Microsoft Word error message 'Word could not create the work file. Check the amount of disk space on your startup disk.'

My problems have also come back! I'm at my wit's end with mac here. Please let me know if anything seems to help, or if you can get any information out of Apple. I can't get any help with the laundry list of problems I've brought to them. 😟

None of the permissions fixes worked for me. Here's what did:

1. Quit Word
2. Go to Finder
3. Hold Option key and click Go > Library
4. Click Application Support
5. Click Microsoft
6. Back up and then delete the Office folder
7. Start Word again

In terminal, you can use cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft/

And then use the remove directory command to delete the Office folder.

I'm having the same original issue, and haven't done the sudo command because I'm more interested in a permanent fix. bandwag0n, can you elaborate on how your method resolves the problem? I'm reading it as one of those it-hurts-when-I-do-this/then-don't-do-it-and-it-won't-hurt type of solutions, but I know that's not the case. Is this an app-repairing-itself situation?

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been reading the Microsoft forums (which were mostly for Windows), and I’m seeing that a printer driver, third party add in, or corrupted normal.dot template is the issue. The one that applies to me is the normal.dot one, and the Windows fix is to rename it so that Microsoft can recreate, then delete the old one.

I can’t recall the specifics, but in creating some school templates, I messed up my normal.dotm one (I think I renamed it Blank.dotx), and after restarting my computer, a new normal.dotm appeared. I didn’t have this issue until I started using the Blank template, which I’ll be deleting shortly.

So to those having this problem, does this apply to you?

Also bandwag0n, you can disregard my reply to you as your method essentially does this.

And to dwd, I’m also interested in if this applies to you as well since you haven’t experienced this problem.

From this point forward, I won't be using Blank, and I'll update the forum of if the problem persists. If anyone knows how to determine the template a document is currently using, that would be of great help. This way, if the problem does occur, and I'm in a doc that was created before today, I'll be able to check if the Blank template is currently in use. It may not work if the template's been deleted, but I really need to get it off my computer... crossing fingers.

Rhondarr,

To your request that I elaborate on how my steps solve the problem...

I cannot say for sure how they solved the problem, only that they have solved it and that the permissions steps had not.

I suppose I can also share how I arrived at my solution...

My disk was in fact low on space.

But deleting several Gigs of content didn't solve the problem.

I assumed at that point that something was corrupted in my preferences folder.

The size of that directory was rather large also, possibly prohibitively so-?

So I backed it up and then deleted it.

Problem disappeared.

My wife experience this issue. The immediate solution was to quit Word. After re-opening Word, Word worked with no problem.

I think that it is something with Microsoft and SIP.

getting same problem, I tried the following command to see if any related MS Word permissions were wrong. It checks and reports all the permissions with out changing any thing, I don't like the idea of trying to fox things that are not broken !

sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs --volume / > perms.txt

I couldn't see and Word related problems BTW , solution seems to be to restart word and make sure I do plenty of CMD+S's

Hi. I've tried this fix, but after I enter the sudo command (actually, after I copy/paste the command and then hit the ENTER/RETURN key) I get the following:

sudo: unable to stat /etc/sudoers: Permission denied

sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

Any ideas?

I'm working with the 2016 Word for Mac, for a MacAir with El Capitan. Any help would be really appreciated.

Robertharpool said:

"I fixed this problem by . . . repairing permissions.

This feature was removed from El Capitan, so I had to manually enter it. To do so:

1. Open Terminal

2. Copy and paste the following: sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

3. Wait a few minutes...I had hundreds of permissions that needed fixed.

4. Quit and re-open Word. Warning dialog box is gone."

So, I bravely pasted the command in my terminal, hit Enter and... got a prompt to enter my password. The prompt was "Password:" with a grey & white key symbol after password. I tried to enter my password there, but wasn't allowed to type anything. I tried clicking on the symbol, tried deleting it, tried making a space between the symbol and the colon, tried right-clicking on it: there was no way for me to enter my password.

Has anyone else had/solved this problem?

(Elsewhere online I found a temporary fix for this problem (which I now can't find anymore: it was in a blog) which was something like holding down a key while I opened word. Wish I could remember what that key was. This was a solution that worked for a couple of weeks but I'm now experiencing the "word could not create the work file" message again. The last time this happened, word wouldn't access my fonts, so my documents were in a different (and ugly) font.)

Thanks for any help folks may have with solving my terminal password problem!

So, I should have hunted around online first to solve this problem. I learned that, for security reasons, there will be no visual indication that I've typed my password until I hit Enter. At that point, the command will be executed. Right now my permissions are being repaired. Yay!

Thank you! This solved my problem