Forum Discussion
Office 365 apps are closing randomly on MacOS
Hi,
is anyone currently experiencing issues with all MS Office 365 apps (Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Word) in the way that they close all at once, randomly, and you are probably losing work due to the unexpected shutdown.
I got a new MacBook Pro with M3 Max with Sonoma 14.5 recently, and after using it for a few hours, it seems that sporadically, all O365 apps mentioned above that are open at the moment are closing all at once, randomly, without any error message, without any prior notice or any user interaction. ALL other applications except Office are working fine, also OneDrive and MS Teams stay open without any issues. After using the MacBook for a few days, it seems that it's maybe more likely to happen when the Mac is going to standby / lid closed and is woken up afterwards?
Steps I already tried without any change of the behavior, each also including a complete reboot of the machine, in the following order.
- Updating Office with the MS AutoUpdater application
- Simple uninstall of MS Office applications
- Reinstallation by using a clean new O365 download
- Manual uninstallation using https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3
- Clean reinstallation after complete manual uninstallation
- After uninstalling again, I tried to install it manually with deselection of the MS Defender which is included in the O365 installer package (Defender is already installed by default on the Mac).
- Renaming the MacBooks hostname from XXX-MBP-ABC123DEF to XXXMBPABC123DEF and renaming the SSD name from Macintosh HD to MacintoshHD.
- Complete wipe of the MacBook with my IT department and reinstall / setup of the machine, followed by starting auto updater and updating everything to the latest version.
None of these steps is working, and Office keeps shutting down / crashing without any prior notice at random times, most likely after a sleep. It is enough to just open up some office applications and leave the Mac alone, after return you will find the Mac with all office applications closed (except Teams and Onedrive as mentioned above).
Furthermore, I already set the network availability during sleep within my energy saving settings:
- Wake for network access from "Only on Power adapter" to "Always"
Does anyone have any further ideas for analysis or a solution?
On my private MBP with M1 Pro and Sonoma 14.5 there are no issues at all.
Thank you!!!
Michael1240, the fix is done by there side on the back end of Intune since it is Intune that is causing the issue with the Microsoft 365 apps for MacOS package. I changed my assignment on that from Required to Available for Enrolled Devices and it stopped everything from crashing. I will put it back once it is confirmed it is resolved. Now in my portal it is showing my machine, another machine I enrolled, and 2 other machines that are showing pending Install status and it was not like that yesterday afternoon when I made the change. They were all showing as installed. I hope they fix this, but it won't be done until 2PM EST today. Fingers are crossed
- Hi all,
Here is a small update regarding my testing about reverting Office Suite to a previous version for one of our MAC OS users.
Yesterday I reverted the user's office Suite from version 16.86 (24060916) to May update version 16.85 (24051214)
( and disabled MAU, Microsoft auto update )
Before this revert was done our user experienced a random shutdown of the office apps.
But now with an older version our user has been able to work for about 6 hours without any random shutdowns.
I will keep monitoring it and keep updating Microsoft in my support ticket.
FYI:
MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
OS build : 14.5 ( Sonoma )Jquality This is at least some good news for a workaround, please keep on with your reports.
Did you uninstall the newest office version by simply moving the applications to trash or did you do some extended uninstall & cleanup routine?
I have been trying using Rosetta and this won't help at all. At first glance it seemed to be stable when I used it for an hour or so, but then yesterday evening I experienced a shutdown again.
Michael1240
I did a clean uninstall by simply moving the apps to the trash bin and then installing an earlier version of Office Suite.
If you're going to downgrade to an earlier version keep in mind to disable MAU ( Microsoft Auto Update ) immediately when you have re-installed the apps.
But yeah, not 100% sure that the downgrade works or not but so far so good.
- Hello,
Apparently I found out, due to previous Microsoft documentation, that Microsoft Office pack 16.86 is not at fault here. The fault is Microsoft Intune deployment system which is super buggy. If you deploy either a stand alone MS application package, or "Microsoft 365 Apps for macOS" and set the user groups or devices to required, it will keep reinstalling these apps because it can not get the OK status from the system. To avoid this, remove these groups from the installation package, bulk sync the Macs and then restart them, the problem should disappear. It worked for me, hopefully it will work for you as well!
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/mem/intune/app-management/no-notification-microsoft365-apps-macos-reinstallAJMACagrrrrrrrrrrr I HATE Intune so much!! It's so buggy. I have exactly the same issue. And indeed, in Intune, we see an "Install Pending" status.
Both are Microsoft products—how hard is it to fix this problem!? It looks like this has been a known issue since May 2023. It's strange that I started seeing this problem only a few days ago, never before, to be honest.
- Trust me, I feel you and s much as I would like to make the enrollment experience fully automated, I guess we will just have to stick with uploading the office pack to company portal and make it a self service option.
