How to Fix Word Not Opening on Mac?

When the Word is unable to open on Mac, there are many ways which can come in handy to resolve this issue. This article will cover three such methods which might be able to resolve minor issues and the word will start to work like before. However, this article will also talk about the next course of action when all the mentioned three methods fail to restart word on Mac.

METHOD 1: Run Repair Disk Permissions

1. Enter into the ‘Go’ menu.
2. Click on the ‘Utilities.’
3. Find ‘Disk Utility’ and open it.
4. Choose the primary hard disk drive which is the one in the computer system.
5. Click on the ‘First Aid’ tab.
6. To repair the errors and permissions from the disk volume, click on ‘Run.’
7. Click on ‘Done’ once the process finishes.

METHOD 2: Remove Word Preferences

1. Open ‘Library’ and to do that click "GO" > "Go to the folder", then type ~/Library.
2. Find a file named ‘Preferences’ and open it.
3. From the folder, move a file named ‘com.microsoft.word.prefs.plist’ to the desktop.

Restart Word and verify if the problem is still persisting.

If the problem is not solved yet, exit Microsoft Word and restore the ‘com.microsoft.word.prefs.plist’ to its original location and follow the next step.

Note: If there is no such file found in the said location, it should be understood that the program is using the default preferences.

4. Exit from any running files from Microsoft Office and click on the Word icon followed by selecting ‘Preferences.’
5. Click on the ‘File Locations’ followed by selecting ‘User Templates.’
6. From the folder, move the file named ‘Normal’ to the desktop.

The file named normal could also be found using the following steps:

1. Go to ‘Library.’
2. Open ‘Application Support.’
3. Look for ‘Microsoft’ and select the same.
4. Open ‘Offices’ in the Microsoft folder.
5. Click on ‘User Templates’ and find the file named ‘Normal’ in there.

Finally, restart Word again and confirm whether the problem still occurs. If the solution did not seem to be working, move the file named ‘Normal’ to Trash.

METHOD 3: Try to Open and Repair Word

1. Start the Word document on the Mac.
2. Click on the file menu and select Open.
3. Select the file which is needed to be open in the Open Dialog Box.
4. Click on the down arrow on the Open button and then click ‘Open’ followed by ‘Repair.’

One of the three mentioned methods shall fix the Word which was not being able to open on the Mac. However, if the third method also fails and the Word on the Mac remains unable to open, it is ideal to look for external help. There are chances that the MacOS might have crashed and started creating problems in the Microsoft Word.

When all of the three mentioned solutions go in vain, Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac will be able to recover and repair the Microsoft Word and make it openable again.

METHOD 4: Use Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac

1. Download and install Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac on the Mac where there is the file which is unable to be opened.

2. Once the installation is complete, run Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac and Select the type of Data which is needed to be recovered followed by clicking ‘Next.’

3. Select the Location where the software should be looking for recoverable files on the Mac system.

4. Once the location is selected, click on Scan so the software can start looking for recoverable files on the location.

5. Once the scan is complete, the software will create a list of all the recoverable files found on the location.

6. Preview all the files and select the ones which are needed to be recovered.

7. After selection, click on Recover and let the software do its job.

8. After the data recovery is complete, select a new location to save the file and finish the process by clicking on save.

Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac is compatible with the latest macOS as well as all the Mac devices. The software recovers all kinds of files of all different kinds of commonly used formats. If the required format is not found on the list then the desired one could be easily added to it. All in all, Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac is the one-stop solution for all kinds of data loss problems on Mac.

Conclusion:

All three mentioned methods shall suffice to fix Microsoft Word not opening on Mac. You must try these mentioned methods in the given order and if the third and the last method also fails, download Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac without a second thought. This software will fix the said problem for you.