Greetings to all! I just joined MacRumors today as a result of a most unusual crashing of each app within the MS Office 2011 for Mac Suite. Last night, 6/17, ALL 4 apps crashed individually! Even on my backup HD, each app, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint each crashed within 20 seconds of opening. PLEASE HELP! This is one of the strangest things I've experienced in 31 years of using Macs! It seemed like "Big Brother MS" took the liberty to pull the plug in the 10th year anniversary of their 2011 Office Suite for Mac!
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MS Office 2011 - All 4 apps crashing!
- Thread starter Reuv
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If you recently updated to Catalina or Big Sur, Office 2011 will not run as it's 32 bit.
If Office apps are the only crashing apps, then you should uninstall, then re-install Office using your original installer.
(I had to do that about 1 year ago, I recall that it was a challenge to get all the updates to work. The updates didn't work the first time I tried, and I had to search for correct downloads to get it almost updated. MS doesn't support Office 2011, so that's when I decided to abandon 2011 (and MS), and started using LibreOffice instead. But, maybe you will discover how to get your 2011 working again. Good luck with that!
(I had to do that about 1 year ago, I recall that it was a challenge to get all the updates to work. The updates didn't work the first time I tried, and I had to search for correct downloads to get it almost updated. MS doesn't support Office 2011, so that's when I decided to abandon 2011 (and MS), and started using LibreOffice instead. But, maybe you will discover how to get your 2011 working again. Good luck with that!
Nobody's pulling the plug on anything. Microsoft simply never tested Office 2011 on High Sierra or newer because Office 2011 is already retired in 2017. I'm not sure why the quick bashing on Microsoft.
Microsoft since then has released two newer versions, 2016 and 2019. I would consider alternatives if you don't want to upgrade.
FWIW - MBP mid 2012 i7 - with Office 2011 (update 14.7.7) works fine on Mojave 10.14.6 here
I would echo chscag's comments cautioning about reinstalling - new install will ask to be reactivated and the internet method of activation probably does not work - it did not work for me 2 years ago - I finally got it working again by doing the manual dial by phone method - not sure that even works any longer
I am not sure if this will help avoid a reinstallation - have not tried - but if all else fails before trying a new install,
Maybe download the 14.7.7 upgrade package, and try to install on top of the current install? again not sure it is available any longer - since 2011 is no longer officially supported by MS
I'm running MS Office 2011 14.7.7 on High Sierra (MacOS 10.13.6) on an SSD formatted as HFS+ and don't have more than the ordinary occasional crash with it. I mainly use Excel, occasionally Word, and once in a blue moon PowerPoint. Excel seems to become unstable once I have something like over 50 spreadsheets open so I try to close as many as I can when I don't need them any more. Other than that I like it better than the "upgraded" versions.
Are you getting any error messages when they crash? Might help point us in the right direction. Rebooting the Mac in Safe Mode will clear out some caches which may cause some problems.
You should make a backup before you do anything. I found the following instructions on the web.
I’ve had occasion to move MS Office 2011 to new setups a number of times. I simply keep copies of all the files it places in /Library and ~/Library (some of them during installation, some on first run when serial number is entered to register it) and it has worked fine. (Or nearly; in 30 years on the Mac I’ve never used Office until last summer when I needed it to work on a complex document I was helping a friend with. I found it an unpleasant experience – though that may have been partly because I was using it in macOS 10.12 Sierra. But it did work.)
Below is a list of these files. I expect the crucial ones are probably the “licensing” ones, also maybe the “Office Registration Cache”; but I’ve never experimented, I just copy the whole bunch, along with the Microsoft Office 2011 folder from /Applications, which makes it unnecessary to run the Installer at all.
Are you getting any error messages when they crash? Might help point us in the right direction. Rebooting the Mac in Safe Mode will clear out some caches which may cause some problems.
You should make a backup before you do anything. I found the following instructions on the web.
I’ve had occasion to move MS Office 2011 to new setups a number of times. I simply keep copies of all the files it places in /Library and ~/Library (some of them during installation, some on first run when serial number is entered to register it) and it has worked fine. (Or nearly; in 30 years on the Mac I’ve never used Office until last summer when I needed it to work on a complex document I was helping a friend with. I found it an unpleasant experience – though that may have been partly because I was using it in macOS 10.12 Sierra. But it did work.)
Below is a list of these files. I expect the crucial ones are probably the “licensing” ones, also maybe the “Office Registration Cache”; but I’ve never experimented, I just copy the whole bunch, along with the Microsoft Office 2011 folder from /Applications, which makes it unnecessary to run the Installer at all.
Code:
/Library/…
Application Support/
Microsoft [folder]
Automator/
[98 items with extension .action]
Fonts/
Microsoft [folder]
LaunchDaemons/
com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
Preferences/
com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist
PrivilegedHelperTools/
com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper
Spotlight/
Microsoft Office.mdimporter
~/Library/…
Application Support/
Microsoft [folder]
Preferences/
com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist
com.microsoft.DocumentConnection.plist
com.microsoft.error_reporting.plist
com.microsoft.office.plist
com.microsoft.office.setupassistant.plist
com.microsoft.outlook.database_daemon.plist
com.microsoft.outlook.office_reminders.plist
com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
com.microsoft.rdc.plist
com.microsoft.Word.plist
Microsoft/
Office 2011/
Custom Dictionary
Microsoft Office ACL [English]
Office Registration Cache
OfficeSync Prefs
OLE Registration Database
Word Font Substitutes
Last edited:
You may also want to check your fonts. Microsoft applications seem to be sensitive to font problems.
Install and validate fonts in Font Book on Mac
Install and validate fonts in Font Book on Mac
Thanks so much for all your input. I have 30 years of docs in MS Word, but I'll give LibreOffice a try. Thanks again...
WOW, what a wonderful detailed response to my dilemma! I am greatly appreciative...
I have saved all 34 updates of Office 2011, and will try to install 14.7.7 over my existing apps. Hope this works!
EVERYTHING IS WORKING AGAIN!!
I used Font Book to reduce my cluttered font library from 406 to 260 fonts, AND reinstalled Office update 14.7.7 again over my exiting package. VOILA!
I can't thank each of you enough for all the great suggestions and support I received in this thread concerning my problem. We all know how much of both blessing and curse computer technology can be, but the MacForum team came to the rescue when the blessing turned sour for me yesterday.
I'm recommending MacForum to all my family and friends.
Again, thanks to each of you who participated. Have a great rest of the weekend!
I used Font Book to reduce my cluttered font library from 406 to 260 fonts, AND reinstalled Office update 14.7.7 again over my exiting package. VOILA!
I can't thank each of you enough for all the great suggestions and support I received in this thread concerning my problem. We all know how much of both blessing and curse computer technology can be, but the MacForum team came to the rescue when the blessing turned sour for me yesterday.
I'm recommending MacForum to all my family and friends.
Again, thanks to each of you who participated. Have a great rest of the weekend!