Microsoft Word runs very slow on my Mac

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 have deleted the latest version of word on my Mac (that had been downloaded as part of the office 365 suite). Instead, I have gone to the App Store and downloaded the word version there. That is the older version of word and does not suffer from the lags the latest version does! It also does not automatically update. So until Microsoft fixes the issue, I am going to work off this version.

SuffolkMags wrote:

I'm having the same problem, it's very frustrating. I can be working happily for a couple of hors and then for no apparent reason it just slows right down as described by others. What is rthw answer?

The answer is to wait for Microsoft to issue an update to fix it. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is preparing an update as we type.

Here’s the rest of my message somehow it got cut off…

I made it home and this time only installed word… Prior I had installed the entire Microsoft 365. Suite

I use the computer for about three hours and then the same error started to occur… Although, not quite as bad…

Regardless, I am going to uninstall word… And install the version as this thread has described… Thank you for that tip!

Hi there, I have the problem with MS word too. Nevertheless, the more problematic is screen / application split function and when the top bar show up; when you use with Safari is fatality awful, really tragic. Cut my laptop back (M2max CPU...) every time I am doing it.

I've been having the same exact issue, so I googled it and here I am. i have to force quit it then launch it again and it will work for 30 mins then stop, it becomes very slow, and I can't type one word without it taking forever. It is so annoying. I saw a comment here to reinstall the version 16.84 because of the issue with 16.85 but it's not letting me download the previous version. any tips?

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.

You are not the only one, I am also suffering from this LAG. I checked my WORD CPU consumption, sometimes it rises to over 100%, which lags very badly. Ive tried all possible solution online, such as reinstalling etc.

NOTHING WORKED! :(

I think Apple caused the problem with Sonoma 14.5. it is not the first time it has rolled out iOS upgrades without first testing compatibility to Microsoft products that millions of us use. It seems Apple's strategy is to wait for the software provider to find a fix. Meanwhile, my productivity is down the toilet.

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.

I don't know 100% - I've been testing it for the last 30 minutes, and the memory consumption is not rising as fast as before. 30 minutes was enough for the memory consumption to move from 450 MB to 700 MB, and currently, it is steady at 450-550 MB - I'm translating a document from Spanish into Portuguese, so I have to keep both open with two opened documents at the same time with 200 pages each. I will continue to test it.

I took the advice of earlier posters and downgraded to version 16.84 (released on April 16, 2024).

It's working perfectly. I was losing my mind with the 16.85 version.

Make sure you uninstall the version you have before installing 16.84.

It's here (scroll down). https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

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.

Yes I am having the same issue! I use my Mac for everything. I cannot even finish writing a paper for school without it freezing and crashing on me. Plus while I am in my work day it is not reliable because it delays the work time I have to spend on a project!

In Word --

Help > Check for Updates > Advanced > In "Update Channel" change to "Current Channel (Preview)" > Close Preferences window > Check for Updates again and it should be there. I just installed it, so I have no idea if it fixes the lagging issue though.