One of the most depressing moment is when you click on the Save button to save a Word document you are working on, an error pops up and says: Microsoft Word is not responding. The error also happens when you try to open a Word document.
Manage compatibility mode for Office. 4/21/2020; 2 minutes to read; D; In this article. Applies to: Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, Office 2019, and Office 2016 In Office, compatibility mode is used automatically to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents that were created in earlier versions of these applications. My Word is the 2007 version and I'm saving it as a normal Word file, not as PDF. Below are 2 pictures to help understand the issue: That footer up there needs to be in this exact position, but after I save it to Drive it goes to where the finger is pointing (this is the file opened on Word and saved on the computer).
If you can't save or open a Word file because Microsoft Word is not responding on Windows or Mac, here are how to fix it and save the document.
Microsoft Word Not Responding When Opening or Saving a Document(Windows)
1. Repair Microsoft Word
Word For Mac The Document Could Not Be Saved As Pdf Compatibility Model
If MS Word is not responding on your Windows 10/8/7 PC when you try to save or open a document, you can start to fix the problem by repairing the Microsoft Word application.
Access the Repair Tool
On Windows 10, right-click the Start button and click Apps and Features. Select Microsoft Word from the Apps list and select Modify.
On Windows 8, 7, click the Start button and select Control Panel. Open Programs > Uninstall a program. Right-click on Microsoft Word and select Change.
Run the Repair Tool for Microsoft Word
If your Microsoft Office is installed by click-to-run, you will see the window 'How would you like to repair your Office Programs'. click Online Repair > Repair.
If your Microsoft Office is MSI-based installed, you'll see the 'Change your installation' window, click Repair > Continue.
Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the repair. Then try to open or save the Word document and see if Word is responding now.
2. Disconnect Network Drive
If you are using a network drive to save the Word files, Microsoft Word doesn't respond if the network drive is not existing or offline. You may disconnect the network drive from your computer to fix the unresponsive Microsoft Word.
Step 1 Go to My Computer.
Step 2 Right-click on it and select Disconnect Network Drive.
Step 3 Click the letter of the drive that the Word files are saved to and click OK to disconnect the drive.
Now all contents on the network drive can be accessed via Windows Explorer.
3. Disable Add-ins in Microsoft Word
When your Microsoft Word is not responding, Add-ins for Word may be the culprit. Disable all the add-ins for Word.
Step 1 In Microsoft Word, click File > Word Options > Add-ins.
Step 2 Under Manage: Com-in Add, click Go to open all add-ins.
Step 3 Disable all add-ins and click OK.
4. Save Document When Microsoft Word Not Responding
If Microsoft Word is not responding and you have to close Microsoft Word without saving the Word document, you can try to recover the unsaved Word document in the following 2 ways.
Search for Word Backup Files
By default, Microsoft Word turns on 'Always create backup copy' option so that it will create a backup copy of the working Word file automatically. Here is how to access the backup copy in different versions of Word.
For Word 2016: Click 'File > Open > Browse'.
For Word 2013: 'File > Open > Computer > Browse'
For Word 2010: Click 'File > Open'.
For Word 2007: Click 'Microsoft Office Button > Open'.
Then navigate to the folder where you last saved the Word file.
In the Files of type list (All Word documents), click 'All Files'. Find and click the backup file and then open it.
If you couldn't find a backup of the unsaved Word file, use a Data Recovery to get it back.
Use FonePaw Data Recovery to Restore Lost Files
FonePaw Data Recovery can quickly and deeply scan your computer to retrieve deleted Word documents as well as images, videos, audios, and more from hard drives (including Recycle Bin) on Windows 10/8/7/XP. See how easy it is to find back lost documents:
Step 1 Launch FonePaw Data Recovery.
Step 2 Select the Document file type and hard disk drive to go into the scanning process. It will be better if you remember which drive the Word documents are saved to. If not, choose all hard disk drives.
Step 3Click Scan. Quick Scan will be carried out automatically.
Step 4 Check the scanned results by Type List and Path List. Just check all the Word document file found. You are always allowed to preview the files.
