Q: How do I disable a service?

The only thing that shows up, using the simplified search term "Office365" is the application itself, in the MS Office folder. No plist. Nothing in the global library, or the user library that refers to it.

The application name is Office365Service. It runs when one of the Office apps launches.

 

If the programs are launcing that service themselves, then I would think it would also affect my Mac, but it doesn't. So, I imagine it has installed a launchd item, but I don't have that item.

I opened Excel, Office365Service launched. Since I started writing this post, it has appeared and disappeared from Activity Monitor. It doesn't show up in the Excel Preferences, not even to connect with Office365 in the cloud. It may be a listener, that opens and closes, supposedly silently, to monitor those documents that you may want to push to the cloud service. Since it shows up only when it crashes, my guess is that the listener app is buggy (duh). There should be a way to disable it, or have it not load at all when the cloud service is not being used. A toggle in MS Office apps, maybe a global preference pane to disable it?

None of the above directories on my MacBook Pro contain anything relating to Microsoft Office, and no mention of Office365.

Another difference I might have is that I did not install Outlook or Lync. Do you all have those installed?

No Outlook. No Lync.

I tried an experiment: 

I moved the Office365Service.app to the trash, and reboot the MBP.  When I opened Word and Excel for the first time they both crashed.  I left the button checked to "recover my work and restart.." and Sent the reports to Microsoft.

After they were both reopened, if I tried to do anything, they would crash again.  So, it looks like that pesky app is required.  I put it back in the Microsoft Office 2011/Office folder and launched Word and Excel.  Now they seem to work fine.  Waiting for the next pop-up ....

I also did some similar testing. If I remove the Office365Service.app from the Office folder, all Office apps will crash within a few minutes.

However, I don't see the Office365Service.app run, nor does it crash.

I found a thread on MacRumors forum where someone filed a bug report and seemed to indicate it is now a known bug: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1538000

It only appears to crash under circumstances. Sometimes it's idle time, or another background process. But if Excel stud open long enough, Office365Service will open, run, and sometimes crash. No way to tell what the trigger is.

A new update was launched a few days ago.(14.3.1)

I will install it and see if the 365service bug would be fixed.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads?pid=Mactopia_Office2011&fid=8D3387A0-164E -44C9-A8D6-3BAAE4156F2D#viewer

I think the update might have fixed the problem. I installed it earlier this morning, and so far, no Office365Service crashing.

James Parker2 written;

> I installed it earlier this morning, and so far, no Office365Service crashing.

Good to know.

I just installed it so will report the result later.

With the 14.3.1 update installed I'm not getting the pop-up message, however the crash is still happening according to console logs... Still producing several crash report logs per day, although it never gets in the way of the user experience.  Possiblly the've just hidden the crash instead of fixing it...

Anyone else still seeing Office365Service crash reports in their logs?

I have the latest Office installed (14.3.1) and yes, the crash of Office365Service is still happening.

Mostly appears to be when my system is 'idle' and often when I'm running Excel.

Either way, it's still crashing.

This is on MacOS 10.8.2.

Barney

I have version 14.3.1 and yet no trace of 365 (mind you Office never crashes for me), was that an option in the download or did it just appear sometime?

No Office365Service.app on my machine anywhere?

/Applications/Microsoft Office/Office folder?

I never purchased or signed up for Office365, but it is there since at least the 14.3.0 update.

I have never had a crashing problem unless I remove Office365Service.app.

Barney-15E wrote:

 

/Applications/Microsoft Office/Office folder?

 

I never purchased or signed up for Office365, but it is there since at least the 14.3.0 update.

I have never had a crashing problem unless I remove Office365Service.app.

Not for me, I have had it since version 14.0, and updated up to 14.3.1

/Applications/Microsoft Office/Office/Office365Service.app is absent on my system (not that I miss it, just curious)

Thanks