Microsoft Word runs very slow on my Mac

Word v16.85 may have some unmentioned dependencies or fixes based on running macOS Sonoma 14.5. I suggest Sonoma users update to that version, and try Word v16.85 again. I have no issues with this version of Word on the designated Sonoma release when accessing the document on my local drive. Accessing the Word document from external storage, another cloud service, or from a network server may not be as punctual as a local document.

Hi Werring1 - There is a link to a microsoft forum above in this chain. It includes good instructions. I also googled the topic for a little extra clarity. I am not an expert so I don't want to advise absolutely in case I take you down a wrong path :) That said, essentially:

• Turned off auto-updates (until this is fixed, I will need to do my updates manually for the other MS office apps).
• Did a time-machine back up, for security.
• Deleted MS Word - moving it from my applications folder to trash.
• Followed the instructions in the forum linked above to find the earlier version 16.84.
• Clicked on it to download the pkg installer and installed!
• Deleted the installer afterwards, as prompted.
• Rebooted my Mac as best practice (I think).

All good.

PS: My MS update alert comes up periodically letting me know to update MS Word - however, I'm ignoring it until the next version comes out that hopefully fixes this.

Hope that helps.

You delete the current release and manually install the previous versions, downloading it from this MS page:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

To be more specific, install this Word version: https://officecdn.microsoft.com/pr/C1297A47-86C4-4C1F-97FA-950631F94777/MacAutoupdate/Microsoft_Word_16.83.24031120_Updater.pkg

I did not try this solution. I ended up doing my tasks on the Apple Pages app until I am sure the issue was officially resolved.

I reinstalled 16.84, and it's been working splendidly ever since—except I wanted to check what version I had installed and discovered that after quitting Word, it reinstalled 16.85. I worked for several hours without any issues, though. That doesn't mean Microsoft fixed the bug responsible for hogging so much CPU. I have plenty of RAM (16 GB), which was fine until v.16.85. I don't know how I fixed the problem (I had to quit every hour or so), but reinstalling 16.84 overwrote it, and perhaps the reinstallation of 16.85 will stick without consequences. Wish me luck!

You can downgrade to 16.84 by going here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/release-history-microsoft-autoupdate

I hope this helps.

I tried a bunch of stuff—reboots, deleting normal templates, upgrading to OS Sonoma, reinstalls. The solution for now appears to be going back to the earlier MS Word version 16.84. I have seen others say the same in other issue chains here and in the Microsoft community.

I loaded the older word version 16.84 and it worked magic. No lagging and I’ve been working for hours!

Very happy to find this thread. I've been having the same issue on two different Macs running two different OSs (my personal Mac running the latest Sonoma 14.5 and MS Word 16.85; and my work Mac running an older and company modified OS and Word version). I've checked the activity monitor when this happens and it shows the processor activity has gone to >100% (when I restart Word, it returns to a few percent). Takes about 30 min for symptoms to begin as others have reported. After about an hour its unusable. Doesn't quite freeze - I can still quit (if I'm patient watching the spinning wheel of death). Works OK again after restarting Word. No other apps are effected.

BTW my work IT folks cleared the caches, had me reinstall Word - none of that helped either.

Here's the link to the previous version (16.84).

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

Scroll down - see where I've circled.

Been having the same problem. Did an update 2 days ago on the Word app and it seems like its even worse. I noticed, however, if I close out all other apps (often in Canva at the same time as Word) performance is better. Only my Word app behaves this ways so I know its not my Macbook Pro. Not sure it will help, but try closing out all other apps, especially ones like Canva.

Yes, seems lots are struggling w the same issue! The best advice I saw on here is to work from the online version if you have Microsoft 365 until Microsoft fixes the glitch….since Apple doesn’t cared to do so.

As a workaround until a fix is found try the free, open-source app LibreOffice. It can open, edit and safe MS Office files as Office files or as its own format (which can later be saved as Office files).

Similar issue on Word Version 16.85 And 14.5 on a M1 Mac Air. It seems with time the Word process has a tendency to fully utilize all available CPU until the process hangs. For some reason this does not show up as memory usage, disk usage or on the CPU Load chart. However, it does appear in the Word process % CPU as max use.

You need the Preview Channel to get the 16.85.2 update! Not the Beta!! The issue is only resolved in the 16.85.2 - that’s the one I’m using since yesterday without any problems! I’m certain MS will release a full version soon enough, but if you need it working now, then follow the instructions I gave yesterday!!

I have Office 2021 for Mac installed on my M2 Mac mini Pro (32GB). Sonoma 14.5. This is Word v16.86 and I have no performance issues working from the internal SSD. I deliberately chose to avoid using Microsoft's OneDrive Cloud solution due to inevitable Internet propagation delays that would impact document access performance.

Read this article from 9to5Mac. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/23/microsoft-working-on-word-for-mac-freeze-fix/