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monokakata

macrumors 68020
Original poster
I think this is a Tahoe issue in the sense that it's a user settings issue and I'm on Tahoe.

Recently, when working in MS Word (latest 365) the insertion bar will show on the first click or typed character, then disappear after a hard return. A mouse click will bring up the insertion point, but only if there's already a blank line there. This makes working in Word very difficult -- but this isn't about Word, I think.

I thought it might have happened after 26.5.1, because my MacBook is on 26.4 and Word works properly there.

I thought it might be because I updated to the latest 365, so I went back to the version on my MacBook. No change.

So I tried the "make a new user account," test, and in the new user account Word works properly.

I uninstalled 365 using CleanMyMac, and reinstalled. No change. I copied the new user Word prefs over to my old account, and that didn't fix it. (I'll try that again, in case I made a mistake.)

I think there's something in my user settings that got set wrong, and I never noticed, or has barfed, but is set properly in the new account, which is completely generic in the sense that after I created it and logged into it, I changed nothing beyond signing into 365.

I checked the obvious places (screen, pointer, etc.) but they match between old and new account.

So I'm at a loss. As in completely at a loss. Maybe there's some simple thing I'm missing? (My life with computers began in 1981, and this wouldn't be the first time I've missed a simple, obvious solution, so I know I might be missing something entirely.)

Some googling for "transfer settings from one account to another" implies that that's not practical.

This is a real problem for me; I take in book design work for a few small presses, and the initial stages always involve Word. Yes, I can make Word show me the hard returns and that shows me where my insertion point is.

Anyway -- help!
 
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What if you remove your Word preferences / settings file, say by dragging it to the Desktop. Do this only when Word isn't running. The file may be in ~/Library/Preferences, or somewhere else under ~/Library. The goal is to get Word to create entirely new settings files.

Another way to find it is to run Word under a new account, change a couple settings in Word, then quit Word. Then, do a search in ~/Library for any file modified in the past 5 minutes.
 
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What if you remove your Word preferences / settings file, say by dragging it to the Desktop. Do this only when Word isn't running. The file may be in ~/Library/Preferences, or somewhere else under ~/Library. The goal is to get Word to create entirely new settings files.

Another way to find it is to run Word under a new account, change a couple settings in Word, then quit Word. Then, do a search in ~/Library for any file modified in the past 5 minutes.
I've done the remove thing multiple times, including again today, removing all traces of Office, reinstalling...no change -- meaning good in new account, still bad in mine. But I haven't tried the "change in new account" mode you suggest. I'll try that.
 
I've done the remove thing multiple times, including again today, removing all traces of Office, reinstalling...no change -- meaning good in new account, still bad in mine. But I haven't tried the "change in new account" mode you suggest. I'll try that.
I did as you suggested, chown33, but nothing changed. Now I'm looking at use terminal to erase all settings from my user account...it really does seem as though something's corrupt down there.
 
In case you missed some, doing a check in ~/Library for relevant changes over 15 seconds after changing a Word setting, here are some files that were impacted:

./Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office
./Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/MicrosoftRegistrationDB
./Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/MicrosoftRegistrationDB/MicrosoftRegistrationDB_38548581584.reg
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/Word.GovernedChannelStates.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/Word.CampaignStates.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/SurveyHistoryStats.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/SurveyEventActivityStats.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/Word.Settings.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Logs/Diagnostics/WORD/Primary1781975667694984000_3A843C8A-49F8-4571-BD5D-4EFE3831F59D.log
 
In case you missed some, doing a check in ~/Library for relevant changes over 15 seconds after changing a Word setting, here are some files that were impacted:

./Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office
./Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/MicrosoftRegistrationDB
./Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/MicrosoftRegistrationDB/MicrosoftRegistrationDB_38548581584.reg
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/Word.GovernedChannelStates.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/Word.CampaignStates.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/SurveyHistoryStats.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/SurveyEventActivityStats.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/16.0/Floodgate/Word.Settings.json
./Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Logs/Diagnostics/WORD/Primary1781975667694984000_3A843C8A-49F8-4571-BD5D-4EFE3831F59D.log
How about going to the (new) user account where Word works properly, and then copying all the Group Containers and Containers files over to my account, replacing the ones that are there? It seems to me that if I do that, and Word still misbehaves for me, then the problem lies somewhere in my account settings.

