Well, this is a giant mess.
Following the release of Apple’s new OS X 10.11 El Capitan on Wednesday, a number of users have complained of crashes with Office 2016 and the new operating system.
“This is beyond the Pale. We basically can’t use Office on our computers,” wrote one user on the longest thread related to the crash problem.
Users have complained of apparently random crashes since the update, the discussion thread regarding the issues currently running for more than 140 pages.
Where Office 2016 was shipped in early July, the complaints discussion thread has exploded since the release of OS X 10.11 El Capitan.
The application crashes and the ensuing lock-ups come at various times and when performing various chores with the software, users said. Some have seen Outlook go dead when their Macs awoke from sleep, others asserted that the downfall of one Office application caused all other open Office applications to crash as well, while a few noted that even after a crash, the applications were unresponsive, requiring a Mac restart to clear the decks.
Other users have complained that crashes are more likely to occur if more than one Office app is open at a time.
While fixes and workarounds have been offered on the discussion thread, it appeared that few, if any, of these fixes worked on a wide scale.
It’s unclear whether Microsoft’s or Apple’s code was responsible for the Office 2016 crashes, or a combination of both. As such, blame has been assigned to both parties with neither side appearing to be clearly at fault.
Office 2016 for Mac sells for either US$150 or US$230 in perpetual license form, or is available with an Office 365 subscription, which range in price from US$70 to US$240 annually for the entry-level consumer plan and the most expensive corporate deal, respectively.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via Macworld and answers.microsoft.com