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
    2024-06-02T13:08:23+00:00

    Hi guy,

    i got exactly the version which was mentioned by Jim Gordon on two of my macs today by the AutoUpdater automatically installed.

    btw: Only on my MacBook Air i had problems which i do share with my wife, my MacBook pro which has ways more RAM had no problems. On the Macbook Air it got better, but not solved when i completely logged off with my account and we only used her's.

    So we hope the patch helps :)

    br Wolfgang

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-08-17T22:18:15+00:00

    I am editing a large document [458K] using Word 2021 on a 2021 Macbook Pro with an M1 chip and running Sonoma 14.6.1. The deeper I got into the document, the slower things became, until I could not select a single word without getting the spinning beachball, I could not scroll, I could not select lines or blocks of text, could not move text, and in short the whole thing failed utterly.

    I understand from a colleague at Intel that the large file fails because I am exceeding the capacity of the emulator in the M1 chip to translate the Intel-based commands. This should NOT be a problem three years after the release of that chip and this version of Office! I am FURIOUS.

    I am using a single-payment version of Office 2021 rather than a subscription. I went to the MS site to learn more about the subscription and discovered under the Requirements tab that I need the Intel processor. This information appears nowhere on the amazon description of the product -- if it had, I would never have purchased it because Office 2019 was working fine on my machine. I was updating because I thought it would be a good idea, but it has been a total trainwreck.

    I asked the support people if I could uninstall Office 2021 and reinstall the 2019 version and they agreed this would work.

    I cannot do this because when I try to download the Office 2019 from my account window the Microsoft site automatically sends me the Office 2021 version instead -- I tried this four times, all the same. It refuses to let me get my Office 2019 back and I am frantic. I'm a teacher, I must be able to work on large Word files. There is no access to Microsoft support on the download page.

    How can I get my Office 2019 back if the Microsoft site refuses to download it?????

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-17T22:53:55+00:00

    The very first post in this discussion has a link to older versions and direction regarding which one you should use and how to download that version. I followed those instructions and I have been fine ever since. Two caveats. One, delete your current Word. Then download the version listed. Second, turn off you autoupdate. That is what I did and have been good ever since. I am using version: Version 16.84 of Word.

    Here is the link to older versions: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-08-17T23:36:40+00:00

    Thank you so much!

    I was able to download the earlier version and everything appears to be working well. I am so relieved I'm in tears. I have lost so much time to this disaster. Now I can finish my work and get it back to my student.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-08-18T21:04:15+00:00

    I have a 2024 macbook air with the M3 chip and noticed this lagging issue a week or so ago as well. I also use Microsoft 365. If anyone has a solution please let me know. Is this because of an apple update or a microsoft update?

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