Microsoft Word runs very slow on my Mac

Hi,

I've been having issues with Word v 16.85 (the last version) for the last two days. I'll be working and all of a sudden my word documents freeze and become "sluggish". If I move up or down the doc it moves slow, becomes stuck. And the spinning wheel shows up. All other apps work fine and fast. I've updated my Mac two weeks ago to OS: Sonoma 14.4.1 (23E224) I was wondering if any other Mac users were having the same issue and if they were able to fix it.

MacBook Air, macOS 14.4

Posted on May 18, 2024 12:19 PM

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Posted on May 21, 2024 8:27 PM

I am having the same problem. Have to work my PhD thesis - urgent! The Word doc is freezing and getting stuck every 30 mins. I close down the Word and restart the computer. but it happens again. This is crazy. Please kindly find a solution soon.

88 replies

May 26, 2024 6:59 AM in response to confused_zebra

I have been having the same problem with Word v 16.85 on my MacBook Pro, running the current version of Sonoma. The program slows down to the point that it is unuseable. When I go to exit the program, it hangs (pinwheel of death), which means that I have to force quit. Then I start it again, and get reasonable peformance for about 30 mins, and then slow down, hang, and force quit.


I followed the suggestion from above and I downgraded to Word v 16.84. but the problem remained the same. I then moved my Word document to the web version of Microsoft 365 and found that MS Word worked without any problem. This is my suggestion for a work around.


May 24, 2024 9:40 AM in response to confused_zebra

I was thrilled to find this thread… I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my brand new Mac air 15 was totally freezing up word after what seemed like an hour.


In fact, I called Apple support several times and reinstalled word and reinstalled the operating system.


Finally since the laptop was brand new I just brought it back to the Apple Store and got a new one.


it turns out while I was there one of the Genius Bar folks came by. I had some extra time so I re-created the issue… He was stumped… So as I mentioned, I ended up returning my new Macair book for a replacement





May 26, 2024 9:18 PM in response to confused_zebra

I was super frustrated forever like everyone since my Mac slowed to a crawl or worse on Word only this last two weeks, however by following the process of deleting Version 16.85, and the subsequent reinstall of Version 16.84, it works perfectly again.


If you can find the Microsoft link in this thread or anywhere else, just delete and reinstall Version 16.84.


They told me to delete every office application but that was unnecessary. I deleted the word application only, then reinstalled. Now full disclosure, I have not updated to Sonoma, and am using the most up-to date Ventura (Ventura 13.6.7), so maybe that is an issue for some after the reinstall.


If you get it to work, once you reinstall 16.84, don't forget to take off auto updates when prompted (Version 16.85 update is the issue. Don't let it update to it until they fixed the bugs!!!!).


I hope this works for everyone else. Good luck out there. I hope you hit all your deadlines.

Microsoft Word runs very slow on my Mac

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