In November, Ken reported:
I just upgraded the OS on my 2020 Mac Air from Ventura 13.6.6 to Sonoma 14.7.1 because my email browsers were getting slower and slower. And the upgrade solved that problem. However, I use this laptop for nothing beyond emailing and writing documents in Microsoft Word (now 2021 version)–which is the only word-processing software I’ve used since 1998, so I’d like to stay with Word.
Since upgrading the OS, Word now takes up to 30 seconds to open and I get a spinning beach ball for 10 seconds every time I save. Nothing will fix it, even the Microsoft AutoUpdater.
I suggested a few things for him to try. Then, yesterday, he sent this note.
I wanted to wait until I’d had an extended discussion with Microsoft before following up with you.
Today, a Microsoft senior support technician and I spent over an hour working on the ‘corrupted disc directories’. We deleted all the Microsoft Office software and associated ‘containers’ and reloaded the latest versions. Regardless, my problems persist.
I discovered a couple of Reddit threads going back 8 months that document exactly the same problems that I’ve been experiencing, namely: Office 2021 is not compatible with Mac OS Sonoma on forward.
So, the problem is clearly software-based and the only workaround for the moment until Microsoft remedies the software is to go back to an earlier version of Office Word, particularly version 16.84. Reportedly, this works so I’m going to try that.
Thanks again for your advice.
Larry adds: I don’t have a way to test this personally, but wanted to share this caution with you in case it helps.
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17 Responses to Caution: Apparent Incompatibility Between Microsoft Office 2021 and macOS Sonoma (14.x)
Hi Larry,
I’ve just updated from Ventura to Sequoia 15.2 (MBP 16″ M2) and so far, touch wood, both Word and Excel (Home Office/Student 2021) open up instantly…
Andrew:
Yay! thanks for the update.
Larry
Hi Andrew,
It sounds like you went straight from Ventura and skipped Sonoma entirely–is that correct? The problems for me–and so many others as I’ve discovered on a couple Reddit threads–occur in Sonoma.
My 2020 Mac Air laptop and my 2021 Mac Studio have the same 2021 version of Microsoft Office and the same Sonoma OS. However, the Mac Studio runs Word/Excel with no problem whatsoever.
Apple techs want me to update the OS on my Mac Air to Sequoia, but I’d prefer to have both my computers on the same OS. And I generally exercise caution updating to the newest OS until 6 months after its release.
Ken
FWIW: I am running MacOS Sonoma 14.7.1 on a Mac Studio M2 and the latest version of MS Office software works great for me. I’m using the MS 365 Subscription, Word is the latest at Version 16.92 (24120731).
Wait. I can use MS Word on a Mac Mini (2018)?!
Since switching to Mac from PC, I’ve had to use Pages, and the superiority of Word became obvious.
Barry:
Sure. Easily. Just get a compatible version
Larry
It would be interesting to know just which versions of Microsoft Word show the incompatibility, combined with which versions of Sonoma. I *think* that I was running Microsoft Word 2021 with some early versions of Sonoma. I never experienced the described problem. I upgraded Sonoma regularly, and Word at intervals. Within a given Word year version, such as Word 2021, I updated when prompted by Microsoft AutoUpdater. It may be that the incompatibility is caused by some additional factors, and afflicts a small number of users.
I am currently using Word 16.92 and Sequoia 15.2 on one each of M1, M2, and M3 Macs. I haven’t seen incompatibilities. In general, I like Sequoia better than Sonoma, although both worked well for me. I had problems with Ventura.
I agree with Ken, that to avoid problems, it pays to be careful when upgrading major steps of the macOS. But given that he already has a bedeviling problem, upgrading to macOS 15.2 Sequoia might be a simple solution. Sequoia is a few days short of 5 months old. With good backups, he could revert fairly quickly to his current installation with Sonoma, if Sequoia doesn’t make everything work for him on his 2020 MacBook Air.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Derek. My version of Sonoma is the very last version–14.7.1–before shifting over to Sequoia. And I’m using the most up to date version of Word, 16.92 .
I’m close to updating to Sequoia, but am still puzzled as to why Word runs just fine on my Mac Studio via Sonoma. In the meantime, I’ve posted this issue on Mac Rumors and am waiting for a replay.
One last question: I’ve discovered that DaVinci Resolve has some hiccups with Sequoia. So I don’t plan to update my Mac Studio to Sequoia. However, if updating my Mac Air to Sequoia works to fix my problems with MS Word–will there be a problem moving my Word documents back and forth between my Mac Air and my Mac Studio?
I would think not at as if both have the same version of Word.
Ken
Hi, Ken. It’s surprising to me that you are using version 16.92 of Word, because some Microsoft pages associate this version with Office 2024 and Office 365, but not 2021. It’s very, very hard to pin down the 16.xx version numbers to the different year version names and to the variations for home vs. standard vs. pro, etc. According to the link below, posted by Microsoft on January 26, 2024, the latest version for Office 2021 Standard is 16.81.
I, too, am puzzled by your Mac Studio working fine, and your MacBook Air giving trouble. In any case, I often get Word files for colleagues who are using Word 2019 and perhaps earlier, on both Mac and Windows. I have no problem opening any of them, and they have reported no problems opening the files that I send to them. This gives me confidence that you will be fine moving Word files between your Mac Studio and your MacBook Air.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/office-2021-standard-mac-autoupdate-demands/5edf0b3b-1f77-4e83-897d-5d4de5b75546
Is it possible that Ken’s problem relates to Rosetta 2 emulation? I learned on the link below that there is a checkbox under Get Info for Word and other Office apps, that will force the use of Rosetta 2. Perhaps that box is checked.
Not Ken, but some people might have a version of Word that doesn’t include native support for Apple Silicon (before version 16.55.1107.0). https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-office-for-mac-powered-by-apple-silicon-18db14f2-4abc-4d93-96a4-72a01f6e9721
Hi Derek,
I looked for ‘Get Info’ for Word, but couldn’t find it.
Where can I locate that to see if the Rosetta 2 box is checked?
Ken
Whoops–I typed too soon. I’ll follow the instructions in your link and report back…
There was no Rosetta box to uncheck, alas…
Strange that you see no Rosetta checkbox in Get Info for Microsoft Word.app. I see it when I select Get Info on my version of Word, also 16.92, running macOS 15.2. For me, the Rosetta checkbox is the eighth line below ‘General’ at the top of the Get Info window, right below ‘Copyright: © 2024 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.’ Above the checkbox for ‘Scale to fit below built-in camera’, and above the ‘More Info’ section.
I took a screen shot, but I don’t see a way to add that to this discussion page.
Yes, I looked there, but nothing, alas…
PROBLEM SOLVED!!! All I had to do was update to the lastest version of Sequoia. Mircosoft Workd now operating like greased lightning for the first time in years!
Ken:
Yay! I’m very glad you got this working again.
Larry