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Mar 31,2020 • Filed to: Mac Recovery • Proven solutions
Apr 20, 2018 Make sure your Mac has a working internet connection, then: Update Mac OS X. Open the App store and click on the Updates button. Install the updates. After, in any Office application go to the Help menu and choose Check for Updates to launch the AutoUpdate app. Let AutoUpdate install updates and then restart your Mac. Jan 26, 2016 Microsoft word keeps freezing on my mac. I checked for updates and it is up to date. Excel works just fine, - Answered by a verified Mac Support Specialist We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our website. Open Microsoft User Data, and then open Office 2011 AutoRecovery. On the Edit menu, click Select All. Drag all files into 'New Folder' on the desktop. The AutoRecovery folder should be empty. Open Excel for Mac 2011 and try to save a file. If you can save a file, review the contents of 'New Folder' to decide which files that you want to keep. This is actually a widespread problem (I have it to) based on disparate but similar reports on various Microsoft and Office forums. Word and/or Excel and/or PowerPoint crash after ca. 1 minute, making the software unusable.
“How to open Word on Mac? I have some important Word documents saved on my Mac, but every time I try to open them, the application crashes!”
This is a recent query posted on a forum by a concerned user about MS Word on Mac. Since MS Office is a third-party application on Mac, a lot of users struggle with it. For instance, some people say that Microsoft Word won’t open on Mac, even after numerous efforts. Chances are that there could be a problem with the software itself or your Mac as well. The good news is that you can learn how to open Word on Mac and fix this issue by following some simple steps. In this guide, we will help you resolve the Word won’t open on Mac query like a pro.
Part 1: How to Open Microsoft Word on Mac?
There are times when users are not able to understand how to open Microsoft Word on Mac. Needless to say, before you proceed, make sure that MS Word is already installed on your Mac and is running smoothly. You can just look for the Word application on your Mac and launch it without any trouble. Here’s how to open Word on Mac seamlessly.
Step 1 The easiest way to open Word on Mac is by using the Spotlight search. Simply click on the search icon on the top-right corner of the screen.
Step 2 You can either look for the MS Word application or type the name of the document that you wish to open. Click on the searched results to launch it.
Step 3 Subsequently, you can also view the installed Applications by visiting Mac’s System Preferences. Also, you can just press Command + Shift + A to open the Applications tab.
Step 4 Scroll down to view all the MS Office applications installed on your Mac. Look for MS Word and double-click it to launch the application.
Part 2: Why Microsoft Word Won't Open on Mac?
Before we learn ways to fix Word won’t open on Mac, it is important to know what could have caused the issue in the first place. Here are some of the common reasons why Word won’t open on Mac:
- There might be some issue with MS Word or the Office application.
- The installer could have been corrupt, leading to a malfunction application installation.
- If you are running an outdated version of MS Word on a new macOS, then you can encounter this issue.
- The storage unit where MS Word was installed could have been corrupt as well.
- A system setting could be blocking the Word application in the background.
- The MS Word document that you are trying to open could have been corrupt.
- A change in Word Preferences or app settings can also lead to the malfunction of the utility tool.
Part 3: What to Do When Word Files Won't Open on Mac?
As you can see, there could be different reasons for Word files not opening on Mac. Thankfully, you can easily fix this issue by following some thoughtful troubleshooting tips. Here’s how you can also resolve the Microsoft Word not opening on Mac problem.
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Solution 1: Run 'Disk Utility' to Repair
Disk Utility is the native feature of macOS that can help us repair a disk (system storage or external devices). You can access it via Mac’s Applications or by booting your system in the recovery mode. Therefore, if your Mac is functioning seamlessly, then you can take the assistance of Disk Utility in no time. This will scan your Mac’s storage and make sure that it won’t lead to any MS Word issue.
Step 1 Firstly, go to your Mac’s Finder and visit Applications > Utilities. From the list of the available Utility tools, select “Disk Utility” and open it.
Step 2 This will launch the Disk Utility application on Mac. On the left panel, you can see the available drives and partitions. Simply select the drive where MS Word is installed.
Step 3 You will get its details on the right and numerous other options. From its toolbar, click on the “First Aid” button.
Step 4 A pop-up window will ask you to confirm your choice. Click on the “Run” button and wait for a while as Mac would repair its storage.
Solution 2: Remove Word Preferences
Chances are that there could be a problem with the MS Word application installed on your Mac as well. For instance, the default template or Word preferences could clash with its functioning. In this case, you can just remove the Word Preferences and try to fix the Word won’t open on Mac issue instantly.
Step 1 To start with, select the Word icon on the desktop or open the application. Go to the Finder menu and click on Word > Preferences.
Step 2 This will launch the Word Preferences window on the screen. Click on the “File Locations” option to continue.
Step 3 Now, you can see different file types with their location. Click on the “User Templates” option and choose to reset it.
Step 4 If you want to delete it entirely, then click on the “Modify” button instead. Look for the “Normal” file, cut it, and paste it somewhere else (or just delete it from the location).
