The steps to access the repair tool vary depending on your operating system. Unfortunately, there’s no general-purpose Microsoft Office document repair tool. If your documents are the cause of the problem, hopefully you have backup copies that haven’t been damaged.
- A progress bar appears and shows progress while the repair happens.
- Come with me as I write this article in real time as I try to resolve the issue.
- Watching my network access while this was underway, I saw the typical on-again, off-again download behavior for Windows Update occurring here.
- Click Yes, and the built-in Office repair window appears.
- After the list of installed apps populates (it can take some time, depending on how much you have installed), scroll down and look for Microsoft 365 (Office).
- A recovery file of your workbook also helps ensure you'll have access to your data if your workbook is deleted accidentally or if it becomes corrupted.
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The installer window changed to an animated display that included what’s shown in Figure 8. If you have any Office applications open, you’ll be asked to close them before the repairs can complete. On my test machine, for example, I had Outlook open. This provoked the request shown in Figure 4 (where, of course, I clicked Continue to close Outlook so repairs could work through to completion).
Step 4: Wax off, wax on (remove and replace Office)
How do I get to Office repair?
The Quick Repair option, as shown in Figure 2, is selected by default. That’s good because that’s what Visit FixTechGuide for solutions you’ll try next. Note that it says "The app’s data will be deleted." This does not include your files. My spreadsheets will still be there no matter what.
Want more options?
This process seldom takes more than one or two minutes. Even on my 2012 vintage test machine, it was done in under a minute (on a healthy Office installation, I cheerfully confess). When the process completes, the "Done repairing" window appears, as shown in Figure 6. When you run a Quick Repair operation, Office will attempt simple repairs using local files already on your PC. This usually takes a minute or two to complete.
steps to repair Microsoft Office
Watching my network access while this was underway, I saw the typical on-again, off-again download behavior for Windows Update occurring here. The download meter ran as high as 180 Mbps, and as low as a few Kbps while the download was underway. Office’s Online Repair option works and goes through exactly the same steps as Quick Repair, so I won’t walk through all those screen shots again. Office installations include a built-in repair tool, and that’s the first place to turn when things go awry. The absolute worst case requires running a cleanup tool on the current Office installation, followed by a clean install of a new copy of Office. That has never failed in my experience, any time I’ve had to go that far.
With the Quick Repair radio button selected, click the Repair button near the bottom right corner of the window. Please relax, and don’t give in to panic or upset. This sort of thing does occur from time to time, and it is often quite easy to repair. If one or more Office apps is acting glitchy, work your way through this series of repair maneuvers, starting with the simplest.
Repair an Office application
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. If a Microsoft 365 application such as Word or Excel isn't working correctly, sometimes restarting it will fix the problem. If that doesn't work, you can try repairing it.