If you find the result unsatisfying, try Deep Scan which may take some time.
Fix Microsoft Word Not Responding on Mac
If Microsoft Word doesn't respond on Mac, you may force quit the application and fix the problem with the following methods.
Word For Mac The Document Could Not Be Saved As Pdf Compatibility Modeling
1. Clear the Auto Recovery folder
Step 1 Open the Go menu and click Home.
Step 2 Go to Documents > Microsoft User Data then you will find the Office Autorecovery folder.
Step 3 Open the folder, there are the autorecovery files of Microsoft application. You can copy or move the files to somewhere else to save them. Then delete all the files in the folder.
Now launch Microsoft Word and see if it is responding now.
Word For Mac The Document Could Not Be Saved As Pdf Compatibility Mode Free
2. Remove Word Preferences Files
Step 1 Click Go > Go to the folder, then type ~/Library to open the Library folder.
Step 2 Open the Preferences folder and select the Word preference file, which is named as com.microsoft.Word.plist. Move the file to somewhere else like the desktop.
Now launch Microsoft Word and see if it is responding.
If the problem still exists, do the follows:
Restore the file named com.microsoft.Word.plist to the original folder, then exit all Microsoft Office programs.
Then, Click the Word icon > Preferences > Personal Settings > File Locations > User templates.
You will find a file named Normal. Move it to the desktop.
Now launch Microsoft Word and test the program.
3. Save Word Document on Mac
The worst case is that Word is not responding so that the document can't be saved, you can try to retrieve unsaved Word document with FonePaw Data Recovery for Mac.
FonePaw Data Recovery for Mac can scan out all the existing and deleted Word document on your Mac and save Word documents as soon as possible. Read How to Recover Unsaved Word Documents on Mac.
All the above are the ways to fix and save document files when Microsoft Word is not responding on Mac or Windows.
In this article, you will learn 4 effective ways to recover unsaved, lost and deleted Word document on Mac with detailed steps: [1]recover with AutoRecovery; [2]Recover from Temp folder; [3]Recover from Recovered item in Trash; [4]recover with Word file recovery software.
Accidentally closed Word without saving on Mac? Do you know how to recover unsaved Word documents on Mac? According to the unique features of Microsoft Word for Mac, you may find the unsaved item in the AutoRecovery folder, Temporary folder or Recovered item in Trash. Besides, if you unintentionally lost, deleted or formatted your Word document, you can recover a Word document on Mac with EaseUS Word file recovery software.
| Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
|---|---|
| Recover Unsaved Word Document | #1. Recover from the AutoRecovery folder...Full steps |
| Recover Deleted Word Document | #4. Recover with Word file recovery software...Full steps |
How to Recover Unsaved Word Document on Mac
Embedded with more useful features in certain collaborative situations than Pages, Microsoft Word becomes increasingly popular among Mac computers. Office 365 even allows users to create Word files on their Mac. On one hand, Microsoft Word offers standard DOC or DOCX file formats that are compatible in almost every OS platform; On the other hand, Word 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018...2011 is featured with auto-saving, which enables us to recover a Word document before we could hit Save.
Based on the features of Microsoft Word for Mac, there are three potential ways to recover your unsaved Word documents. These methods can also be applied to recover unsaved Excel files on your Mac.
#1. Recover Unsaved Word Docs on Mac with AutoRecovery
The Word for Mac includes an AutoRecovery option. It is turned on by default. The app will automatically save a copy of an open Word file every 10 minutes. If Word freezes while you're working on a document, or if the computer crashes, you can use the AutoRecovery copy to recover unsaved Word document with the changes or additions that you made in your last Word for Mac session.
Guide: How to recover an unsaved Word document
Unlike recovering unsaved Word document in Windows, the file recovery on Mac from the AutoRecovery folder is different.
Step 1. Open 'Finder' on your Mac, then head to 'Go' > 'Go to Folder'.
Step 2. Type: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery and click 'Go'.
