Tahoe Upgrade makes MS Word Search ghost images

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Level 1

20 points

Tahoe Upgrade makes MS Word Search ghost images

After upgrading my Mac Mini (M1 chip) to Tahoe 26, I noticed an issue using the Search function within MS Word (version 16.16.27). When searching for any word in MS, once that word is found and highlighted in the document, the highlighted word remains there even as you scroll. Even closing the document won't eliminate the image(s). Search for the same word five times, and you see it each time in a line. Those images float over anything on my screen until I close MS Word. Jumping to a browser or other app doesn't make the images go away. They just stay on the screen.

Has anyone else had this problem?

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 24, 2025 5:43 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 26, 2025 5:15 PM in response to mtariz

mtariz wrote:

I have the same problem, running MS Word 16.27 on Tahoe ...

The problem you’re having is that you’re using software launched 10 years ago and last updated 5 years ago on an operating system that launched last week. The solution is to buy a new Word license.

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Answer 2

mtariz

Level 1

0 points

Sep 26, 2025 4:29 PM in response to Mikey_Byte1

I have the same problem, running MS Word 16.27 on Tahoe ... Only ways I can get the Word search ghost to disappear: either quit and restart Word or restart my Macbook.

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Answer 3

Oct 11, 2025 10:38 AM in response to Mikey_Byte1

Yes same issue with Word from Office for Mac 2019 and OS X Tahoe. Extremely annoying, basically makes Find useless in Word. But I mostly use Pages so this reinforces that choice. ChatGPT for what it's worth says it's a "rendering conflict between Word 2019’s graphics routines and macOS Tahoe’s new display engine."

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Answer 4

Mikey_Byte1 Author

Level 1

20 points

Sep 27, 2025 12:16 PM in response to mtariz

I feel your pain! Hopefully, Apple fixes this in an upcoming update to Tahoe. I've got a lot of old software that still runs fine. This seems to be an odd issue, and my guess is that others are having similar problems with other software. Every major software upgrade has bugs, and the 0.1 or 0.2 patch usually fixes them. Glad it's not just me.

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Answer 5

meeser

Level 1

19 points

Oct 25, 2025 9:38 AM in response to neuroanatomist

I have exactly the same problem and I subscribe to MS365 so am not using an old version of Word. So, I'm wondering if this is a problem for Apple to fix with Tahoe or if Microsoft has not updated Word for this operating system.

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Answer 6

Nov 30, 2025 1:24 PM in response to Mikey_Byte1

I too have these search terms highlighted on the screen even when I close the document. My Word license is not that old.

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Answer 7

Sep 24, 2025 6:00 AM in response to Mikey_Byte1

No issues here. Your Word app is very old (part of Office 2016, I think), the current version is 16.101.1. You should subscribe to MS365 or buy a new Office license. Microsoft only supports the most recent three versions of macOS (currently Sonoma, Sequoia and Tahoe).

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