Crashing Applications

Hello Carol Rosenthal,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum!

I understand that you are having issue with Office Home 2024 Crashing on Mac. I truly understand how you feel. Let me assist you go through this situation.

Here is my suggestion for you:

1. Remove AutoRecovery files

• Quit all Office apps.
• In Finder, select Go > Home.
• Open Documents > Microsoft User Data.
• Open Office Autorecovery.
• Move all files in this folder to the Desktop (do not delete yet).
• Reopen Word/Excel/PowerPoint and test.

2. Update Office using Microsoft AutoUpdate

• Open any Office app.
• From the menu, select Help > Check for Updates.
• Install all available updates.
• Restart your Mac and test again.

3. Reset Office preferences

• Quit all Office apps.
• In Finder, hold Option and select Go > Library.
• Open Preferences.
• Move these files to the Desktop: com.microsoft.word.plist, com.microsoft.excel.plist, com.microsoft.powerpoint.plist
• Restart the Office app and test.

If it works, you can delete the files from Desktop.

4. Reset Normal template (Word crashes only)

• Quit Word.
• Go to Library > Application Support > Microsoft > Office > User Templates.
• Move the Normal file to Desktop.
• Reopen Word and test.

5. Check third‑party fonts

Bad fonts can crash Office instantly on launch.

• Open Font Book.
• Disable any recently added or third‑party fonts.
• Restart your Mac.
• Test Office again.

6. Remove and reinstall Office (last resort)

If all apps crash, the installation itself is likely damaged.

• Quit all Office apps.
• Delete Microsoft Office from Applications.
• Restart your Mac.
• Download Office Home 2024 again from your Microsoft account.
• Reinstall and activate.

I hope this will help with your situation. Please feel free to reach back if you have further update or more questions.

Best Regards,

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Follow these steps to resolve crashing Office 2024 apps on macOS:

1. Quit all Office applications.
2. In Finder, open Applications.
3. Use Command + click to select all Microsoft 365/Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote).
4. Ctrl+click the selected apps and choose Move to Trash.
5. In Finder, on the menu bar select Go > Go to Folder… and enter: ~/Library/Containers/
6. In Containers, move the following folders to Trash if present:
   • com.microsoft.Word
   • com.microsoft.Excel
   • com.microsoft.Powerpoint
   • com.microsoft.Outlook
   • com.microsoft.OneNote
7. Go back to Library and open Group Containers.
8. Move these folders to Trash if present:
   • UBF8T346G9.ms
   • UBF8T346G9.Office
9. Empty the Trash (optional but recommended after confirming nothing else important is there).
10. Reinstall Office 2024/Microsoft 365 for Mac by signing in with the Microsoft account used for the purchase at the services page and downloading the apps again.

This full removal of apps and related profile data followed by a clean reinstall typically resolves repeated crashes on Mac.

References:

• Microsoft Office apps for Mac quit unexpectedly - Microsoft Q&A
• Fixes or workarounds for recent Office installation or activation issues
• Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Excel for Mac