Installed MS Office 2024 Home & Office on MacBook w/OS Tahoe 26.1. Word, Excel & PPT fail to open ...

Question

Installed MS Office 2024 Home & Office on MacBook w/OS Tahoe 26.1. Word, Excel & PPT fail to open ...

Donald Koliha 0

I just downloaded MS Home & Office for Mac 2024 on my M2 Apple MacBook Pro, which is on OS Tahoe 26.1. I went through the download and software installation successfully, but when I attempt to launch Excel, Powerpoint or Word, I get an error message window popping up stating: "Microsoft Excel (or PPT or Word) cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Microsoft excel works with this version of macOS. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and macOS. ... Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple". The Word/Excel/PowerPoint application versions are 16.103.3.

There are two action buttons below the above verbiage: "Ignore" and "Report...". I've done the "Report..." step on the 3 apps already (not sure if that goes anywhere.) Repeated attempts to launch Excel, Powerpoint and Word continue to fail with the above failure message. I've already tried booting up the MacBook in Safe Mode and there is still no improvement.

I've read elsewhere that doing a "Get Info" for each of the applications and selecting the checkbox to "Open using Rosetta" would resolve this, but that didn't work either.

Any help in getting my Office applications to function on my MacBook would be greatly appreciated!

Donald Koliha 0 Reputation points

2025-12-08T22:13:03.4233333+00:00

I neglected to mention that My Outlook email application should be included in this failure issue and is getting the identical error message: "Microsoft Outlook cannot be opened because of a problem."

2 answers

Your answer

Donald Koliha 0 Reputation points

2025-12-08T22:13:03.4233333+00:00

I neglected to mention that My Outlook email application should be included in this failure issue and is getting the identical error message: "Microsoft Outlook cannot be opened because of a problem."

Answer 1

Zoevi-V 2,425 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Donald Koliha,

Thank you for contacting to Microsoft Q&A Forum regarding the difficulties you’re experiencing with Microsoft Office for Mac 2024 on your M2 MacBook Pro running macOS Tahoe 26.1. I understand how frustrating it must be to have Word, Excel, and PowerPoint fail to launch despite a successful installation.

Based on the details you’ve shared, here are some steps you can try to resolve the issue:

Update macOS and Office
- Ensure your Mac is running the latest version of macOS available.
- Open the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool (found in /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0) and check for updates to Office apps.
Reinstall Office
- Completely uninstall Office by moving the apps to Trash and clearing related support files.
- Download and reinstall Office for Mac 2024 from your Microsoft account portal.
Check Compatibility
- Confirm that the version of Office you installed (16.103.3) is supported on macOS Tahoe 26.1. If not, updating to the latest build may be required.
Rosetta Settings
- You’ve already tried enabling “Open using Rosetta.” If that did not work, leave it unchecked and attempt to run the apps natively.
Reset Preferences
- Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences and remove any files beginning with com.microsoft. This will reset Office app preferences.

If things still don’t work out, feel free to share an update, I’ll be happy to assist further.

Donald Koliha 0 Reputation points

2025-12-09T21:48:13.9+00:00
Thanks so much for your follow-up! I am on OS Tahoe 26.1 and the latest iteration of Office Home & Business for Mac Version 16.103.4. I did the uninstall and reinstall as you mentioned above as well. I followed the advice for removing the files involved at this link, as suggested by a participant on these forums: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3

One aspect of the failure to open the Office apps that I had suspicions about was that that the error I was seeing when attempting to open any of the 4 applications was identical "Termination Reason: Namespace DYLD, Code 4, Symbol missing ...Symbol not found: _$s7CocoaUI18AnyViewObjCWrapperC4viewAC05SwiftB00cD0V_tcfc". After some additional online research, I found this bit of wisdom (sorry I didn't save the URL or the author's name):

From your description, your Word 16.102.2 on macOS 15.6.1 exits at launch with a DYLD (dynamic linker) error due to a missing symbol inside the CocoaUl.framework that Office depends on. That typically indicates a corrupted/partial install, a framework mismatch across apps, or launching an x86_64 build under Rosetta whose local frameworks don't match the app binary after an update

Here are some steps that you can kindly follow to help resolve this:

Clean-uninstall Office (remove Word/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote/Outlook from Applications and their containers under ~/Library), then reinstall from https://www.office.com. This lays down a consistent set of frameworks and usually fixes the crash at launch.

