MS Word lagging on 2020 Apple M1 MacBook Pro

Anonymous
2024-05-18T01:38:19+00:00

EDIT: I uninstalled and reinstalled Word as an older version (16.84) and Word works perfectly well.

I have an Apple MacBook Pro M1 chip from late 2020. It works perfectly well. However, Word starts lagging when I use it for a few minutes. This is not an issue with my computer – all other programmes work perfectly well while Word is lagging.

I tried uninstalling Word and reinstalling it, but this problem has persisted. I have closed all other apps bar Word, but Word still lags. I have also tried moving documents out of my OneDrive folder so they weren't being autosaved onto the cloud, but the lag persisted. Running Activity Monitor on Mac does not show excessive strain on Memory, CPU etc. from Word.

I recently installed an update, and I wonder whether this is the cause? Stumped as to how to fix this issue.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | MacOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T14:49:55+00:00

    I am still getting it - has it improve for anyone else?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T14:29:41+00:00

    I am also having the same issue and it's making MS word totally unusable. It is ONLY MS Word - nothing else and no other issues with computer performance in any other program. I've re-booted, reinstalled Word, cleaned up my disk and files, made sure that I"m only running Word and it's unusable. This is huge issue as I'm in the last couple of weeks of my degree along with full time work.

    For more clarity - I have a 2020 MacBook Air with M1 chip running macOS Sonoma Version 14.5 - word is non-functional if I type a sentence - It takes maybe 5 min to slowly do one letter at a time and then freezes. I have reinstalled Word, I have tried saving the files to my hard drive, Onedrive and apple's cloud - all to no avail. MS word version 16.85 on an MS 365 subscription

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T02:22:38+00:00

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

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-05-19T16:39:50+00:00

    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.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-05-19T13:33:32+00:00

    I have the same problem with :

    • 1 M3 MacBook Pro 2024
    • 1 M2 Mac Studio 2023

    Since 14 May update, Word becomes impossibly slow, with color wheel.

    First time ever (at least since several years) I encounter such lags.

    I'll try to revert to April 16 iteration.

    Will let you know.

    Thank you for your help

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