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
    2024-05-21T21:58:19+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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  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-26T10:39:17+00:00

    Hi Charles M1

    We are having the same issues in Denmark. Will the old Word files be saved (they are saved on the computer not in onedrive) if we delete Word 16.85 and reinstall Word 16.84?

    Thanks in advance.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-26T11:42:01+00:00

    Hello from Canada,

    So far I have uninstalled Word and reinstalled the older versions at least 5-6 times and so far I have not lost anything. But, also I took the precaution of backing up all my documents on an exterior hard drive, or maybe back them up on iCloud.

    I hope you are managing to maintain your sanity. This is extremely frustrating and due to the lack of resolving this issue quickly, I wonder just how much they care about the consumer who is paying for all this. Ok, sorry, had to get that off my chest. I do hope they get together and resolve this, I am getting to the point where, "Is Word, worth it?"

    All the best and good luck!

    C

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-05-26T15:56:43+00:00

    Thanks Charles, I’ll try - and hope it’s worth it ;)

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