How do I fix a 'Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges' error?

Resolved it with a restart. Thanks again

All comments

Hey there @Dolphin_R - sorry to hear about this.

Can you please send me a screenshot of the exact error mesage you get so I can investigate further?

While you're at it, what is the desktop app on your computer stating at the moment? Is it 'Up to date' or still syncing?

Any additional information you can provide will be much appreciated!

Screen Shot 2019-04-23 at 16.17.38.png

Thanks Walter. I have uploaded the screenshot. I am not sure about the status of the App (I just access it via Finder menu). Thanks for any advice.

Resolved it with a restart. Thanks again

rickvee

This issue is happening to us as well. We've used Dropbox for years and it seems to have become an issue about 1.5 months ago. It now occurs daily, forcing users to restart every time. Is there another fix?

As the error you get is coming directly from Microsoft's Word, I'd suggest reaching out to Microsoft directly @rickvee.

Another thing you could do is perform a web search using the exact error message you get in order to find out more about it and how to best tackle it.

If there's anything else you'd like to ask, please let me know.

rickvee

Thank you for the response. Interestingly enough a Google search brings me to a discussion on the Dropbox forum that says to restart your computer to resolve the issue. As I mentioned above, this is not a realistic solution to constantly restart the computers that are grabbing these files. This issue began when Dropbox rolled out the major update, which leads me to believe the issue is on Dropbox's side.

I will reach out to Microsoft as well. I'm sure sure their response will be...Microsoft works fine on our end, maybe you should switch to Onedrive...Microsoft doesn't have any issues with that Cloud solution.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_mac/cannot-open-the-document-user-does-not-have-access/

Keep me posted on your findings and we'll take it from there @rickvee.

I found this article that could help as well:

Let me know how it goes!

Raineydays1233

I too am having this issue. I'm not able to save new documents or open previous ones. What is going on??? Your link to the article doesn't work.

Sorry about this @Raineydays1233 - it seems like the thread I had linked above has been moved or deleted; you might want to perform a web search on your own end for the error string you're getting along with your device's OS - this might give you an insight on what could be causing this.

If you'd like me to have a look into this for you please send me a screenshot of the exact error you get.

While you're at it, please include the device(s) and OSes that come in play and what version of Word you're using too.

Thanks!

elliebelly

I am having this same problem, none of the solutions here work. Seems to have happened out of the blue.

Sorry to hear that @elliebelly - have you tried re-installing the software installed on the affected computer? Maybe that will do the trick!

If that doesn't help, please let me know if I can reach out to your Dropbox associated email address to work on this together.

Thanks in advance!

d3rry

I too am having this problem, I spoke to Microsoft and they reinstalled Office 365 but it didn't solve issue. As with the other people posting here this only started relatively recently. Issue resolves with a restart but as another user points out - that's a painful solution. I am looking at moving away from dropbox despite being a customer for over 8 years.

Joyrose28

I'm having the same problem, also! Will try the things you mentioned. It mostly happens when I create the document on my office computer and then try to access it on my laptop. The error message says:

Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges

Hi there @Joyrose28,

Yes, please let us know if the issue is resolved for you after giving the steps mentioned in this thread a try.

If you're still experiencing the same behavior though, could you please send us a screenshot (without any personal info) of the error message, as well as what you see when you hover over your Dropbox icon that's next to your computer's clock?

Thanks in advance!

palmerpark

I am also having this problem. Word files created on several Windows machines cannot be opened on my 2017 MacBook Pro. As of September 5, 2019 all of my OSs and Office programs were up to date. MacOS is version 10.14.6 (18G95), Dropbox version is v79.4.143. Office was downloaded from scratch a few days ago. On startup, Dropbox seems to be using around 2GB of ram and 40% of the CPU continuously even though it had been completely synced the last time the computer started. From what I can tell, Dropbox's sync algorithm is the problem. I added one small folder to selective sync and then Dropbox started "syncing" the entire Dropbox directory... Does Drpobox not have some sort of version control type sync? Does it really have to index the entire filestructure each time a selective sync is adjusted? If that's the case, Dropbox is not for me anymore.

Hello @palmerpark,

I'd be more than happy to help look into this with you.

If your computer is experiencing high CPU when the desktop app is running, could you check out this article which lists some suggestions on how to tackle it? Maybe one of them will do the trick.

Let me know how it goes!

Jeff D.22

So this is still unresolved without a solution from Dropbox other than to blame Microsoft?

Anson010

I had the same porblem with Word and it went away when I delete dropbox.

Hi @Jeff D.22 and @Anson010, thanks for reaching out to us about this!

As a first step, could you please clarify the following for us:

Does this occur to all Word documents in your Dropbox folder?
Is the desktop app up to date or is it still trying to sync content? You can see that by hovering over your Dropbox icon on your system tray or menu bar.

Any additional info and screenshots (without personal details) would be very helpful.

Keep us posted!

palmerpark

That link describes part of my problem; I have well over 300,000 files. That does not seem to be a problem on my main PC, but it simply won't sync onto a new MacBook Pro. I left the laptop to sync (as the only running program) for 4 days on a 300 megabit wifi connection and after 4 days of running dropbox at nearly full CPU load, it hadn't synced any files at all and won't let me open any of the files that were locally saved into the Dropbox folder. I've tried reinstalling Dropbox and selectively syncing a subset of the files that I need and still get the same outcome. If there is an upper limit to the maximum number of files that I can store in Dropbox (other than the vague "around 300,000" mentioned in that link) I'd like to know that.

Thanks for getting back to us, @palmerpark!

The number given of 300,000 files is a soft limit which heavily depends on the specifications of each computer. This could explain why you're having a different experience from one device to another.

From there, since you've already selectively synced content to improve the syncing process of the desktop app, I'd recommend giving it some more time to complete.

In any case, keep us posted on the progress and don't hesitate to nudge us again if you have any other questions. Cheers!

kjjones

I am having the same issue and I agree that this is a Dropbox issue. I am able to create Microsoft files and save them on my computer. I am able to open them from elsewhere on my computer. It is only the documents in Dropbox that cannot be opened. When this began, I was also no longer able to play media from inside Dropbox. Instead it would open the file in a media player app. These issues make it more difficult for me to do my work.