Excel/Word crashing when co authoring

Copper Contributor

Has anyone had any issues when co authoring in either excel or word? Both programs crash unexpectedly, but with no warning or error message. Nothing shows in the event logs as to what happened. This only happens when co authoring, and only one user is removed from the doc, when they are removed, they still appear to be in the document to the other users in the doc at that time. Reopening the doc picks up where they left off, but its massively affecting production!

 

I currently have a ticket open with 365 support (Ticket #:12768014) but we dont seem to be getting anywhere at the moment. 

Thanks in advance, Gary.

42 Replies

@gbrown481 I'd bet they just aren't reporting it anymore. 

 

Our clients are still having the issue and we have an open ticket with Microsoft. They've had us recording the issue with a tool called the Problem Steps Recorder. Their next step is to do remote support of two users simultaneously while they are co-authoring so they can see the issue first hand. 

 

Based on some of the responses above it seems like even when OneDrive isn't in play coauthoring is still buggy and unreliable. 

 

I look forward to seeing a fix, but I'm not holding my breath.

@Bill_RWe use Exchange on-prem but SharePoint Online with E3 licensing.

Has anyone received *anything* tangible from MS yet? More users are complaining, senior mostly...

 

The reputation of SharePoint has taken a large battering at our organisation. I could have done without this.

@Glen226 Nothing that I've seen so far. More than 2 months of people having this issue and no acknowledgement.

Update... Microsoft have advised that they have released a new build of Office last week and that we should:

 

 * Install the new build of Office

 * Then perform an online repair

 

We are going to test this with one user who is commonly affected and will report back our findings.

 

 

@Glen226 I'm looking forward to the results of this.

Is it Office 2016 or 2019? Either way, please post the build number if it works.

 

Thanks,

Jamie

@JamieBirdOffice 365, Build 1904, released 29th April.

I should hopefully be getting 1904 this week. I'll test things out.

@Bill_R@JamieBird 

 

Hi All - we have been testing this version new build of Office for a few days now, and we haven't been able to replicate the Word closing issue since. The user we were testing with was previously heavily affected, with documents almost always closing within an hour.

 

We are cautiously optimistic that this particular build has resolved the issue at hand, and will now begin to test further by installing this Office build for another two affected users.

 

Hello @gbrown481 

We're having the same issue with PowerPoint when our users tried to co-authoring. 

Environment :
- Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus v1902 build 11328.20138 Semi-annual targeted
- Microsoft Teams v1.2.00.17057 (64bit) last update on 27th of June 2019
- OneDrive 2019 19.033.0218.0012
The user opens the file from Microsoft Teams with the client PowerPoint and after 5-6 mins It crashes. 
We opend a ticket to Microsoft and we're still wating for their answer. 
Do you have any idea to fix this issue please ? 

@Sofianeda1st @gbrown481 

We had the same issue until last week, Powerpoint and Word files were crashing regularly for several users. We did log a case with Microsoft and they also didn't find anything substantial yet.

 

Last week, there was an Office 365 client update which got installed on the users' machine and since then no one has reported any issue with the file crashing. We tried to reproduce the issue with a couple of frequent users but still not finding it.

 

Version we are using: Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted): Version 1902 (Build 11328.20368)

 

Did anyone has the same behaviour, we are trying to find what fixed this issue and what exactly caused it?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

Thank you @DC11604 for the feedback. 

We've the same version of yours but we still have the same issue with PowerPoint. 

We opened a ticket at Microsoft but they didn't fix the issue. 

We'll check if we've an update on our client or we will try to force it in order to fix the bug. 

 

 

Hi All/@Sofianeda1st 

 

It looks this issue has fixed by Microsoft in their recent Office 365 client update - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/semi-annual-channel-targeted-2019#version-1902-august...

 

Our MS engineer on the case informed the same and after the pilot deployment, the issue has fixed for all users.

Hello @DC11604 

Thank you for the feedback. 

Actually this new 365 Office client update has fixed the co-authoring bug in PowerPoint.

Build: Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted): Version 1902 (Build 11328.20392)
 

The same here. We have 8 people to work together. All of us kept crashing. It was before an assignment and there were a lot of mistakes due to MS conversion error. At last, the document was unable to be opened any more. All of our work has lost!!!:facepalm: Well done, good for light co-work but bad for large team co-working. If MS still not solved it, Sharepoint is only for very small groups with up to 3 people. The productivity at this point is pretty low. Hopefully, we can see the updates many years later. Hehe @gbrown481 

Anyone upvote the PO to let MS see this issue.

@DC11604 is the update automatically pushed to 0365 subscribers or is this something we have to actively install? we were still dealing with crashing during co-authoring as recent as mid October. Thanks!

Hello all, @DC11604 

 

I've been reading this topic with great interest since we are having the same issue as described here : as soon as you collaborate on a document, Word crashes unexpectedly.

 

I've seen that the Version 1902 (Build 11328.20392) patch should resolve the issue.

The problem is that we are one patch level ahead (Version 1902 (build 11328.20438)) and we still encounter this issue...

 

Is there something else I'm missing ?

Afaik, we are not using one drive (which seems to be a reason for crashing)

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Regards,

 

Christophe

Were you able to resolve? If so, any advice?

@lknight-sjvh I wasn't able to resolve it yet, I'm lacking time to conduce some testings.

But I did contact Microsoft support who told me to upgrade to latest semi annual update.

The Version 1902 (Build 11328.20392) fixed the issue in the monthly channel update.

I'm on the semi annual update channel and it's possible that this channel didn't get the patch until a recent release I've yet to install.

 

So, it seems that the monthly channel fixed the issue in Version 1902 (Build 11328.20392), but the semi annual channel seems to still contain the issue in the Version 1902 (build 11328.20438)) I'm using

I still have to upgrade to latest semi annual channel release to see if it fixes the issue.

@ My Excel kept crashing (within a minute or two) when other co-authors were working with me in a document. Theirs was not crashing. I turned off the autosave feature (far left of the window title in my case) in my Excel and it stopped crashing.