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Charles Kenyon - Stefan Blom - Suzanne S. Barnhill - Bob Jones AKA: CyberTaz - Jim_ Gordon ✅

February 11, 2025

Word Top Contributors:

Charles Kenyon - Stefan Blom - Suzanne S. Barnhill - Bob Jones AKA: CyberTaz - Jim_ Gordon ✅

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JakeHunsaker

Word won't open downloaded .docx files.

I am using Office 365 and Windows 8. When I try to open a downloaded .docx in Word, the Word logo pops up and loads forever. It never actually opens the file. The downloads I am trying to open are documents posted by my professors on an online campus called Canvas. I can email the files to myself and then they open in Word just fine. It's not the documents that's the problem, it's something with Word.

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Nayana S M

Hello Jake,

Are you trying to open the attachment directly from an email?

If so, save the attachment locally on the Computer desktop then try to open the document and verify the status.

You may also refer to the thread link mentioned below and check if that helps:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/since-few-weeks-ago-i-can-not-open-downloaded-docx/15f7050d-a441-48fe-9f3d-5c1aff78f12a

For further queries, reply and we would be happy to assist.

Thank you.

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Rohn007

Both for Canvas and Email you should copy (download) the file down to your local HD before trying to open it.

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As computer scientists we are trained to communicate with the dumbest things in the world – computers –
so you’d think we’d be able to communicate quite well with people.
Prof. Doug Fisher

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JakeHunsaker

I download the files from Canvas to my HD. I then try to open it and it loads forever. If I email the now downloaded file from my HD it opens from my email just fine.

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JakeHunsaker

I can download files from my email to my HD and open them just fine. I can't open files downloaded form Canvas. I download them from canvas to my HD and then try to open them and the Word logo just loads forever.

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Rohn007

Jake, you didn't have to duplicate your reply, we all see all of the replies.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas.

When you open a "Canvas" document, does it connect to canvas? Maybe there is a problem with the addon. Try starting Word in Safe mode and see if you can open a "canvas" file.

Shortcut to Start Word in Safe Mode or Excel in Safe Mode, Hold

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VictoriaSoriano

I had that same issue - but with both Canvas and email attachments. Found this on another post and it worked for me:

1) Open Excel 2013,click on File, Options, Trust Center, Trust center settings.

2) Select Protected view, uncheck all the options under Protected View, OK.

3) Restart Word 2013 and try to open Word documents and verify the result.

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ArNdInIo

Great I ve done that in word 2013 and now it s working perfectly !

Actually I couldn't open any .docx sent by my collaborators by mail. I though it was a problem of file compatibility between PC and Mac. But Word 2013 was working under a kind of protected mode. I uncheck all theses options and now it s opening easily any kind of file !

Sorry but this options are a little bit stupide .... and very hard to see from where the probleme comes from....

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Stefan Blom

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When Word opens a document in Protected view, you should be able to click Enable Editing on the yellow information bar at the top of the Word window. But I can certainly understand why you want to get rid of that extra step. :-)

Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~
Note that I do not work for Microsoft
https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~
Please specify Word version & OS in your question

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AngelicaClaudio-Cortes

For some reason the file wouldn't even open...it would just "load." So, I didn't have the option to even enable editing (my computer at work gives me that option).

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Stefan Blom

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If the document is an e-mail attachment, try downloading it to your hard drive before opening it.

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Question Info

Last updated November 27, 2024 Views 85,398 Applies to:

Microsoft 365 and Office
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Windows 8
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