Word won't open on mac

Copper Contributor

Hi,

For the last couple of days, the word app on my mac won't open. It bounces after clicking in the icon and then nothing happens. I have to force the app to shut down. All the other office apps are working fine. I downloaded the latest version of Mac OS. What should I do to fix this?

 

Thanks

 

60 Replies

Hi Julie,

 

What version of Office are you using? Office 365? Office 2016? Or Office 2011 for Mac?

I upgraded mac to high sierra 10.13.5 and now Word will not open.  All other office products open.  Word just bounces and nothing happens.  

MS Office 365 on Mac.  Updated mac to high sierra 10.13.5 and word will not open.  excel and powerpoint and outlook all open.

 

HELP!!!!!!!

Hi Julie,

 

Are you trying to open a document or running word from the applications folder?

 

It would be good to test both if you have not already.

 

can you advise how you are starting Word?

 

If you are starting from shortcut on desktop ... Try moving to trash and start from app's folder.

 

Hope this helps you out, please provide as much information as you can for what you have tried. For example, how, what happened, error messages.

 

Kind regards

Mitch

I have tried all options - even clicking on word document from Finder.

 

Excell and Powerpoint work fine.

 

HELP!!!!!  I need my Word!!!!!

 

Gary

office 365.

I've tried opening word from documents, from the application folder, the dock shortcut. nothing works. As I said, I don't get any response whatsoever. No error message. 

It sounds like you need to repair the installation. This is a separate process on PCs, but on the Mac...

 

In Excel, go to Help menu and Check for Updates. This should rebuild the installation.

I have no updates and problem continues
Hi Julie,

Repairing the installation is a great idea.

Here are some instructions I found that may help.

https://www.easeus.com/mac-file-recovery/word-not-opening-on-mac.html

I am assuming you have Office 365 2016... if you have the office installer download you could try running that again to if it resolves the issue.

Regards
Mitch

No solution??? 

no updates....

 

Step 1. On the Go menu, click Utilities.
Step 2. Start the Disk Utility program.
Step 3. Choose the primary hard disk drive for your computer.
Step 4. Click the First Aid tab.
Step 5. Click Repair Disk Permissions.

# 2. Remove Word preferences
Step 1. Open Library and then Preferences folder.
Step 2. Locate a file named as com.microsoft.Word.plist. Move the file to the desktop.
Step 3. Now start Word and check whether the problem still occurs. If yes, go and restore the file to its original location and start it over.

Step 1. Open Library and then Preferences folder.
Step 2. Open the Microsoft folder and locate a file named as com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist. Move it to the desktop.
Step 3. Now start Word and check whether the problem still occurs. If yes, go and restore the file to its original location and start it over again.

Step 1. Open Library and then Preferences folder.
Step 2. Open the Application Support folder.
Step 3. Open the Microsoft folder.
Step 4. Open the Office folder.
Step 5. Open the User Templates folder.
Step 6. Locate the file that is named Normal, and move the file to the desktop.

# 3. Try to open, repair and recover Word
Step 1. Start Word. On the File menu, click Open.
Step 2. In the Open dialog box, click to select the file that you want to open.
Step 3. Click the down arrow on the Open button and then click Open and Repair.
If the above fails move all the office apps to trash.
Login to portal.office com and download and install the software again.

Good luck I hope one of the options resolves the issue for you.

Please help. I just installed update mentioned above, and Word won't open now.

Now the microsoft portals are all down.

Hi Julie,

 

This is a persistent problem for me too. No matter what updates I make, I have trouble getting Word and Excel to open. It takes a good hour to get them running sometimes. It's been going on for half a year now, and I can't find a solution besides never buying a mac ever again. 

Fix= Before opening Any Office program:

1 Turn off wifi

2. Open Office program 

3. turn wifi back on. 

It's the only thing that's worked for me. Now my chrome is doing the same thing, nd this fix works for that as well. 

HI JULIE 

I HAVE SAME ISSUE - INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING! HAVE YOU FOUND A SOLUTION?

RAKESH