Open Word and sign in to complete activation; confirm it isn't "Unlicensed."

On Apple Silicon, ensure you're not forcing Rosetta; Office is native ARM64 now. If your log shows x86_64, reinstall or remove Rosetta overrides.

Run Microsoft AutoUpdate and Update All to the latest 16.10x build.

I hope it helps, please feel free to let me know if vou need any further assistance.

This got me thinking that when I did the original installation, I opted to perform a "Custom" installation, selecting only Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint to be installed. I don't have a need for MS One Note or MS Teams, so deselected those apps from the initial installation. While that installation was underway, it seemed to be proceeding fairly quickly until the were supposed to be just a few minutes to go (per the installation's thermometer gauge displayed, but it seemed to take much longer for the installation to complete.

After doing the uninstallation, I decided that I would simply allow the Office installer to install the complete Office suite of software (including One Note and Teams), and this time, the installation timeframe appeared to be somewhat faster with no apparent time lags during the installation. Once the installation download completed, I was able to successfully install and launch the Office software suite.

At this point I only have one issue that I need to resolve. When the Outlook files were deleted, I obviously deleted the folders that the Outlook data. When opening Outlook now, I don't see all the mail and mail folders that I had, nor do I see my list of email contacts. I do have a recent Time Machine backup as well as a cloned copy of my MacBook Pro's hard disc that should have those missing files, but don't know what the file names are and where they need to be placed. Any assistance with getting those files retrieved and replaced would complete this installation effort and would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!
Donald Koliha 0 Reputation points

2025-12-10T03:37:58.9966667+00:00

Just a quick update to say that somehow, my Outlook data, including the email folders that I had set up in previous iterations of Office (2019, 2021) have now reappeared, as have my Outlook contacts. After some cleanup effort, I've gotten back to Outlook being useable. The POP settings that I previously used are there as well, although now I don't have the option to remove messages from the mail server that I previously could do. No big deal there. Finally, I have to say that the "new" 2024 Office for Mac is not as nicely laid out and user friendly as Office 2021 is. Some functionality that I was accustomed to in 2021 no longer exists, and navigation and screen layout seems more difficult. Hopefully the developers will make incremental improvements over time to make the Outlook application a better product. My 2 cents ...
Zoevi-V 2,425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-12T04:25:05.5466667+00:00

Hi Donald Koliha,

Thanks for the update, I'm glad to hear your data and contacts are back and Outlook is usable again. I understand the layout changes can be frustrating, and hopefully future updates will smooth things out.

Answer 2

It seems you are encountering an issue with Microsoft Office applications not opening on your MacBook. This problem can occur if the Office program was moved or duplicated, or if there are issues with the application files or preferences. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue:

Check the Program Path: Ensure that the Office applications are located in the correct directory. The path should be:
- Macintosh HD\Applications\Microsoft Office 2024
  If the path differs, move the application folder to its correct location.
Delete Duplicate Entries: Search for duplicate instances of the applications. If you find duplicates, delete them and try launching the applications again.
Remove and Reinstall Office: If the problem persists, consider completely uninstalling and then reinstalling Microsoft Office. Make sure to follow the proper steps for uninstallation.
Repair Disk Permissions: Use the Disk Utility to repair disk permissions, which can help resolve permission-related issues that may be affecting the applications.
Update macOS and Office: Ensure that both your macOS and Office applications are up to date. Sometimes compatibility issues arise from outdated software.
Safe Mode: Since you've already tried booting in Safe Mode, ensure that no background applications are interfering with Office.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, consider creating a new user account to see if the problem persists there, as it may be related to your user profile.

References:

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Installed MS Office 2024 Home & Office on MacBook w/OS Tahoe 26.1. Word, Excel & PPT fail to open ...

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