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

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.

0 comments No comments

83 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  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?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  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?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2024-08-26T16:36:20+00:00

    Do you have a solution for the latency issues for apple users with version 16.88?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments