May 22, 2019  Fix Microsoft Word Not Responding on Mac. If Microsoft Word doesn't respond on Mac, you may force quit the application and fix the problem with the following methods. Clear the Auto Recovery folder. Step 1 Open the Go menu and click Home. Step 2 Go to Documents Microsoft User Data then you will find the Office Autorecovery folder. Nov 20, 2018 We recommend you remove and then reinstall Office to fix this type of corruption. Try to uninstall Office for Mac and you can follow the article Troubleshoot Office for Mac issues by completely uninstalling before you reinstall. Then, you can Reinstall Office for your PC or Mac to see if it works.

Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Symptoms

When you open or use Microsoft Excel, Excel stops responding, hangs, freezes, or stops working. Additionally, you may receive one of the following error messages:

Excel is not responding.

Excel has stopped working.

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

Resolution

Use the following methods in the order in which they are presented. If you try one of these methods and it does not help, go to the next method.

Method 1: Start Excel in safe mode

Safe mode lets you safely use Excel without encountering certain startup programs. You can open Excel in safe mode by pressing and holding Ctrl while you start the program or by using the '/safe' option (that is, excel.exe /safe) when you start the program from the command line. When you run Excel in safe mode, it bypasses functionality and settings such as alternative startup location, changed toolbars, the xlstart folder, and Excel add-ins. (However, COM add-ins are excluded.)

If your issue is resolved after you run Excel in safe mode, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

291288 Description of the startup switches for Excel

280504 How to troubleshoot startup problems in Excel 2013

If your issue is not resolved after you start Excel in safe mode, go to method 2.

Method 2: Investigate possible issues with COM add-ins Many developers create add-ins for Excel. These add-ins are divided into two types

• Excel add-ins that are saved as .xla, .xlam, or .xll files.
• COM add-ins. These add-ins usually have to be installed and include DLLs and registry keys. COM add-ins created for one version of Excel frequently are incompatible with a newer version, and may cause the system to stop responding. They are not disabled by safe mode.

The simplest way to resolve this possible cause is to run this troubleshooter.

If the troubleshooter resolves the issue, but it recurs, you'll have to determine which add-in is causing the problem. To disable COM add-ins, follow these steps:

1. Select File > Options > Add-ins.
2. At the bottom of the dialog box, change the Manage dropdown to COM add-ins, and select Go.
3. Clear the check box for any enabled COM add-ins. select OK.If disabling the COM add-ins alleviates the issue, try enabling them one at a time to test for the problem add-in.

If these steps do not resolve your issue, continue to method 3.

Method 3: Investigate Excel file details and contents

Excel files can exist on the computer for a long time. They are upgraded from version to version and frequently travel from one user to another user. Frequently, a user inherits an Excel file but doesn't know what is included in the file. The following areas can cause performance or crashing issues:

• Formulas referencing entire columns.
• Array formulas referencing an uneven number of elements in the arguments.
• Hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of hidden or size 0 height and width objects.
• Too many styles caused by frequent copying and pasting between workbooks.
• Too many (as well as invalidly defined) names.

Inspect and simplify your files if possible.

If these steps do not resolve your issue, continue to method 4.

Method 4: Check whether your file is being generated by a third party

Sometimes Excel files are generated by a third-party application. In this case, the files may be generated incorrectly, and some features may not work correctly when you open the files in Excel. If this occurs, test the features in new files outside the third-party application. If the features work correctly, make sure that the third party is aware of the issue.

If your issue is not resolved after you test it outside the third-party application, go to method 5.

Method 5: Perform a selective startup to determine whether a program, process, or service conflicts with Excel

When you start Windows as usual, several applications and services start automatically and then run in the background. These applications and services can interfere with other software on your device. Performing a selective startup (also known as a 'clean boot') can help you identify problems with conflicting applications. To perform a selective startup, see How to perform a clean boot in Windows.

Selective startup is used to help identify the process, service, or application that conflicts with Excel.

If your issue is not resolved after a clean boot, go to method 6.

Method 6: Check whether your antivirus software is up to date or is conflicting with Excel

Antivirus software can interfere with Excel, and cause performance issues. Frequently updating your AV software can correct the issue.

How to check whether your antivirus software is up to date

To keep up with new viruses that are created, antivirus software vendors periodically provide updates that you can download from the Internet. Download the latest updates by visiting your antivirus software vendor's website. For a list of antivirus software vendors, see the following Microsoft website:

How to check whether antivirus software is conflicting with Excel

If your antivirus software includes integration with Excel, you may experience performance issues. In this case, you can disable all Excel integration within the antivirus software by creating exceptions for Excel files.

