Forum Discussion
Word 2019 spontaneously corrupts all other open Word files
I think you may have the solution here!
When I checked, I was more than surprised to find a 32-bit version of Office on my computer.
Since I bought and installed the 64-bit version of Office 2019 about four years ago for my 64-bit computer, it has worked great. When I had a few glitches in some docs late last Fall, I ran the online repair function; I was surprised to see that the proposed fix was for MS to download a fresh copy of Office. But, at no cost, and all up-to-date, I thought it would be good. Carry on...
It seems that the download then...for which I had no choices available...was a 32-bit version. After that, all of these massive doc corruption issues started, and grew. When I used the repair tool a couple more times, a couple more 32-bit versions were automatically installed. Not imagining MS would replace 64-bit with 32-bit, I never checked.
Until last night...thanks to Doug. There it was: 32-bit.
So, when I ran the automatic repair download again last night, the same thing happened. I ran it again, still 32-bit. So, I was up half the night trying to download a 64-bit version of Office 2019. I finally got it to happen, but it wasn't easy...probably because MS wants us all to install Office 365 instead.
Anyhow: I now have my 64-bit Office Suite back. We'll see how it goes, but my feeling is that the spontaneous corruption problem will now be a thing of the past. I'll try it for a while, and will report back.
Now what needs to be repaired, it seems, is the Office repair tool itself!
No glitches, no problems, and, especially, no massive corruption!
Hoping that this continues! We can then confer "genius" status on Doug 🙂
It is under HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
See attached for a wider view.
Where else might I look?
In earlier versions of Office, there used to be an option available to the user under File>Options>Advanced to vary the setting for "hardware graphics acceleration" and changing that setting often solved issues with display corruption.
This screenshot is from Office 2010
As that option is no longer available in the User Interface, the only way that the setting can now be changed is by editing the Registry.
- Okay...thanks for tracking this down, Doug. I'm willing to try it...but, I'd like to understand what it will do and why it might help first. And, why this will help, and un-checking other boxes won't.
Could you please explain your thinking on this? I'm not doubting your expertise; but, why might doing this help, and has doing it solved similar problems for you previously?
Thanks in advance... Go to the following Registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Graphics
And select the DisableHardwareAcceleration item and then click on the Edit tab and then on Modify and change the value from 1 to 0 or vice-versa
If it doesn't help, change it back to the current setting.
- Thanks...but, there doesn't seem to be that option. If I can somehow find it, what might that do...and why? Just curious...
- While there is no longer the option in Microsoft 365, I think that in Office 2019 there is still an option (under File>Options>Advanced) to "Disabled hardware graphics acceleration" and if that is the case, you might try changing that setting.
- Thanks, Doug....so: I'm not on the cloud. I bought Office 2019 so that I would NOT be on the cloud.
Word is always open. When I close the corrupted files (without saving them, of course), and later reopen the last-saved versions, they are fine. Albeit, missing all of the work that didn't get saved before the files crashed.
So, this is all on my PC. And, never a problem with it until "Online Repair" happened about 4 months ago.
Everything is 64-bit. Are the files that you are working on located in a folder on the local drive that is NOT synchronized with OneDrive, or some other cloud location. If so, if you close Word without saving those files and then re-start it, are the files still corrupted?
Check under File>Account>About Word to make sure that you are using the 64-bit application
So, everyone, bad news: the massive corruption happened again today. As before, simultaneously to all Word files open at the time...3 this time. I had thought, now almost two weeks along, that the previous repair had worked. But, sad to say, we are back at square one for this issue.
I'm thinking that assuring a 64-bit Office with a 64-bit computer helped. Updating drivers, BIOS, scanning for malware, etc. etc. surely didn't hurt. But: none of those got to the root cause of this very nasty problem.
SO: the floor is open again to your thoughts, ideas, experiences: what can we do to cure this disaster waiting to happen.
I've attached the screen shot of a corrupted file again, to refresh your memories.
- Final update on this matter [I think] 🙂
So, I've worked on Word docs all week, many of them the same ones as before, with nary an issue. No corruption, no destruction, everything just fine, as it used to be.
Doug's simple, but Genius, solution seems to have cured this very nasty problem. Now, we'll need to find a way to stop MS from downloading the incorrect "repair" version of software the next time...
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