Solution 3: Try 'Open and Repair'
The above-listed solutions would work if there is an issue with Mac’s storage or the Word application itself. Though, the reason why won’t Word open on Mac could be something else as well. For instance, the Word document that you are trying to open could have been corrupt. To repair a corrupted Word document, you can take the assistance of the application’s native feature. Here’s how to open Word on Mac and repair a faulty document.
Step 1 If the MS Word application is already not opened, then do the same by clicking on its icon.
Step 2 After the application is launched, go to its main menu and click on File > Open to proceed.
Step 3 As a browser window will launch, simply go to the location where the faulty Word document is stored and select it.
Step 4 Instead of clicking on the “Open” button, click on the dropdown icon and choose to “Open and Repair” the file.
Wait for a while as Word will try to automatically repair the document and would extract its saved content.
Part 4: How to Recover Lost Word Documents on Mac?
By following the discussed solutions, you would be able to fix issues like Word won’t open on Mac. Though, if you have lost some of your documents or have deleted them accidentally, then consider using Recoverit (IS) for Mac. It is a dedicated data recovery tool that can get back all kinds of lost or deleted documents on your Mac. This includes all sorts of Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, and numerous other file types.
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Recoverit (IS) for Mac
A Life Saver to Solve Your Data Loss Problems!
- The tool is extremely easy to use and features one of the highest data recovery rates in the market.
- It can recover data lost under different scenarios like accidentally deleted documents, corrupt Word files, lost partition, corrupt storage, etc.
- You can also recover data from an external source like SD card, USB drive, hard drive, and so on.
- The application can perform different kinds of scans on any source – quick or deep. You can perform the needed scan as per your requirements.
- Apart from Word documents, it can also recover your photos, videos, audios, compressed files, and all kinds of data.
3,015,629 people have downloaded it
Even with no prior technical knowledge, you can take the assistance of Recoverit (IS) and get back your lost files on your Mac. To do it, follow these basic steps:
Step 1 Download and install
Download and install the Recoverit (IS) program on your Mac computer.
Step 2 Pick a location to scan
In order to proceed, you can just choose a location to scan for lost Word documents. It can be the internal Mac storage or any other external device.
Step 3 Restore your data
This will make the application look for any lost or deleted Word file on the selected location. You can just wait for a while for the process to be completed.
In the end, users can just preview the recovered data on the application and select the Word documents to save. Click on the “Recover” button and save them to any location of your choice.
Bonus Tips: How to Avoid Word File Corruption on Mac
A lot of times, a Word file becomes inaccessible or corrupt on Mac as well. If you don’t want to go through unwanted issues like Word won’t open on Mac, then consider following these preventive measures:
- Always keep a backup of your important Word files so that you won’t lose them unexpectedly.
- Keep the Word application updated to make sure it won’t suffer from any compatibility issue.
- Avoid changing the extension of the documents forcefully.
- Don’t open Word documents with other third-party tools that can corrupt them.
- Keep the Mac storage clean and not cluttered to ensure its safety.
- Only use an authentic copy of MS Word from its official website. If you are using a pirated version, then it might corrupt your documents.
- Don’t close your Mac unexpectedly when the Word document is still being processed in the background.
There you go! After reading this guide, you would be able to fix issues like Microsoft Word won’t open on Mac for sure. We have come up with three working solutions on Word won’t open on Mac problems and have provided a stepwise solution on how to open Word on Mac. Apart from that, you can take the assistance of Recoverit (IS) to get back lost Word documents in no time. It is a highly secure and reliable application that can help you in more ways than you can imagine. Give it a try and never lose your important Word documents on Mac again.
We all want our Macs to run fast and hate it if the machine keeps freezing (or completely frozen, sometimes). When that happens, frustration sets in.
In this article, we’re going to share some common Mac freezing scenarios, along with quick fixes.
For better reading experience, we break down the scenarios into five sections. Just navigate the Table of Content below to help yourself jump to the right section based on the scenario that fits your situation.
Why Does My Mac Keep Freezing?
A MacBook or iMac can freeze while running certain apps with a symptom being unresponsive. Other times, macOS may hang up while you surf the Internet via a web browser like Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.
There are quite a few possible causes out there. For example, your Mac may have too many login items auto launching upon start-up, or lots of background app clutter.
What to do? The easiest fixes are: reduce the number of login items, force quit those frozen applications, update your Mac to latest macOS (i.e. Catalina), etc.
Your Mac may also run slowly, hang up, or become totally frozen when the computer runs out of memory and it has to use the disk instead of RAM.
You can use iStats Menus to check real-time memory usage and other key performance metrics of your Mac. It’s also an app we recommend for diagnosing Mac issues.
Read on for how to unfreeze your Mac under different scenarios.
1. Your Mac Freezes Randomly
If your Mac freezes from time to time even if it’s not running any third-party apps at all, or you feel there’s always a delay in responding on certain requests, it’s possible your Mac startup disk is almost full. Another reason could be System Management Controller (SMC) needs to reset, as Apple says:
“These symptoms might mean that an SMC reset is necessary: … your Mac performs unusually slowly, even though its CPU isn’t under an abnormally heavy load.”
