Forum Discussion
Slow start Office Mac
My Office applications for Mac (especially Word) bounce approximately 46 times in the dock, before temporarily freezing and then finally presenting a document to work in.
So starting up takes more than 1 minute! When it's finally up and running everything works fine and smoothly, so it's just the start-up that drives me mad.
Strange enough this is only the case after having shut down the computer or taking the computer out of the slumber-state. If I quit the Office app and then immediately start the app again, starting will only take 2 bounces or less.
I have already tried several things (re-installing Office, re-installing MacOS, deleting caches, preferences, deleting unused fonts etc) but nothing has helped so far.
Any other suggestions?
I run Office 2019 on an iMac from 2017 with MacOSX Catalina. No problems with performance or speed of other applications.
- I don't know if this would work for anyone else, but this solved my issue forever: If you are launching the Microsoft apps from the dock, remove all of them (shortcuts) from the dock. Open Finder, go to Applications folder, now drag the office apps from Applications folder to the dock and BAAAMM! Now open the apps from the dock, and they load lightning fast.
- I admit...I read this and rolled my eyes a bit...
BUT IT WORKED!!
When your office crashes, freezes or slows down, there are several things you can do to try to fix the issue. One of the first things you can do is to restart your computer. This can help clear any temporary files or processes that might be causing the issue.
If restarting your computer doesn't solve the problem, you can try running a diagnostic tool like TechyCub Mac Cleaner to identify and fix any underlying issues. This software can help you detect and remove any unwanted files, such as cache files, logs, and temporary files that may be taking up valuable disk space and causing your computer to slow down.
TechyCub Mac Cleaner also provides several other features that can help you optimize your Mac's performance, including disk cleanup, disk optimization, and memory optimization. These features can help you free up space on your hard drive, speed up your computer's startup time, and improve overall system performance.
In summary, if your office crashes, freezes, or slows down, TechyCub Mac Cleaner can help you identify and fix any underlying issues that may be causing the problem. Its optimization features can help you improve your Mac's performance and keep it running smoothly.
Hi see my screenshot & Make sure you also have the same things checked in the settings
This has improved my document opening time from 20 seconds to 2 seconds.
Steps:
Click on the Word (Menu) -> Click Preference -> Go to General & Remove the settings checkboxes that will slow you office document openeing.
This solution worked for me!!! Thank you.
FYI: I have an installed version of a purchased Office - The Web365 is a mess for those of us without full time Internet connections.
WORD (upper left next to FILE) -> Preferences -> General
Top third of panel:
- Confirm file format conversion at Open --> DISABLED (no check in the box)
- Show Document Gallery when opening Word --> DISABLED
- Update automatic links at Open --> DISABLED
Launch is almost instant now.
Hope this helps.
Thank you this worked perfectly - much much better
- What seems to help is to disable internet connection before starting Word. By e.g. blocking internet using a firewall kill-switch.
albert23 Option that can slow down Word startup can be found here:
Click on the Word (Menu) -> Click Preference -> Go to General
Now UNcheck the option called " Open supported Office files from OneDrive or SharePoint on Office Apps for mac" (or something that looks similar, I had to translate it from Dutch).
- I'm fairly new to Macs and couldn't believe how long Word took to open compared to my PC. I took someone's advice and downloaded the Microsoft Apps from the App Store for all six Office programmes. But I didn't know whether they over-road the original 365 downloads or were something else. So I went into Word via Finder (under Apps). Problem solved! Word opened in less than a minute. I haven't had a chance to see whether it is now faster using the dock icon. I discovered that HP Smart Scan opens faster using Finder too. Maybe someone with technical knowledge can explain this. I'm just happy to have it improved. That bouncing icon in the dock was infuriating!
I had this same problem for over a year (since I installed MS Office for Mac). The problem turned out to be an intrusive program I had been using called CleanApp by Synium Software. It is a software removal app for Mac that does a pretty through job. Although the program does what its supposed to do, it must scan each program that opens. Its somewhat of a pain to delete as well. Not just a simple drag to the trash. I had done many web searches for a fix to this launch problem, because its really bad with Office. None worked.
If you have this software or a similar app remover program, try deleting it. All my apps, especially large ones like Office, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc, open like I just got a new computer.
For what it's worth, I've been working on fixing this exact issue as well for about 6 months. Today I was relentless though. I had uninstalled it at least a dozen times, but never like this. I found this article, and I followed the section titled "Uninstall Office 365 (2016) on Mac:" and golly, it worked after a reboot!
https://www.fonepaw.com/eraser/uninstall-microsoft-office-on-mac.html
versadave....but did you re-install it, too (or did you just ditch MS Word in favor of some other app)? 🙂
- albert23 did you ever find a solution? I'm having the exact same problem, mostly with Outlook and Word. Both can take anything up to 2-20 minutes to start if the mac has been shutdown!!!! Once running they are fine. If I quit the apps and restart without shutting down my mac, they start within seconds. Can anybody help?
I'm signed into to two 365 accounts - my main account is my personal, but I'm also signed in with my work account for OneDrive, Teams and Outlook. It must be something to do with the sign in. My mac is high spec and everything else runs great, even resource intensive programs such as Adobe run great. It's sooooo annoying and I often just leave the mac running without shutting down.
I've completely removed Microsoft apps and re-installed loads of times. It's usually runs a little quicker after doing this, but over time, starting Microsoft apps gets progressively slower so I need remove and re-install again. Any advice would be hugely appreciated!
albert23 If you create a new user account on the Mac and try, does it produce the same result? I wonder if its something in your iCloud account/keychain that is causing the issue and come back following a reinstall.
PaulaSillars Thanks for the suggestion! I tried it, but Word did not start significantly faster. And still the issue that the first start-up takes longer than restarting the app directly after quitting it.
Any other suggestions?
albert23 Do you have any firewall or antivirus installed?
When you did the reinstallation of OSX, did you install Office before installing any other applications?
I wonder if there is something interfering with the startup process of the application? Though why its significantly slower following a machine start rather than an application quit I'm not sure.
If you start the machine up, wait say 5 minutes and try to start Office, does it still take ages to start?
