Summary:
There’s a good case for Microsoft Word being the most widely used app on the planet for putting together documents. But even the best software has its flaws, and Word’s no exception. One problem you’ll run into a lot is MS Word keeps crashing while you’re saving or opening a document. This article walks you through the best, tried-and-tested fixes for a Word document that keeps crashing on you while you’re trying to work.
Why does Microsoft Word crash while opening / saving a document?
Here are the main reasons Word might crash or shut down on you out of nowhere:
- MS Word keeps crashing when the application wasn’t installed correctly in the first place
- Windows and Mac both block third-party add-ins by default, and that can create conflicts that lead to trouble in opening the Word document.
- The drive Word is installed on could be corrupted
- Your Word application could be infected with malware
Word keeps freezing instead of crashing outright
Freezing is not the same fault as crashing, and it is worth telling them apart. Microsoft Word keeps freezing and not responding usually means Word is still running, just stuck waiting on something, a slow network drive, a spell-check pass on a huge document, or a cloud-sync conflict with OneDrive trying to upload changes while you are still typing.
Check the title bar first. If it says “Not Responding,” give it 30 to 60 seconds before force-closing anything, particularly with large files open from a network location or a OneDrive folder that is mid-sync. Forcing it closed too early is what turns a recoverable freeze into actual document corruption.
If it happens on the same document every time, save a copy locally instead of working from the synced OneDrive folder directly, then reopen. That isolates whether the freeze is a sync conflict or something wrong with the file itself.
Why does Microsoft Word quit unexpectedly?
On Windows 11 specifically, this often traces back to a Windows feature update that landed before Office finished updating its own compatibility files. Microsoft Word keeps crashing Windows 11 complaints spike for a week or two after each big Windows release, then drop off once Office catches up with a patch.
On a Mac, the pattern looks different. Microsoft Word keeps crashing Mac issues are more often tied to macOS permission changes, specifically Word losing access to Full Disk Access or Files and Folders permissions after a macOS update, which it needs to read and write AutoRecovery files. Check System Settings > Privacy & Security and confirm Word is still listed and enabled there.
A damaged Normal.dotm template file is the other repeat offender on both platforms. This is the template every new document is built from, and if it is corrupted, Word can crash a few seconds after you hit New, not when opening an existing file. Renaming or deleting it (Word rebuilds a fresh one automatically) fixes this more often than people expect.
Why does Word keep kicking me out?
Usually it is a document, not Word itself. A Word file with a damaged header, an orphaned bookmark, or an embedded object that will not render properly can force Word to close the moment it finishes loading that file, sometimes with no error message at all.
Memory pressure is the second most common cause. A document stuffed with high-resolution images, tracked changes going back months, or a huge embedded Excel table can push past what Word’s auto-save process can handle, and it exits rather than hang. This shows up more on machines with 8 GB of RAM or less running several other apps at once.
Outdated printer drivers cause this too, oddly enough. Word checks in with your default printer driver when it loads a document, and a broken or ancient driver can make Word quit a few seconds after opening, every time, until the driver is updated or you switch your default printer to something like Microsoft Print to PDF.
Fix “Microsoft Word Keeps Crashing” on Windows & Mac computers
How to fix “Microsoft Word keeps crashing” on Windows
Methods to fix “MS Word crashing” on Mac
Here’s how to fix the MS Word keeps crashing problem:
Basic Fix: Download and Install Word Updates
As mentioned above, Word crashing is often tied to an improper install. If Word isn’t installed or updated the right way, it runs into compatibility issues.
Check whether your operating system and Office suite are both up to date. If your Office version or Windows build is out of date, Microsoft Office stop working and can even crash outright. Go ahead and install the latest Windows Update or Office Update.
How to Repair Crashed Word Document on Windows?
Method 1: Use Safe Mode to open the MS Word
Booting Windows into Safe Mode and opening Word from there is the easiest way to tell whether an add-in or plug-in is behind your Word errors. Safe Mode lets you open a Word document even when there’s a software conflict caused by a third-party plug-in.
Press and hold Ctrl while clicking the MS Word icon. Click Agree on the prompts that come up, then click OK. You’re now in Safe Mode and can open the document you need. From here, you can copy, transfer, and save your Word document as usual.
Method 2: Turn off add-ins
1: Press Windows + R keys and type: winword.exe /a, Enter to open Word with plug-ins disabled.
2: Next, right-click on File, then select the Customized Quick Access toolbar option. On the left side of the screen, select Add-ins.
3: Click Manage at the bottom and select COM Add-ins, then uncheck each add-in one by one, clicking OK to confirm. Restart Word to see if that cleared up the issue.
