I think a good test maybe to move one or some of the documents to the Shared folder:įinder > Go > Computer > Macintosh > Users > Shared.Ĭreate a new administrator account in System Preferences > Users and Groups, log out, and log into the new user. Tough to say if permissions just need to be applied to a certain location, or app, or if Word just needs to be uninstalled/reinstalled. Under Software, click on Applications, can you scroll down until you find Word, and click on it to show the info below, and especially if you see two of them? hoping there's an app or script out there).So to confirm, it’s EVERY Word document not just this one that won’t open?Īlso, you ARE able to open other documents on the Desktop, etc., just not Word documents?Ĭan you also go to Apple > About This Mac > System Report, I'm hoping for a less geeky solution (i.e. If I right click and choose to open in Microsoft word or excel, I get a different error message: 'Additional permissions are required to access the following files.' Then it lists the file and tells you to select the item to gain access, but it doesnt actually allow you to select anything. I've been recommended Larry Wall's 'rename' for the former issue, and '-r oldfilenewfile' for the latter. If yes, go and restore the file to its original location and start it over. Now start Word and check whether the problem still occurs. I'd like them to retain their current name, and, if at all possible, their created/modification dates. Open Library and then Preferences folder.

LibreOffice is the sole word processor that can open them, but there's no scripting, and no bulk conversion.Īlso, many files wind up named 'Untitled'. I have hundreds of these files, so I'd like to bulk convert/update them (preferably to RTF or PDF). Have ever met the Microsoft Word won’t open problem It has been proved to occur on many people’s computers (running Windows operating systems or macOS). Microsoft offers an ancient ' Microsoft Word 97, 98, and 2000 Converter for the Macintosh' to update to Office 2004, but it won't launch on modern hardware, nor can I launch my copy of Office 2004. Worst of all, Spotlight's not indexing the files (and there's important data there).

TextEdit will open them, but with a lot of nonsense characters. To do this, navigate to the Library having issues > Gear Icon (in the upper right corner) > Library Settings > Advanced settings > Opening Documents in the Browser.

Even if I add extension '.doc', I can't get Pages or other word processors to open them. If you are having issues with documents opening in the browser or client by default, you may need to change the library setting. I never imagined that my data would rot this quickly!

Word wont open on mac