Uploading Word Doc to Sway isn't working

Question

Uploading Word Doc to Sway isn't working

Gillespie, John (gillesjj) 100

Hello.

I am trying to upload a word doc into Sway, but it never gets past the Just a moment, we're creating a Sway. I've done all the troubleshooting steps I've found on other forms. I even let the document try to upload over night, and all I received was a message saying I should try refreshing, or that Sway might have been updated recently. My internet connection is stable, my sway document isn't complicated and doesn't contain links or anything like that, and I've cleared my cache and history, along with trying other browsers. Any help is appreciated.

Simon Cook 5 Reputation points

2025-12-18T14:54:44.4066667+00:00

We're getting exactly the same "Just a moment...". This is with .docx and .pdf files which have always worked in the past. It will upload a .png image but converting multiple paged, multiple documents is not viable.
Anonymous

2025-12-19T14:23:13.69+00:00
Dear @Simon Cook,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I understand that several users are experiencing the same issue, and I appreciate your patience while this is being investigated.

To ensure that Microsoft can accurately assess the scope of the problem and determine whether it constitutes a service incident, I kindly request that you take the following steps:

Click the “I have the same question” button on this thread. This helps indicate that the issue is affecting multiple users and organizations.

Report the issue through your Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard in the Admin Center. Submitting a report provides Microsoft with diagnostic information and allows them to track the impact across tenants. For detailed instructions, kindly follow the steps outlined in this article Report an issue in Azure Service Health - Azure Service Health | Microsoft Learn (Please reach out to your IT Admin for support if you're an end-user)

Your participation is essential for Microsoft to prioritize and resolve this matter promptly. I truly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your cooperation in escalating the issue.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Anonymous

2025-12-22T17:58:19.31+00:00

I am also having this issue! I am trying to convert a pptx to a sway and it doesn't work on any platform. This is most frustrating!
otis miller 5 Reputation points

2025-12-22T20:49:07.5533333+00:00

I am having the same issue
otis miller 5 Reputation points

2025-12-22T20:53:28.9366667+00:00
using chrome ,edge browsers.)

Is this happening for all Word documents (YES) Can you upload any other .docx file successfully? (NO)

Have you been able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past? (YES)
Lenders Juliette (100) 0 Reputation points

2025-12-23T08:48:10.61+00:00

I am also having the same issue. Trying to create a sway from a word document
Lenders Juliette (100) 0 Reputation points

2025-12-23T08:49:24.6033333+00:00
using edge browser

happening for all Word documents --> yes

upload any other .docx file successfully --> no

able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past --> yes
Anonymous

2025-12-23T10:37:38.2466667+00:00
Dear @Maneri, Kassie, @otis miller, @Lenders Juliette (100),

Thank you for reporting this. I understand that others are also experiencing this issue, and I truly appreciate your patience as we look into it.

To help Microsoft fully investigate and determine whether this is a wider service incident, could you please:

Click “I have the same question” on the post to show that the problem affects more than one user.

Report the issue through the Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard in your Admin Center. This sends helpful diagnostic information to Microsoft. Full instructions can be found in the Microsoft Learn article Report an issue in Azure Service Health. (If you're not an admin, your IT team can help with this.)

Your participation plays a key role in resolving this quickly.

Thank you again for your understanding and patience.
Jo Lochy 0 Reputation points

2026-01-08T10:51:53.28+00:00
I have the same issue, also for pdf documents.

using Chrome, Edge browsers

Is this happening for all Word documents (YES) Can you upload any other .docx file successfully? (NO)

Have you been able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past? (NEVER TRIED IT)
Anonymous

2026-01-08T11:39:43.37+00:00

Dear @Jo Lochy, Thank you for your information.

Since this issue is similar to the one that many users are experiencing, please refer to my response above about this matter.

Thank you for your time and patience.

2 answers

Your answer

Simon Cook 5 Reputation points

2025-12-18T14:54:44.4066667+00:00

We're getting exactly the same "Just a moment...". This is with .docx and .pdf files which have always worked in the past. It will upload a .png image but converting multiple paged, multiple documents is not viable.
Anonymous

2025-12-19T14:23:13.69+00:00

Dear @Simon Cook,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I understand that several users are experiencing the same issue, and I appreciate your patience while this is being investigated.

To ensure that Microsoft can accurately assess the scope of the problem and determine whether it constitutes a service incident, I kindly request that you take the following steps:

Click the “I have the same question” button on this thread. This helps indicate that the issue is affecting multiple users and organizations.

