• Why Does My Microsoft Word Keep Crashing Back
• Why Does My Microsoft Word Keep Crashing On Computer
• What Do I Do If Microsoft Word Keeps Crashing

Many of us have encountered a situation when we were working on a document, had not saved it, and either lost power or closed without saving. If you are working in Microsoft Word and experience an interruption in your power, can you salvage anything you were working on? Or, what can you do if you have an error occur and have the computer shut off before you save a file that you were working on? What are some actionable steps you can take when you have Microsoft Word crashing?

Microsoft Word not responding is a common complaint of MS Office users. Fixing it might be as simple as restarting your computer. If that doesn't work, try troubleshooting it. See full list on versitas.com. Mar 12, 2020 Since Monday, 09 MAR 2020, my Microsoft Word is crashing on start-up. This is a freshly bought Laptop from 27 FEB 2020, and Microsoft Word was working fine until this date. When I completely remove Microsoft office from the computer, reboot and re-install - then I can open a new blank word document.

There are several factors to consider. You might consider calling your IT help desk right away. But, what information will they need from you? Do you know the exact steps you took? Is there anything you can do FIRST before you call IT?

If Word keeps crashing, you may find that an add-in can be the culprit. If an add-in is the issue, start your application in safe mode by holding the CTRL key down while you click on the application. Don’t let go of the CTRL key until it asks you about Safe mode with a confirmation.

If you see add-ins, start the application normally and disable add-ins one by one. You will want to restart the application after disabling each add-in to see if that helps. To get to the add-ins, click on the File tab, go to Options and then Add-ins on the left. In the Manage drop down list, you will see COM Add-ins. Click Go and uncheck an add-in in the list, if there are any checked. That will disable an add-in.

If changing the add-ins or if you don’t have any add-ins and you are still having Microsoft Word errors pop up when you open a file, you might start by repairing Office on your computer. Follow this Microsoft Office tech support link for those instructions.

If you did save at some point before Word crashed and have saved it on a drive, you could probably recover at least the portion of the document through the last time you had hit save. The motto I live by is, “Save early and save often!” Hitting the CTRL+S key frequently has saved me several times!

Search for File

If it was saved at any point on a hard drive or USB drive, you could also do a search for it. In Windows, you can click in the Search box. Enter the name of the file and hit Enter. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

If you find the file in the list, then you can double-click the name of the file to open it. If you cannot find it this way, you can try another way by looking for a Word backup file.

Word Backup File

Additionally, you can see if there is a backup copy of the Word file. First, check to see if the “Always create backup copy” option was selected in the Word options. The option can be found by clicking on the File tab in Word, choosing “Advanced” on the left and then looking under the “Save” section. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

If “Always create a backup copy” is checked, then you can do a search for *.wbk which looks for backup Word files. If you find that file, then you can go to Word, click the File tab, choose Open. Change the file type to “All Files” and navigate to your backup Word file. If the “Always create a backup copy” is not checked, you might want to go ahead and enable it for future use.

Word Crashing AutoRecover

If the searching for a backup copy does not work, another option is to try the AutoRecover feature in Word. When you are working in Word (and if the feature has been enabled), after a certain amount of time (this can be changed in the options but is often set to 10 minutes), Word will create an AutoRecover file. If you haven’t been working that long, then you will not have an AutoRecover file to recover. Also, if you have closed or quit the file manually, then the AutoRecover file is gone.

Enable AutoRecover

Each time Word opens, it searches for AutoRecover files. If it finds anything to recover, it will show up in the Document Recovery task pane. This will only work if the AutoRecover feature was enabled. To check and see if it is enabled, go to the Word options and click on “Save”. Look to see if the AutoRecover feature is enabled. While you are there, you will want to note the AutoRecover file location. See Figure 3.

Why Does My Microsoft Word Keep Crashing Back

Figure 3

If the feature has been enabled, then you can try starting up Word again to see if you have an AutoRecover file. Before starting Word, you will want to go into the Task Manager to stop all instances of Microsoft Word that are running. Right-click the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and choose Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab and click on “Winword.exe” if you see it present. After clicking on the execute file for Word, you will want to click on “End Process”. Repeat this for any occurrences of the Winword.exe process.

Why Does My Microsoft Word Keep Crashing On Computer

Relaunch Word

Now you are ready to open Word again. It will automatically search for any AutoRecover files. If they are present, the Document Recovery task pane will open. You will see the document name followed by “Recovered”. Now, you can open the file and continue working.

Another option is to click on the File tab and choose Recent to choose “Recover Unsaved Documents”. If you cannot find the AutoRecover file, then you can go to the AutoRecover file location that was in the Word options (under the “Save” category). When you go to that location, you will be searching for files with .asd file type.

If you have not had any problems like this, it is worth your time to check your options and enable your backup copy and AutoRecover features. You never know when you might encounter this same issue and wish you had setup those two items.

If you would like more information, check out another blog post about recovering files.

What Do I Do If Microsoft Word Keeps Crashing

If you have tried everything and are ready to call IT, make sure you have notes of exact steps that you have taken. If you can save screenshots, that could be helpful, too. Try to be calm and remember that the IT help desk technician did not create the problem, most likely, so don’t take your frustrations out on them.

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