MS Word lagging on 2020 Apple M1 MacBook Pro

Please note this thread is being closed.

I can see that many people are affected, but this thread now covers many different configurations of processors, operating systems, and versions of Microsoft Word. It's not likely (but is remotely possible) all these different software and hardware combinations have the same root cause. If you have gotten this far in the thread, you probably can see various solutions offered with varying degrees of success.

If Word is running sluggish for you, please start a new question so that your specific situation can be addressed.

Please be sure to include the following information in your question:

• The version of Word you are having trouble with. Use the Menu Bar and choose Word > About Microsoft Word to display your version.
• Did the problem begin immediately after installing a specific update of Office or Mac OS?
• The version of Mac OS you are running and the processor (Intel, M1, M2, etc). Click the Apple in the upper left corner and choose About This Mac to display your version.
• Is the problem with all documents or a specific document?
• Where is the document stored (startup volume, network drive, flash drive, Box, iCloud, OneDrive, Sharepoint, etc)?
• Is the problem related to a specific feature of Word that you used?
• Do you run any "helper" applications such as additional spelling and grammar checking, malware protection, bibliography add-ins or other add-ins?.
• Is the problem file stored locally or elsewhere?
• Have you changed the default location of your AutoRecovery file to a network or location other than your startup volume?
• If the problem is with a specific document, can you identify what changed just before the slowdown started?
• Can you provide a sample file? Why a sample file is important for troubleshooting - - - - - - - and how to do it.

Now, here are some tips to follow that might fix your issue:

If you use Track Changes, please click here for specific advice.

The Compress Pictures dialog box lets you choose the degree of compression you want and which pictures to compress.

1. Select the picture you want to compress.
2. On the ribbon, select Picture Format.
3. Click the Compress Pictures button
4. Select an option in the Picture Quality box. The highest resolution is listed first, and the lowest resolution is listed last.
5. If you have cropped any pictures, you can reduce the file size even more by selecting the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box.
6. Click Selected pictures only or All pictures in this file. Compression will be applied to all pictures in your document.

Switch to Draft view.

Use Styles instead of direct formatting.

Again, if these tips don't solve your problem, please accept this invitation to post a question specific to your situation so it can be addressed. Please, post a brand new question if your setup does not exactly match the setup someone else has posted about. If you post a "me too" response and your setup is different, your reply may have to be split off as a new question which is a burden for the moderators.

Hi, good you've been able to downgrade, but rubbish its still so slow. Did you uninstall the newer version of word?

I used CleanmyMac to do a clean out at the same time.

This seems to be happening to everyone who updated word in May and who works on a Mac. I had this, it was a nightmare. I uninstalled the updated version of word and went back to 16.84 and switched off auto updates and this worked. I know others have tried and cannot get the older version, but I think it can be bought online (the 2021 microsoft office package).

I'm going to keep this system until I submit. my thesis or until Microsoft use some of their billions to actually provide a service to their customers and fix the bug in the updated 16.84 versions.

I hope that helps, others in this forum might know more or have more updated info, or someone from Microsoft might actually post something helpful on this to let us all know whats going on internally to solve this issue for Mac users?

I updated to mac os sonoma 14.5. It did not resolve the issue.

My MS Word Version 16.85 (24051214).

I hope not to have to take the time to roll back.

It does not seem to matter if the doc is on the Apple cloud or on my desktop.