AJMACHonestly, I do not think that this is the solution here, as there are a) multiple people / organisations with the problem and systems showing "OK" status in intune, and b) the problem description in your link states that office apps are closing and automatically restarting, which is not the case here. Plus, c) the app installation date is not updating opposing to what the source of your link says.
My MS applications status of today - they have not been updated/installed but still I experience unexpected shutdowns (less than before since I started using Outlook and OneNote web apps via browser), but still had a crash of PowerPoint & Excel this morning.
- So it's an Intune issue? If I remove Intune, nothing will work, right?
By the way, just to follow-up from yesterday, I tried using the Outlook Web App and the Excel, PowerPoint, Word applications and everything still closed...
Michael1240 Microsoft will roll out a fix tomorrow via Intune.
Michael1240 am watching this as we are experiencing exactly the same on a new Mac. We are going to open a support ticket with MS.
If your Office 365 apps are closing randomly on macOS, it can be frustrating and disruptive. Here are some steps to troubleshoot and resolve the issue:
Troubleshooting Steps
Update Office 365 Apps
- Open any Office 365 app (e.g., Word, Excel).
- Go to Help > Check for Updates and install any available updates.
- Alternatively, you can use the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool to keep your Office apps updated.
Update macOS
- Ensure your macOS is up to date. Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Software Update and install any available updates.
Restart Your Mac
- Sometimes a simple restart can resolve temporary issues. Restart your Mac and check if the problem persists.
Reset Office Apps Preferences
- Close all Office apps.
- Open Finder and navigate to ~/Library/Preferences/.
- Look for files named com.microsoft.Office.plist or similar (there may be several, one for each app) and move them to the Trash. This will reset the app preferences.
Check for Conflicting Software
- Some third-party applications or extensions may conflict with Office apps. Try disabling or uninstalling any recently added software or extensions to see if the issue resolves.
Run the Microsoft Office Repair Tool
- Open the Applications folder and find your Office 365 app (e.g., Word).
- Hold down the Option key and click on the app. Select Run Diagnostics and follow the prompts to repair the app.
Reinstall Office 365 Apps
- Uninstall the Office 365 apps by dragging them to the Trash.
- Empty the Trash and restart your Mac.
- Reinstall the Office 365 apps from the Microsoft Office website.
Check for Disk Errors
- Open the Disk Utility app (found in Applications > Utilities).
- Select your startup disk and click on First Aid to check and repair any disk errors.
Contact Microsoft Support
- If the issue persists, contact Microsoft Support for further assistance. They may have additional troubleshooting steps or be aware of specific issues affecting Office 365 on macOS.
By following these steps, you should be able to identify and resolve the issue of Office 365 apps closing randomly on macOS.
- Copying and pasting a response from an AI search is not helpful. If you read the entire post you will see that the device has had a complete wipe and build. Our device the same.
Michael1240
Copy the exact same "experience"!
No crash log is generated. Apps close at the same time (had Excel and OneNote close at the same time). Teams stays open...Besides randomly closing the apps are also lagging from time to time. No scrolling or data entry possible for like 20s, then jumps back to life, catches up with all the interaction and sometimes freezes again...
- Does anyone else run the Zoom app and plugin for outlook?
- In terms of plugins I can say that we don’t have any except Teams plugin and I have a license of Copilot.
- PSH, are you running an M3 chip?
We are running M3 chip and Sonoma 14.5 and are experiencing the same thing
- Would also be interesting what the common factors are.
MBP 2023
M3 Max
Sonoma 14.5
FileVault Encryption enforced by policy?
MS Defender enforced by policy?
I will urge our IT dept to also open a support ticket at Microsoft as I am finished with trying things without proper error logging available.- MBP 2024
M3 Pro
Sonoma 14.5
No MS Defender - SentinelOne - Exact same here...
As we had two machines next to each other we noticed that on one machine Excel closed while on the other Teams wanted to sign in...
This happened twice and I don't know, if this is related to our problem...
Michael1240 Same issue here.
MBP 2024 M3 Max
48 GB Memory
Watchguard Pro Virus/Threats
This machine was given to me new as I started a new position in mid-May. Has been consistent since I got it.
- Same issue here with a couple new devices. All are MacBook Air (15-inch, M3, 2024). Reinstalls of just the apps and the OS have been done and still the problem persists.
We are experiencing the same issue with two MacBook Air 2019 running latest Sonoma update ( was also crashing running the latest Ventura OS for one of the users before he updated to Sonoma.)
So no this is not only affecting newer Mac models.
For us this issue started maybe mid last week.
I tought we we're alone on having this weird issue, since there wasen't really any forums posts or know issues adressed until i found this post.
