Office 2016 on El Capitan: Microsoft Error Reporting Quits Unexpectedly

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Level 1

4 points

Office 2016 on El Capitan: Microsoft Error Reporting Quits Unexpectedly

For my Office 2016 applications on the latest version of Mac OS X (10.11.4) via my Office 365 subscription, I encounter the error, "Microsoft Error Reporting quit unexpectedly," upon launching any of the applications in normal mode. I can, however, open the Office applications in safe mode. I have fully removed, re-installed, re-authorized, and re-updated the Office suite. While in safe mode, I have disabled the Microsoft Error Reporting application (MERP 2.2.9) by using the Preferences pane. (This application is located at /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0.) I am running on a mid-2011 iMac.

I am at an utter standstill for routine office productivity. Any insight on MERP and how to disable or fix it would be appreciated.

Thank you.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Office for Mac 2016

Posted on Apr 9, 2016 10:29 AM

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Answer 1

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 9, 2016 10:55 AM in response to jdl-maryland

I should add the following from the Console as I launch MS Word and encounter the error:

4/9/16 12:32:08.760 PM taskgated[155]: no application identifier provided, can't use provisioning profiles [pid=503]

4/9/16 12:32:11.257 PM taskgated[155]: no application identifier provided, can't use provisioning profiles [pid=505]

4/9/16 12:32:20.609 PM Microsoft Word[503]: NSAllowAppKitWeakReferences=YES

4/9/16 12:32:20.715 PM Microsoft Word[503]: ApplePersistenceIgnoreState: Existing state will not be touched. New state will be written to /var/folders/3v/gobblygookhere/T/com.microsoft.Word/com.microsoft.Word.savedSta te

4/9/16 12:32:20.953 PM taskgated[155]: no application identifier provided, can't use provisioning profiles [pid=513]

4/9/16 12:32:22.641 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.microsoft.errorreporting.122272[513]) Service exited due to signal: Segmentation fault: 11

4/9/16 12:32:22.636 PM diagnosticd[104]: error evaluating process info - pid: 513, puniqueid: 513

4/9/16 12:32:22.808 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.ReportCrash[515]) Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.ReportCrash

4/9/16 12:32:26.739 PM ReportCrash[515]: Saved crash report for Microsoft Error Reporting[513] version 15.20 (15.20.16031500) to /Users/XnamehereX/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Microsoft Error Reporting_2016-04-09-123226_iMac.crash

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

205,438 points

Apr 9, 2016 10:58 AM in response to jdl-maryland

What did Microsoft say when you contacted them and reported the problem?

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Answer 3

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 9, 2016 10:58 AM in response to jdl-maryland

And here is some key error info from the OS X error report that is being created:

Process: Microsoft Error Reporting [596]

Path: /Applications/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Microsoft Error Reporting.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Error Reporting

Identifier: com.microsoft.errorreporting

- - - - - - -

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)

Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000460abc40

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

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Answer 4

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 9, 2016 11:00 AM in response to KiltedTim

Have submitted to MSFT but have not yet heard back

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Answer 5

KiltedTim

Level 10

205,438 points

Apr 9, 2016 11:01 AM in response to jdl-maryland

Microsoft Office is not an Apple product. Try Microsoft's support forums...

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Answer 6

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 9, 2016 11:07 AM in response to KiltedTim

Troubleshooting of MS Office on OS X frequently involves interplay of Apple and Microsoft stacks. Also, this problem might be a pattern that someone in the Apple community might recognize. I am hoping to draw on experience and expertise of this community as well as the Microsoft community.

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Answer 7

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,376 points

Apr 9, 2016 11:40 AM in response to jdl-maryland

Office 2016 launches under Safe Mode with no problem, but crashes under a normal startup. My first guess then would be bad fonts. Disable all third party fonts you may have on your system and try Office again.

If a very corrupt font supplied with OS X is the problem, you'd either have to reinstall the OS in order to replace them, or use Pacifist to extract clean copies from the full El Capitan installer. In Safe Mode, only certain fonts are allowed to load, so it's no proof some of the OS X supplied fonts aren't bad when Office 2016 launches.