Step 3. Open the AutoRecovery folder, locate all the files that start with the words 'AutoRecovery save of'. Select the one you want to recover, rename the file, then add the '.doc' filename extension.
Step 4. Double-click the file. The document now opens in Word for Mac.
Step 5. Click the File menu and select 'Save As'. Type a new name for the file into the Name field, select a folder for the file and click the 'Save' button.
#2. Recover Unsaved Word Documents on Mac from TMP Folder
The Word for Mac saves a copy of the unsaved document named as Word Work File in the Temporary folder. Your Mac also temporarily keep files in this folder. Though for many Mac users, it's not easy to find it.
Guide: How to recover an unsaved Word document on Mac
Step 1. Go to 'Applications' > 'Utilities' and double-click 'Terminal'.
Step 2. In Terminal, enter open $TMPDIR and you will be directed to the TMP folder which is used to keep files temporarily.
Step 3. In the TMP folder, find and open the folder named 'TemporaryItems'. In it, right-click the desired unsaved Word files and 'Open with...' Microsoft Word.
Word For Mac The Document Could Not Be Saved As Pdf Compatibility Mode In Firefox
Step 4. Save the Word file by clicking on 'File' > 'Save As' and save it to another location.
#3. Recover Unsaved Word Document on Mac from Recovered Item
The Word for Mac temporarily saves documents that the user has not yet saved themselves in a folder named 'Recovered items', located in the Trash. If there are no recovered files, this folder will not appear.
Guide: How to find unsaved Word files on Mac
Step 1. Open 'Trash' by clicking its icon on the dock.
Step 2. Look for a folder labeled 'Recovered items' and click into it to look for your unsaved Word file. If you cannot find it, try the next solution.
#4. Recover Deleted Word Document with Word Recovery Software
The aforementioned three ways are exclusively for saving the file you're currently working on but suddenly disappear before clicking the Save button. To be specific, the methods will only work for files that are in the process of being worked on when they disappeared. Hence, if you lost a Word doc that is already existed by deletion, disk formatting or losing its access, you need to turn to other ways to recover a Word document on Mac.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is third-party specialized Mac data recovery software that can scour your hard drive, external hard drive, SD card, or USB flash drive to find all the lost data that vanishes without a trace on Mac OS X/macOS. It doesn't matter whether you emptied the trash bin or not, the deleted file will show up after you use the program to scan your selected drive.
For the first attempt, we strongly recommend you download its free version. It won't cost you a penny to search for your missing files. And since your problem is only for a few lost Word files, the 2GB recovery limit should be more than enough. The scan & recovery process is very simple, we’ll show you how it works.
Guide: How to recover a Word document on Mac
Step 1. Select the location where your important Word documents were lost and click Scan button.
Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will start immediately a quick scan as well as a deep scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane.
Step 3. By Path and Type, you can quickly filter the Word files you've lost earlier. Select the target files and click Recover Now button to get them back at once.
How to Increase the Chance of Unsaved Word Data Recovery
After suffering from the fear of losing your Word documents, you must not want to experience this kind of situation again. Thus, it's necessary for you to know how to avoid losing your Word files. To avoid completely losing your files, you can:
Tip 1. Save the Word Document Whenever You Create a New One
An ever unsaved Word document exists in the computer's RAM, not on the hard disk. Thus, the chances to save a Word Document that has never been saved before are slim. Knowing this should give you a hint that you should save the word document at least once whenever you create a new one.
Tip 2. Change the AutoSave Interval
After you save your Word document, the AutoSave feature will begin to work. To minimize the loss of the progress on the file you are working, you can change the frequency of AutoSave:
Step 1. Open Microsoft Word on your Mac.
Step 2. Go to 'Word' > 'Preferences' and click 'Save' under Output and Sharing.
Step 3. Check all the items under Save Options (Recommended) and change the interval of AutoSave, for example, from every 10 minutes to every 5 minutes.
If you follow the two tips above, you will substantially decrease the risk of losing your Word documents. What if you carelessly deleted your important Word files on your Mac? No worry. Try the free method to retrieve permanently deleted Word documents with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.