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
    2024-08-29T09:27:44+00:00

    My uni IT dept also couldnt roll back, but somehow I managed it and then managed to turn off updates. If I were you I'd try to buy word 2021 separately and install the 16.84 version and uninstall the newer one. Even if you have to pay for it, its probably worth it to get your work done. I think Microsoft is so unethical making us all go through this stress.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-08-28T12:40:18+00:00

    I had the same problem and my IT department tried to roll back to the previous version of Word for Mac but the Microsoft Updater would keep updating it to the current version. There was no way to stop the Microsoft Updater from forcing it to the 16.88 update. To be clear, my version of Word is through my school's Microsoft Office 365 package, this is not an individual Microsoft Word subscription. Do you have any suggestions?

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-28T02:49:20+00:00

    Hi, I had the issue in May. Microsoft IT support eventually resolved it, and it has been working fine since. All software was deleted, re-installed, and updated to the version that did not have the glitch ( this version is located in the thread somewhere).

    Call or email the MS IT department and tag them in this thread. It is so frustrating. I purchased a Mac version of Word doc as a backup. All the best.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-08-28T02:13:49+00:00

    This has been going on since May. It's now late August. When exactly is Microsoft going to fix the problem? And will they be giving us a refund for the period during which their product has been unusable?

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-08-27T07:45:16+00:00

    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?

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