How to fix: clean up disk drive, reset SMC
The best way to clean up Mac drive is to use CleanMyMac, an incredibly simple and intelligent app that can help you detect all type of system junk and unnecessary files. By doing so, you can quickly free up gigabytes of disk space.
As for resetting SMC, just follow the step-by-step instructions from this Apple guide.
2. Mac Freezes When Open Certain Apps
It’s quite common that Mac freezes on certain apps, especially those poorly developed ones which require substantial system resources than they should.
macOS usually indicates the situation by popping up a notification Application Not Responding. This happens more often while you are using heavy apps like image or video editing software that demands more system resources than other light-weighted apps.
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How to fix: force quit, and keep the app up to date
The first yet no-brainer solution is: keep waiting until the app unfreezes by itself. If it’s still unresponsive after a few minutes, try force quit the application. To do this, move your cursor to the application icon on the dock (normally located at the bottom of your screen). Then right click on the app icon. Wait until a pop-up menu displays. macOS will then present the option for you to “Quite.”
Alternatively, you can click on the Apple logo, select Force Quit, then highlight the app you want to exit, and hit the blue “Force Quit” button.
Next, check whether the app has a newer version. For example, if you are using Photoshop, go to Adobe’s official website to see if the version you’re using is the latest. Those of you who are used to download programs from the Mac App Store, you can also go to Software Update to check if there’s a new update.
Always keep your apps up-to-update because a newer version usually fixes bugs and errors that could eliminate app frozen times.
3. Web Browser Keeps Freezing on Mac
According to Apple Support Community threads, some users have been experiencing difficulties with Safari after updating their Macs to the latest macOS, such as web browser crashes or keeps freezing.
How to fix: first remove the third-party extensions you recently installed. Because those plug-ins/extensions might be incompatible with the web browser you use. Open Safari, on the top click Safari Menu, select Preferences. Under the Extensions tab, select and uninstall the ones you recently installed.
Microsoft Word Freezing Every Time I Open It Mac Version
If that doesn’t solve the problem, you’ll need to reset Safari. It’s also quite simple. This video tutorial shows how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpOo6QCMPloVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: How to Reset Safari on a Mac (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpOo6QCMPlo)
If the web browser continues to freeze, we’d recommend a full macOS check-up and update. Make sure to back up your data before you do this. Updating macOS is a fairly simple process. Simply click on the Apple logo, then App Store option, you’ll see the number of updates available.
Once updated, it should fix the browser keeps freezing issues and prevent your Mac from other issues in the future.
Word Crashes When Opening Document Mac
4. Mac Keeps Freezing on Startup
If your Mac often freezes upon startup, chances are you have excessive login items or launch agents. Those are applications, services, or server connections that run automatically when your Mac starts.
Another possible cause is the Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) issue, as Apple puts in this article:
“…if your Mac starts up from a disk other than the one selected in Startup Disk preferences, or a question mark icon briefly appears before your Mac starts up, you might need to reset NVRAM.”
How to fix: optimize login items and reset NVRAM
Disabling unnecessary startup items is simple, just do a Spotlight search for “Users & Groups” (alternatively, click on the Apple icon, then System Preferences, click on Users & Groups). See the Login Items tab next to Password? Here you’ll find a list of applications and auto-start programs, feel free to remove those you rarely use.
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Note: there may be some launch agents that do not show under Login Items, but they still run on startup. You can disable or remove them in CleanMyMac (via Extensions > Launch Agents, as shown below).
Resetting NVRAM is easy and risk-free. Simply shut down your Mac and press the four combination keys as shown in this video guide.
5. Mac Is Frozen Completely
If the entire system of your Mac frozen and you can’t even move the cursor around. Your last option is to force reboot the Mac manually.
If you are on a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, hold down the Power button (located on the keyboard for newer MacBooks) for 5 seconds or so, until the system shuts down completely. Then press it again to start.
If you are on an iMac or Mac Mini, the Power button is on the back of the monitor. Similarly, press it for a few seconds and release it when your Mac shuts down.
Final Words
It’s annoying to see Mac keeps freezing or frozen to death, and that happens from time to time. Reasons vary from case to case, while the common one is Mac uses up the RAM memory and has to opt for disk memory. But there are things you can do to fix the issue, though it depends on what kind of “freeze” you’re facing.
One more thing: don’t forget to back up your Mac data on a regular basis. Because when your Mac is totally frozen you’ll have to force quit apps or reboot, during the process you may lose some files due to not being saved in time. A backup is the best protection plan for data disasters.
Have you managed to fix the Mac freezing issue? Or you happen to discover a new solution? Leave a comment and let us know.
Andreas is a freelance tech writer based in California. He works on a Mac in the office and lives with a PC and many old computer electronics at home. While he is not reading or writing, you’ll probably find him playing online games with friends.