Report the issue through your Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard in the Admin Center. Submitting a report provides Microsoft with diagnostic information and allows them to track the impact across tenants. For detailed instructions, kindly follow the steps outlined in this article Report an issue in Azure Service Health - Azure Service Health | Microsoft Learn (Please reach out to your IT Admin for support if you're an end-user)

Your participation is essential for Microsoft to prioritize and resolve this matter promptly. I truly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your cooperation in escalating the issue.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Anonymous

2025-12-22T17:58:19.31+00:00

I am also having this issue! I am trying to convert a pptx to a sway and it doesn't work on any platform. This is most frustrating!
otis miller 5 Reputation points

2025-12-22T20:49:07.5533333+00:00

I am having the same issue
otis miller 5 Reputation points

2025-12-22T20:53:28.9366667+00:00

using chrome ,edge browsers.)

Is this happening for all Word documents (YES) Can you upload any other .docx file successfully? (NO)

Have you been able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past? (YES)
Lenders Juliette (100) 0 Reputation points

2025-12-23T08:48:10.61+00:00

I am also having the same issue. Trying to create a sway from a word document
Lenders Juliette (100) 0 Reputation points

2025-12-23T08:49:24.6033333+00:00

using edge browser

happening for all Word documents --> yes

upload any other .docx file successfully --> no

able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past --> yes
Anonymous

2025-12-23T10:37:38.2466667+00:00

Dear @Maneri, Kassie, @otis miller, @Lenders Juliette (100),

Thank you for reporting this. I understand that others are also experiencing this issue, and I truly appreciate your patience as we look into it.

To help Microsoft fully investigate and determine whether this is a wider service incident, could you please:

Click “I have the same question” on the post to show that the problem affects more than one user.

Report the issue through the Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard in your Admin Center. This sends helpful diagnostic information to Microsoft. Full instructions can be found in the Microsoft Learn article Report an issue in Azure Service Health. (If you're not an admin, your IT team can help with this.)

Your participation plays a key role in resolving this quickly.

Thank you again for your understanding and patience.
Jo Lochy 0 Reputation points

2026-01-08T10:51:53.28+00:00

I have the same issue, also for pdf documents.

using Chrome, Edge browsers

Is this happening for all Word documents (YES) Can you upload any other .docx file successfully? (NO)

Have you been able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past? (NEVER TRIED IT)
Anonymous

2026-01-08T11:39:43.37+00:00

Dear @Jo Lochy, Thank you for your information.

Since this issue is similar to the one that many users are experiencing, please refer to my response above about this matter.

Thank you for your time and patience.

Answer 1

Anonymous

Dear @Gillespie, John (gillesjj),

Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

Based on your description, I understand that you're experiencing an issue where uploading a Word document to Sway gets stuck on the ‘Just a moment, we're creating a Sway’ screen, even after trying multiple troubleshooting steps.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by this issue. Thank you for taking the time and effort to do the troubleshooting steps.

To understand the situation better and provide you with the most suitable support, could you confirm the following information:

How are you accessing Sway? (For example: Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari, or another browser.)
Is this happening for all Word documents or just this specific one? Can you upload any other .docx file successfully?
Have you been able to upload a Word document to Sway successfully in the past?
Are others in your organization experiencing the same issue with Sway?

Your confirmation would be very helpful in ensuring you receive the most suitable support!

If many people in your institution/organization are experiencing the same issue, I strongly recommend you reaching out to your IT Admin to report this issue on Microsoft 365 Service Health so that the product team is aware of this and work on a fix in future updates.

User's image

Your IT Admin could also raise a support ticket to help this get investigated further.

For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.

Kindly let me know if this issue is affecting many people. Any updates you’re able to share would be really helpful. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing how things are going!

Thank you for your time and patience.

If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Gillespie, John (gillesjj) 100 Reputation points

2025-12-18T15:34:43.92+00:00

Hi Julie, thanks for the response!

I am accessing Sway through Chrome, but I have also tried Edge and Firefox and I am having the same issue.

It happens with every word doc I have tried to upload.

Two weeks ago myself and a few other users were able to upload word docs without issue. We even tried loading those docs again to see if it was a problem with our current word docs, but those docs also had the same issue.