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Answer 8

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 9, 2016 12:23 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Thanks, Kurt, but per the info shared above from Console messages and the OS X error log, the problem is most surely from the Office applications calling Microsoft Error Reporting.app (MERP) as they load. MERP, it appears, is supposed to run in the background for MS Office applications. For whatever reason, MERP loads fine under safe mode but not normal mode. That's what I'm hoping to figure out.

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Answer 9

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,376 points

Apr 9, 2016 12:53 PM in response to jdl-maryland

MERP must be part of each Office app. Looking through the Activity Monitor when I have any Office 2016 app open, it lists these item:

The first is the Auto Update daemon. Then Outlook, the IntelliType driver for my MS 4000 keyboard, and Office365ServiceV2. The last is the validation service. It and the AU Daemon clear from memory when no Office 2016 apps are running.

Have you tried closing the third party fonts and trying again? It sure can't hurt anything. Various things can cause the error, which leads to the crash. Bad fonts being among the possibilities. Not trying doesn't help to eliminate a possible cause.

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Answer 10

Apr 9, 2016 1:01 PM in response to jdl-maryland

I'll repeat what has already been advised. Try asking your Office for Mac question in the Office for Mac forums where the Office for Mac gurus hang out: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2016

Everyone there uses Office for Mac which is not true of this community where you posted.

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Answer 11

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 10, 2016 6:25 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Yes, as indicated above, I have posted there (see below). That which I am seeking in this forum: Insight as to the potential cause for the messages that I've pasted above from the Console and the error logs in OS X. For example, what triggers "no application identifier provided" and is it a problem? That'll require experience and expertise that ought to be here in this community. In other words, this problem is surely of a type or pattern that someone in the Apple community ought to have encountered previously.

URL @ Microsoft Community: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2016-macword/cannot-launch -applications-microsoft-error/dc40e52f-f…

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Answer 12

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 10, 2016 6:32 AM in response to Kurt Lang

I have validated the fonts as being fine per the tools in Font Book. The sequence of events on my machine, and the information in the log files and error reports as "snippeted" above, indicate quite strongly that MERP is failing. Quite possibly, the MERP failure is triggered "upstream" by an Office action as the applications try to launch. I am hoping to encounter someone in this forum who can assist with analysis from the OS X info from the Console and the error logs. I can of course provide more such info but have started with snippets that seemed most relevant.

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Answer 13

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,376 points

Apr 10, 2016 12:35 PM in response to jdl-maryland

I have validated the fonts as being fine per the tools in Font Book.

Font Book is a weak font manager to begin with, and its validation function is just shy of useless. If it reports a font with a red tag, then you can bet it really is bad and should be deleted. Anything Font Book marks with a yellow caution symbol means absolutely nothing.

As a test, I installed OS X from scratch on an erased drive. Font Book of course said every font was clean. I then moved all of the fonts in the /Library/Fonts/ folder to a new folder. Being on the same drive, a move did nothing more than change all of the file table entries to note the new location of the fonts. The fonts themselves weren't rewritten in any way, so it was literally impossible for them to be damaged in any manner. I added them back into Font Back as a new set and ran validation again. It reported every moved font with a caution symbol. That's how useless Font Book's validation routine is.

Is it likely to be fonts causing such a problem with MERP? Not really, but the only way to be sure is to remove all third party fonts, and replace the OS X supplied fonts by either reinstalling the OS (which I'd do at this point anyway to rule that out), or use Pacifist to reinstall just the OS X supplied fonts from the full El Capitan .dmg installer.

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Answer 14

jdl-maryland Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 10, 2016 3:00 PM in response to Kurt Lang

The insight on fonts is appreciated. I may indeed be resorting to a clean install of OS X. I'm hoping first, though, to receive insight as to what specifically is the best explanation for the error messages that I've shared; the MERP failures that I'm encountering.

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Answer 15

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,376 points

Apr 10, 2016 3:03 PM in response to jdl-maryland

Understood. Even with extensive log entries, it may be difficult to nail down. Sure would be nice to know, though.

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