Important

Changing your antivirus settings may make your PC vulnerable to viral, fraudulent, or malicious attacks. We do not recommend that you try to change your antivirus settings. Use this workaround at your own risk. You may have to contact your antivirus software vendor to determine how to configure software to exclude any integration with Excel.

If updating your antivirus software or excluding it from integrating with Excel does not resolve your issue, go to method 7.Method 7: Verify or install the latest Windows and Office updates

Windows updates

You might have to set Windows Update to automatically download and install recommended updates. Installing any important, recommended, and optional updates can frequently correct problems by replacing out-of-date files and fixing vulnerabilities.To install the latest Windows updates, see Microsoft Windows FAQ.

Office updates

For more information about the latest Office updates, see Office Updates.

If your issue is not resolved after you install the latest Windows and Office updates, continue to the advanced troubleshooting in the More Information section.

More information

Advanced troubleshooting

If the methods that were mentioned earlier did not resolve your issue, the issue might be either environmental or file-specific in nature. The following section describes how to troubleshoot additional issues that can cause Excel to stop responding.

Environmental factors

Environmental factors are just as important as file contents and add-ins when you are troubleshooting problems. You can help us determine the cause of your issue by taking the following actions:

• Follow basic troubleshooting steps.
• Test files in the cleanest possible environment.

The following sections describe troubleshooting tips that might help diagnose the problem.

Where the file is stored

Several issues can arise when you save an Excel file over a network or to a web server.Moving the file locally will help determine whether there's something wrong with the file or the server where the file is saved. Save the file to your local hard drive is one of the following scenarios is true:

Microsoft Office Products Not Responding

• You have redirected 'My Documents' folder to a server location.

• Your files are stored offline.

• You are trying to open files from SharePoint or a Web folder.

• You are using Remote Desktop or Citrix.

• You are using network appliances.

• You work in a virtualized environment. For more information about Microsoft software that's running in a virtualized environment, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

  897615 Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software

Memory

Excel files can grow fairly large when you add text formatting and shapes. Make sure that your system has enough RAM to run the application. For system requirements of the Microsoft Office suites, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Printers and video drivers

When Excel is started, it examines the default printer and video drivers that will display the Excel workbooks. Excel is printer-intensive. Therefore, it will run even slower when Excel files are saved in Page Break Preview view. Testing the file by using different printers such as the Microsoft XPS Document Writer printer driver or the VGA video driver will determine whether the problem is with a specific printer or video driver.

If you still have hanging or crashing issues in Excel after you work through the resolution methods that are mentioned here, contact Microsoft Support for guided troubleshooting.

One of the most depressing moment is when you click on the Save button to save a Word document you are working on, an error pops up and says: Microsoft Word is not responding. The error also happens when you try to open a Word document.

If you can't save or open a Word file because Microsoft Word is not responding on Windows or Mac, here are how to fix it and save the document.

Microsoft Word Not Responding When Opening or Saving a Document(Windows)

1. Repair Microsoft Word

If MS Word is not responding on your Windows 10/8/7 PC when you try to save or open a document, you can start to fix the problem by repairing the Microsoft Word application.

Access the Repair Tool

On Windows 10, right-click the Start button and click Apps and Features. Select Microsoft Word from the Apps list and select Modify.

On Windows 8, 7, click the Start button and select Control Panel. Open Programs > Uninstall a program. Right-click on Microsoft Word and select Change.

Run the Repair Tool for Microsoft Word

If your Microsoft Office is installed by click-to-run, you will see the window 'How would you like to repair your Office Programs'. click Online Repair > Repair.

If your Microsoft Office is MSI-based installed, you'll see the 'Change your installation' window, click Repair > Continue.

Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the repair. Then try to open or save the Word document and see if Word is responding now.

2. Disconnect Network Drive

If you are using a network drive to save the Word files, Microsoft Word doesn't respond if the network drive is not existing or offline. You may disconnect the network drive from your computer to fix the unresponsive Microsoft Word.

Step 1 Go to My Computer.

Step 2 Right-click on it and select Disconnect Network Drive.

Step 3 Click the letter of the drive that the Word files are saved to and click OK to disconnect the drive.

Now all contents on the network drive can be accessed via Windows Explorer.