Myself and another user are experiencing the same issue. But this is only within our department. We are at a university, so its possible others are having the issue but we can't be sure.
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Anonymous

2025-12-19T14:20:00.78+00:00

Dear @Gillespie, John (gillesjj),

Thank you for your detailed answer. I really appreciate the time you've taken to try multiple browsers, test different Word documents, and confirm whether others are affected. Your thoroughness is incredibly helpful.

Since this issue is happening across multiple users in your department and affects documents that previously worked and I have seen some users other than within your organization experiencing the same issue that you described, it’s possible that this may be related to a backend service issue rather than something on your side.

At this point, the best next step would be to have your university’s Microsoft 365 Admin open a support ticket directly with Microsoft. This will allow the engineering team to review the behavior in your tenant, check whether there are any service-side issues affecting Sway, and provide targeted troubleshooting or a fix if needed.

Your IT Admin can do this by going to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support and raise support ticket at: https://admin.microsoft.com/#/support/requests

For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.

Once the ticket is opened, the support team will be able to perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.

Please feel free to keep me updated with anything you hear from the IT Admin.

I’m more than happy to continue supporting you through this. And thank you again for your patience while we work toward a resolution.
Gillespie, John (gillesjj) 100 Reputation points

2025-12-22T20:57:24.88+00:00

Julie,

I went a head and had our admin team open a ticket since we seem to have gone through all the troubleshooting steps. Thanks.
Anonymous

2025-12-23T10:31:44.7333333+00:00

Dear @Gillespie, John (gillesjj),

Thank you so much for your update.

I'm also actively monitoring to see if this issue has been shown on Microsoft 365 Service Health but it hasn't.

Therefore, kindly request your Admin to also Report this issue on Service Health would also be a great way to get this noticed and worked on faster.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding while we work on this! I really appreciate it!

If there are any updates or if you still need assistance, I’m more than happy to help.

Looking forward to hearing how things are progressing whenever you have a chance!
Anonymous

2025-12-24T14:46:33.88+00:00

Dear @Gillespie, John (gillesjj),

Good day! I hope everything is going well on your end.

It’s been a little while, so I just wanted to follow up and see how things are progressing with your concern. If you've run into any challenges or if there's anything further that I can help with, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Any updates you’re able to share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your time and attention! I look forward to hearing from you.
Anonymous

2025-12-26T14:27:27.51+00:00

Dear @Gillespie, John (gillesjj),

It has been some time since we last engaged on this matter. I hope things are going well on your end.

As there hasn’t been any recent activity, I’ll move on to other posts for now. That said, if you’re still facing issues or have new questions, please don’t hesitate to tag me in a comment, I’ll be happy to help further.

Thank you very much for your understanding and kindness!
Anonymous

2026-01-08T21:35:19.18+00:00

I have tried reporting this internally via our helpdesk at Providence Healthcare Systems but they were not helpful and they closed the ticket and seem to be unwilling to work with me. They believe that I am trying to upload too large a document.

I have also tried this on my home computer and am certain that it is a problem with Sway and not an internal problem in our work environment.

I have tried using the Google Chrome browser - it still doesn't work. I have tried PPTX, word, PDF documents. The import feature is broken.

Please test it on your end and you will see what we are talking about.

Thank you.
Anonymous

2026-01-09T10:53:20.17+00:00

Dear @Maneri, Kassie,

Thank you for letting me know. I completely understand how frustrating this situation must be for you. As mentioned in my earlier response, the recommended step is to report the issue through the Service Health dashboard via your IT Admin, as this ensures it reaches the right team for investigation.

I’ve also tested this on my side and experienced the same behavior, which confirms the issue is not isolated.

Since I’m a forum moderator, I don’t have access to backend systems to perform deeper troubleshooting or reopen tickets.

The IT team typically handles these escalations, so I’d encourage continuing to work with them or reopening the ticket with detailed findings.

Thank you very much for your understanding and kindness!

Answer 2

Phil Hemstock 5

Having the same problem here, worked fine last week. No can't upload any Word or PDF file, even ones that previously were fine. Tried using the Transform feature of Word to export to a Sway web page, no joy.

I'm reported it via the 365 admin centre but, seeing the number of comments here, I'm guessing it's a universal issue.

Anonymous

2026-01-08T12:46:52.92+00:00

Dear @Phil Hemstock, Thank you for your information and for reporting it via Admin Center.

Many users are experiencing this issue and are encouraged to report this so that the product team is aware of the matter and work on a fix.

Thank you for your time and patience while we look further into this.