Method 3: Use the Office Repair tool
If Word still won’t behave in Safe Mode, try repairing your Office installation with the built-in repair tool.
1: Right-click the Start menu and choose Programs & Features.
2: Select your Office installation. Right-click it, choose Change (Modify), then check the repair option and hit continue.
If none of these methods get you anywhere, your next move is to run the tool we recommend most to repair the MS word document that’s crashing on you.
SFWare Repair Word Document tool runs on a robust algorithm that scans and repairs your Word files efficiently while leaving your original .doc or .docx file untouched. This Word repair tool is known for how easy its interface is to use. Its repair methodology fixes your crashing Word files quickly and recovers your document without errors.
Method 4: Repair Word document crashing with the most efficient tool
Download and install the SFWare Repair Word Document tool. Launch it on your computer.
Click Browse and pick the Word document that’s giving you trouble. Click Repair and the tool will get to work repairing your Word file.
Click Click Here to Preview File button to check the quality of the recovered Word file that was causing the error.
This tool doesn’t just fix crashed Word documents. It also helps with repairing the Word that doesn’t respond or won’t open. It’s compatible with every version of Word, including the newer 2019 and 2016 releases, 2013, and older versions too.
How to clear Word cache?
Close Word first. On Windows, press Windows key + R, type %appdata%\Microsoft\Word and delete the contents of that folder, but leave the folder itself in place. On a Mac, go to ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Caches and remove the files inside.
Word rebuilds these files automatically the next time it opens, so you are not losing anything permanent. What you are clearing out is mostly leftover thumbnail previews, recently-used file lists and temporary lock files from documents that did not close cleanly. A stuck lock file (named something like ~$document.docx) is a common cause of a document that will not open at all, separate from the cache itself, and deleting it usually clears that up too.
If Word still will not start after clearing the cache, the problem is probably not cache-related. At that point it is worth checking whether your copy needs the MS Word stopped working fix instead, since a corrupted user profile in Office produces similar symptoms.
How to Repair Crashed Word documents on Mac?
Just like on Windows, booting your Mac into Safe Mode can help fix Word crashing on Mac.
Method 1: Boot Mac in Safe Mode
- Turn on your Mac by pressing the power button, or restart it if it’s already running.
- You’ll hear the startup sound. The moment you hear it, press the Shift key on your keyboard.
- Hold down Shift for a few seconds while your Mac restarts into Safe Mode.
- You’ll see Safe Mode labeled in the top right corner of the screen. Log in to your account and try opening Word from there.
Method 2: Run Disk Utility to Repair Crashed Word
Running Disk Utility keeps your Mac’s disk in a safe, healthy state. To repair your disk and fix Word keeps crashing on Mac, follow these quick steps:
- From the main menu on your Mac, click the Go menu, then Utilities. Open the Disk Utility program.
- From the left panel, select the primary disk on your system (in most cases, that’s Macintosh HD).
- Click the First Aid option in the toolbar and confirm when prompted.
- Your Mac will start repairing the disk. Once it’s done, restart your Mac and check whether Word still keeps crashing.
These methods above should get you past the MS Word keeps crashing error on both Windows and Mac.
If you’ve lost an unsaved or deleted Word document on your Mac along the way, you can easily recover your Word document on Mac.
Method 3: Clearing the AutoRecovery Folder
Word comes with a built-in Auto-save feature that saves your running document in the background. If a file closes unexpectedly, this is what lets you get it back. That said, the AutoRecovery function can sometimes clash with the app and force Word to crash. So it’s worth clearing it out to fix Word on Mac that keeps crashing.
- Open Finder on your Mac, then from its menu click Go > Go to Folder.
- Copy and paste the path “~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery/” into your Mac (leave out the quotes).
- Click “Go” and it’ll open the AutoRecovery folder on your Mac.
Once you’re in the folder, delete the auto-saved files to clear it out. Just make sure you’ve already got an updated, saved copy of your files before you delete anything.
Method 4: Reset the Word Preferences to fix MS Word crashing on Mac
Sometimes the application’s preferences get messed up and that’s what’s causing the trouble in Word. If that’s the case, you can reset the preferences entirely and restart Word.
- Start by selecting the Word icon on your desktop, then go to Word > Preferences from the menu.
- When the Word Preferences tab opens, click the File Locations icon.
- This opens the File Locations feature on screen. Click User templates and choose Reset
- You can also click Modify to take a look at it. You’ll see a Normal file here. You can cut and paste it somewhere else (like your desktop) or just move it to the Trash.
Bottom line:
With these methods, you should be able to fix MS Word crashing on both Windows and Mac. If one of them worked for you, let us know in the comments below.
