Microsoft Word is a very popular word processor application. It exists from the early days of Windows. However, it has gone through some major changes, and now it is a very effective and useful application. MS Word is the basic need for many people in their daily life. Many people use it as a default word processor application. However, the application is not completely bug-free. The most irritating bug Microsoft word has that it suddenly shuts off for no reason and stops responding.
It is unknown why Microsoft Word suddenly stops responding. However, there are a few methods you can try to troubleshoot the error. The error could be very irritating if you were on important work. It can get lost unsaved. The methods explained below will show you how to recover your document and how to fix the MS Word not responding error.
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How to Fix If Microsoft Word Not Responding?
Method 1: Repairing MS Word
Since MS Word is a native Windows application, Windows lets you repair native app files. By performing a repair, it will restore any damaged or corrupted file. Hence, it can fix the issue.
Step 1) Press the Windows key + I to open up Windows settings and click on the Apps option.
Step 2) Scroll-down and search MS Word or Microsoft Office. Since MS Word is a part of the MS office suite, the repairing Office will also work. Click on MS Word or Microsoft Office and select the Advanced options.
Step 3) Now, on the next page, scroll down and click on the Repair option. Windows will repair MS Word for you. You can also reset MS Word and see if it solves the error.
If you have the MSI file for Microsoft Office, then double-click opens it and select the repair radio button and continue. Restart your Pc and check if the error occurs again.
Method 2: Disconnecting the Network Drive
If you are connected to OneDrive or any other network drive that automatically backup your MS Word documents, it is possible the service is causing trouble for MS Word, or both are in conflict. Therefore, you must disconnect any network services.
Step 1) Open up your File Explorer and right-click on the C drive.
Step 2) Select the Disconnect Network Drive option from the menu.
Step 3) Select the drive where the MS word files are saved and click ok to disconnect.
Method 3: Disabling Add-ins
Add-ins can be the main culprit behind the random not responding of MS Word since Add-ins consume most of the CPU storage it is very possible that it is causing the issue. It will be very wise to disable all the Add-ins in MS Word
Step 1) Launch MS Word, click on the File option on the menu bar then select Word Options> Add-ins.
Step 2) Now select the Com-in Add option below from the Manage drop-down menu and click on the Go button to open all the add-ins.
Step 3) Disable all the Add-ins at once, and to save the settings, click on the OK button.
Method 4: Using MS Office Recovery Application
If you have Microsoft Office Suite installed on your Pc, then you can use the MS Office Recovery tool on your Pc to fix the not responding error of MS Word.
Type MS Office Application Recovery in the Windows search bar, and the application will come in the search result, open it.
Select the word document that wasn’t responding and click on the recover application option to recover the lost data and to fix the application.
Method 5: Update Device Drivers
If your device driver is not updated to the latest version and if the drivers are incompatible with Microsoft word. The error is sure to occur. You just have to update your drivers to the latest version to fix the incompatible issue.
Type device manager on your windows search bar and open up the device Manager. Expand the driver options, select the driver, right-click, and click on update driver.
Choose the Search the Drivers Automatically option and let Windows check for the driver online. check the Graphic, processor drivers first.
Conclusion
If you want to fix Microsoft Word not responding error then there aren’t many things to do, you can first try disconnecting the Network Drive to resolve the conflict. If that doesn’t work, then you can try repairing the MS Word or MS office suite using Windows settings. Moreover, disabling Add-ins in MS Word will help you too. You can also use MS Office Recovery tools to perform a repair, or if you find any incompatible driver, just update it. The document can be easily recovered, go to MS Word>File>Open>browse.