Safari 'Show Downloads' button opens a Word Document as read only

Question

neildesouza Author

Level 1

4 points

Safari 'Show Downloads' button opens a Word Document as read only

Test kit:

Safari in Big Sur or Monterey

Microsoft Office 365 Apps

The scenario.

Email yourself a Ms Word document
Using Safari, log into your web-based email (can be Office 365, Gmail, Outlook, etc.)
Download the Word document attachment from the email. It should flow into the nominated downloads location specified in Safari.
Using Safari's 'Show Downloads' button in the toolbar, double click to open the file.
The file opens in Ms Word as read only.

The only way you can open it out of read only is to navigate to the downloads folder and open it from there.

After that, reopening using Safari's 'Show Downloads' button opens the file as normal.

This has been tested on multiple laptops in Monterey last 2 versions, Big Sur.

Has anyone been able to fix this issue or is it a bug in Safari?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Jun 9, 2022 5:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Sparks0829

Community Specialist

Jun 10, 2022 10:37 AM in response to neildesouza

Hi there neildesouza,

We'll need more information to see how we can help. Are you only experiencing this issue with Microsoft Word documents downloaded from Safari or is this happening with other file types too?

Do you have Microsoft Word downloaded on your Mac? Which macOS version is it currently listed in the Apple menu () > About This Mac?

Also, have a look at this link to learn more about downloading items in Safari: Download items from the web using Safari on Mac

Thanks!

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Answer 2

neildesouza Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 11, 2022 1:15 AM in response to Sparks0829

Hey Sparks0829.

We're facing this issue with Microsoft Office documents only - Word, Excel have been tested. We are using Office 365 apps so the latest versions of each of the Office apps are installed locally.

I've tested this on 5 different Macs with varying specs Intel and M1, Big Sur and Monterey,

The issue is only when downloading via Safari. Chrome does not present this.

At this stage I cannot determine if Safari is passing wrong information to Ms Word, or if Ms Word is the culprit here (because the error is presented in Ms Word).

On the PC version Microsoft have something called Protected View which does something similar. Not sure if Microsoft if attempting to implement something like this on the Mac. But then, it should affect all internet downloaded documents even if they are opened from the Downloads folder directly.

That link you shared has no bearing to this matter. Sorry.

Thanks for the response.

Reply

Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

147,336 points

Jun 10, 2022 2:48 PM in response to neildesouza

The only way you can open it out of read only is to navigate to the downloads folder and open it from there.

Bug or feature, who knows, but that's what I do.

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Safari 'Show Downloads' button opens a Word Document as read only

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