MacOS15 / Sequoia - problems with Microsoft files

The workaround that worked for me, go to the file with *.docx extension and "right click" to select "Get Info".

From the "Get Info" screen, go to where it says "Open With:", make sure you select "Microsoft Word" and then select "Change All...". This will associate all "*.docx" files back to "Microsoft Word", and no more issues when clicking from the Finder window.

Similarly, do the same for *.xlsx extensions and Microsoft Excel.

Hope this helps everyone. Apple and MS still need to provide an update that fixes this by default on the next update.

In addition to what has been pointed out, I now cannot turn a Word file into a PDF.

Another source of frustration.

All office365 programs just hang restart word it hangs. Restart M1 Mac word works for 5-10 mins then hangs completely. All updates for office done even the latest beta just hangs the same!

I have the same problem, affects Word and Excel files but not PowerPoint. You can force them to open by right-clicking and them choosing "open with -> other". You will have to select "all apps" in the pop-up, also, tick the "always open with" check box.

Icons still remain generic, and previewing the document (with space bar) doesn't work, so still annoying.

Apple and/or MS, please fix

Please post to: Feedback - MacBook Pro - Apple. The more we post, bigger the possibility it gets high on their agenda and fix this.

I have updated on both my newer MBP M3 Max and my older MBP i9, and both of them have similar problems with the Word .docx files. If you look at the file types, the older doc files are recognised as Microsoft docs. However, the newer docx are just that - no mention of MS.

Excel files have the same problems, but at least Excel can open .xlsx files.

I tried to add the Word and Excel within the Settings Privacy where you allow full disk access. Ii also tried to go into Finder and right mouse click Get Info and force the files to be opened with Microsoft Word by default for all.

I can then open some of the files when I go through via Word\Open, but not if I just try to double click in Finder.

What a mess.

PS As an aside, is MS having another spat with Apple again? I find that I can't see the OneDrive folder to save to when I am on my iPad Pro, if I had opened the file in (say) PDF Expert. Equally if I try to run Word on the iPad, aside from OneDrive, I can't seem to save in Google Drive or iCloud either.

Why can't they all just play nicely with each other?

It’s worth noting that Apple produces the operating system and the developers write their apps to work with beta versions of macOS released to them before the final version is released. This means that Microsoft should be working on this issue as it may be they need to update their code. What do the Microsoft groups have to say about this?

https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/s/zG2yLVOYZt :) even this might help for those having iPhone and Mac connected.

Hi, I’m writing from Brazil. I updated my MacBook on September 16, 2024, and since then, I’ve been having issues saving new Word or Excel documents based on my own templates. It’s been a constant struggle.

I contacted Apple Care, and the agent "repaired" my SSD through macOS recovery, which temporarily fixed the problem. However, after saving about three documents, the issue returned.

I believe this is a serious bug in macOS 15.0, and Apple hasn’t released a new update yet, which is quite frustrating. I’ve had to switch to using Pages because every time I try to use Word, my files get corrupted.

Waiting...

I have the issue only with WORD - I use the OFC365 license, and have confirmed that my version for OFC365 is the most current one. Excel and Powerpoint work for me. In WORD, I can open up my files, edit them, but I cannot save them. I can print them.

I cannot close WORD, once the session is open and need to reboot my PC in order to close the WORD instance.

I am having the same problem.

At the moment, the only workaround I've found is by opening the documents from Microsoft Word, while setting the open mode to "Recover Text".

My document opens properly, but this is the only way I've found to open any DOCX in Word.

I have MS Word v16.89.1 and Pages v14.2 installed on my M2 Mac Mini Pro running the released Sequoia v15.0. The Finder's Open With secondary menu has no entry for Preview as an alternative opening application for Word documents. The Preview Open panel presents Word documents that are grayed out and not openable. That rules out Finder automatically attempting to open Word documents in Preview.

Even without MS Word, LibreOffice, or Pages installed, the default opening application historically has been TextEdit for Word documents.

I have dozens of Word documents on my Sequoia installation and randomly, not one when attempting to open it presents a dialog "Apple could not verify *.docx." But then again, I am not downloading Word documents from the Internet which may contain almost any malware or creation software.

The macOS Sequoia and iOS/iPadOS 18 operating systems are entirely different implementations as are their applications. An issue on your Mac may not be an issue on iOS 18.

The only way to fix any of this is to downgrade to an older version of the MS apps. I'm still running a version of Word (16.85) because every subsequent update has been worse than the last (inoperable, freezing, etc.). It's almost as if MS is purposefully glitching out. I also recently stopped using Word and started using Ulysses. It's entirely Apple-friendly, unlike Microsoft. Hope this helps!

This action actually worked for all my Microsoft products. As stated above - highlight a MS word file - go to file - "get info" - open with - click the down arrow where you see MS Word in the box- change to "other" - then select MS Word from the list - then click the "Change All" - you will see this message -

"Are you sure you want to change all your Microsoft Word documents to open with the application “Microsoft Word”?

Click Continue. Then you are done. This should fix all your MS word doc, except in the recent or pinned list for Word, Excel or Power Point.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

I find a way to solve definitely.

The problem is related to Launch Service database corruption managed by lsregister

I followed some old instructions found by google search for Sierra that works also on Sequoia

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain u -domain s -domain l -v

Also you can try to delete the quicklook cache with this command within the terminal: 

qlmanage -r

After executing those commands I lost some icons and the screen background, but after a restart everything has been restored, XLS and DOCX files are now correctly associated and quicklook works perfectly.

Have a nice day ;)