thread.

Exactly the same problem here:

  1. Problem appears after update to Version 16.85 (24051214) Microsoft® Word for Mac
  2. Problem is linked to spellchecker: any use of it triggers this complete freeze. Note that spellchecker can very easily be triggered incidentally, as shown in image above from Charles M1: The spelling popup balloon already crashes Word.
  3. The only way to stop the programme is through a Force Quit. Microsoft Word gets completely stuck, as described previously. To great despair, restarting Word does not trigger the usual Recovery and everything is lost. I could not locate any recovery file.
  4. It has nothing to do with OneDrive: the Word document was not located on OneDrive nor being synced through OneDrive. Completely shutting down OneDrive does not resolve the issue, it still happens..

So the problem seems to be directly caused by some change in the spelling module in the latest Word version for Mac.

Sincerely, Stan

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | MacOS

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author
Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2024-06-11T19:54:41+00:00

After the issue was reported in the forums, Microsoft recognized that this was a bug in Office for Mac. See the reply by Jim Gordon on the first page of the long thread at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/word-is-lagging-on-my-mac/a520fea1-564f-4118-b73b-ada1d8a0e9ef.

As far as I know, nobody has suggested that Apple was to blame for this.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-06-10T20:20:26+00:00

    Yes, it's been fixed with at least one update since. Go to HELP in the Menu and select Check for update. You need to restart Word after the update. Have a great evening.

    --john--

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-27T10:34:28+00:00

    Hi there- where are you seeing this? The Microsoft release page doesn't have this? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-21T21:58:19+00:00

    Lisa - All the best - that worked for a while for me and then the problems started up again. I'm beginning to think the problem is a double whammy. Do you have Sonoma 14.5 upgrade? I think the 16.85 and the 14.5 are not compatible. I hope it works for you. Maybe I'm the only one.....

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-05-21T21:08:14+00:00

    Hi,

    I fixed it by uninstalling word and installing an earlier version then turning off automatic updates!

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