Big Sur will not open Office 365 files

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Level 1

9 points

Big Sur will not open Office 365 files

I've seen similar questions asking help about this issue but I have more information that hopefully will help someone identify the problem.

After upgrading to Big Sur, Word and Excel applications will not open any files stored on either the Mac hard drive or ICloud. However, they will open files previously stored on Microsofts One Drive if I try that first! If I try to open a file on the Mac, then trying to open a file from the "One Drive", it no longer works. It appears something is getting corrupted when trying to open a file from the Apple products (iCloud or Mac hard drive) but I haven't a clue as to where to start looking.

Appreciate any suggestions on how to resolve this problem.

thanks,

tom

iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Dec 30, 2020 8:21 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 30, 2020 8:30 AM in response to Retiredzoner

Are the files still physically available on your Mac. As 11.1 update of Big Sur asks specifically if you want to use iCloud for storage of your Desktop and Documents folders. If you've answered yes then MacOS will create a backup of your files on iCloud and delete the files on your Mac.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,254 points

Dec 30, 2020 8:30 AM in response to Retiredzoner

Microsoft Office 2008/2011/2016 32-bit application suites are not supported on Big Sur, which only supports 64-bit applications. The existing Office documents on the Mac filesystem are not affected by the 64-bit application requirement, but do require 64-bit versions of Microsoft 365, or Office 2019 for Mac to open them — or the free LibreOffice Suite.

If you do not have current Microsoft Office suite, it can be resolved via the Apple Online store (licenses and/or purchase), and the Mac App Store (subscription apps only).

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Answer 3

Retiredzoner Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 30, 2020 2:02 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks for responding. I have verified that the office 365 apps that I have are "universal" and up to date. I got this from the system report which lists the characteristics of each app I have installed (just learned this while trying to solve this issue). I assume universal means compatible since a few of my unused apps are still listed and identified as 32 bit.

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Answer 4

Retiredzoner Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 30, 2020 12:28 PM in response to SandsOfArrakis

Thank you for your response. Since the update to Big Sur, I cannot open any Office 365 files form either the iCloud or Mac hard drive so I'm not sure how that option would affect my problem. Once again, I can open files from the Microsoft version of iCloud, their One Drive, until I try to open on the Mac and then the One Drive file will no longer open. I suspect that something is getting corrupted when trying to open on the Mac or iCloud. I'm not sure if that makes the problem any clearer or not.

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Answer 5

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,254 points

Dec 30, 2020 2:23 PM in response to Retiredzoner

Yes, your MS Office suite is 64-bit and current, as with Office v16.44, Microsoft made them universal so that they can run on Apple Silicon (ARM), or Intel platform architectures.

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Big Sur will not open Office 365 files

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