3. Disable Add-ins in Microsoft Word

When your Microsoft Word is not responding, Add-ins for Word may be the culprit. Disable all the add-ins for Word.

Step 1 In Microsoft Word, click File > Word Options > Add-ins.

Step 2 Under Manage: Com-in Add, click Go to open all add-ins.

Step 3 Disable all add-ins and click OK.

4. Save Document When Microsoft Word Not Responding

If Microsoft Word is not responding and you have to close Microsoft Word without saving the Word document, you can try to recover the unsaved Word document in the following 2 ways.

Search for Word Backup Files

By default, Microsoft Word turns on 'Always create backup copy' option so that it will create a backup copy of the working Word file automatically. Here is how to access the backup copy in different versions of Word.

• For Word 2016: Click 'File > Open > Browse'.

• For Word 2013: 'File > Open > Computer > Browse'

• For Word 2010: Click 'File > Open'.

• For Word 2007: Click 'Microsoft Office Button > Open'.

Then navigate to the folder where you last saved the Word file.

In the Files of type list (All Word documents), click 'All Files'. Find and click the backup file and then open it.

If you couldn't find a backup of the unsaved Word file, use a Data Recovery to get it back.

Use FonePaw Data Recovery to Restore Lost Files

FonePaw Data Recovery can quickly and deeply scan your computer to retrieve deleted Word documents as well as images, videos, audios, and more from hard drives (including Recycle Bin) on Windows 10/8/7/XP. See how easy it is to find back lost documents:

Step 1 Launch FonePaw Data Recovery.

Step 2 Select the Document file type and hard disk drive to go into the scanning process. It will be better if you remember which drive the Word documents are saved to. If not, choose all hard disk drives.

Step 3Click Scan. Quick Scan will be carried out automatically.

Step 4 Check the scanned results by Type List and Path List. Just check all the Word document file found. You are always allowed to preview the files.

If you find the result unsatisfying, try Deep Scan which may take some time.

Fix Microsoft Word Not Responding on Mac

If Microsoft Word doesn't respond on Mac, you may force quit the application and fix the problem with the following methods.

Microsoft Office 2016 Mac Not Responding Windows 10

1. Clear the Auto Recovery folder

Step 1 Open the Go menu and click Home.

Step 2 Go to Documents > Microsoft User Data then you will find the Office Autorecovery folder.

Step 3 Open the folder, there are the autorecovery files of Microsoft application. You can copy or move the files to somewhere else to save them. Then delete all the files in the folder.

Now launch Microsoft Word and see if it is responding now.

2. Remove Word Preferences Files

Step 1 Click Go > Go to the folder, then type ~/Library to open the Library folder.

Step 2 Open the Preferences folder and select the Word preference file, which is named as com.microsoft.Word.plist. Move the file to somewhere else like the desktop.

Microsoft Access 2016 Not Responding

Now launch Microsoft Word and see if it is responding.

If the problem still exists, do the follows:

• Restore the file named com.microsoft.Word.plist to the original folder, then exit all Microsoft Office programs.

• Then, Click the Word icon > Preferences > Personal Settings > File Locations > User templates.

• You will find a file named Normal. Move it to the desktop.

Now launch Microsoft Word and test the program.

3. Save Word Document on Mac

The worst case is that Word is not responding so that the document can't be saved, you can try to retrieve unsaved Word document with FonePaw Data Recovery for Mac.

Microsoft Office 2016 Mac Not Responding Windows 7

FonePaw Data Recovery for Mac can scan out all the existing and deleted Word document on your Mac and save Word documents as soon as possible. Read How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents on Mac.

All the above are the ways to fix and save document files when Microsoft Word is not responding on Mac or Windows.

Microsoft Office 2016 Mac Not Responding Working

Hot Articles

Proven Ways to Solve Facebook Messenger Not Responding

[Fixed] WhatsApp is Not Responding on Android/iPhone

MS Office Recovery: Recover Deleted Office Files

Is There a Way to Recover Lost Word Document?

PDF Recovery: How to Recover and Repair PDF Files

Excel AutoSave Location: Where to Find and Recover Unsaved Excel Files (2016/2013/2007/2003)

PowerPoint Recovery: How to Recover Deleted or Unsaved PowerPoint (2007/2010/2013/2016)

Uninstall Office (2011/2016) for Mac Completely

How to Recover Unsaved, Lost, or Deleted Word Document on Mac 2019