This is such a headache. A part of me believes it's something simple....
 
How about going to the (new) user account where Word works properly, and then copying all the Group Containers and Containers files over to my account, replacing the ones that are there? It seems to me that if I do that, and Word still misbehaves for me, then the problem lies somewhere in my account settings.
I was going to suggest that next.

If copying all the Word settings files doesn't trigger the problem, you could do the same with other settings from other apps.

It might be worth making a sacrificial new account just so you can overwrite its entire ~/Library with the ~/Library from the broken account. If the new acct then displays the bug, you have good confirmation it's somewhere in ~/Library.

Another approach that may do roughly the same thing might be to use Migration Assistant to migrate from your malfunctioning acct to the new acct, only importing the settings, and omitting documents and as much other stuff as possible.

If nothing else works, you might end up using Migration Asst to migrate all your files to a non-sacrificial new account.
 
Recently, when working in MS Word (latest 365) the insertion bar will show on the first click or typed character, then disappear after a hard return. A mouse click will bring up the insertion point, but only if there's already a blank line there. This makes working in Word very difficult -- but this isn't about Word, I think.
Have you tried to enable/disable "Click and type" in Settings - Edit?
 
Have you tried to enable/disable "Click and type" in Settings - Edit?
I had a moment of hope but turning it off didn't help.

Right now I'm thinking about going to the new account (where Word works properly) and then following a procedure I found online -- sitting in the new account, trashing all the settings in the old account, then going back after (presumably) everything has been stripped out and it's as if it were a new account.

Anybody see anything wrong with this procedure?

Step 1: Create a Temporary Admin Account
If you do not already have a secondary administrator account on your Mac, you must create one. [1]
1. Go to the Apple menu  > System Settings > Users & Groups.
2. Click Add User (you may need to enter your Mac password).
3. Set the account type to Administrator.
4. Fill out the name and password fields, then click Create User.
5. Click the Apple menu  > Log Out [Your Current Account]. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Step 2: Clear the Targeting User's Preferences
Log into your newly created temporary Admin account. From this account, you will strip the broken settings out of your primary account's folder.
1. Open the Terminal application (found in Applications > Utilities). [1]
2. Copy and paste the following command to completely wipe out the system preferences cache, app settings, and containerized layouts for your target user account.
(Replace TARGETUSERNAME with the short name of the user folder you want to reset):bash

sudo rm -rf /Users/TARGETUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/* /Users/TARGETUSERNAME/Library/Containers/* /Users/TARGETUSERNAME/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/*
3. 


Use code with caution.





[1]
4. Press Enter. Terminal will ask for the password of your current temporary Admin account. Type it out (no characters will show on screen) and hit Enter. [1]

Step 3: Reset App Permissions & Cached Defaults
Force macOS to clear any lingering cloud or system-level preferences still cached in the background memory for that specific account.
1. Run this command to reset the background system defaults cache for the target user:bash

sudo killall cfprefsd
2. 


Use code with caution.





3. Run this command to reset all third-party app privacy permissions (like Camera, Microphone, and Accessibility prompts) back to default:bash

sudo tccutil reset All
4. 


Use code with caution.





[1, 2]

Step 4: Fix Folder Permissions & Test
Because you deleted settings folders using the sudo command, you want to ensure the target user still maintains clean ownership of their home directory. [1]
1. Run this command to guarantee permissions are correct:bash

sudo chown -R TARGETUSERNAME:staff /Users/TARGETUSERNAME
2. 


Use code with caution.





3. Log out of your temporary Admin account and log back into your primary single-user account.
Your files, apps, and desktop folders will still be intact, but system layouts, app setups, Dock shortcuts, and wallpaper configurations will be reset entirely to factory defaults. Once verified, you can safely go back into Users & Groups and delete the temporary Admin account you built in Step 1. [1]
 
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