How to Fix “Something Went Wrong” When You Start an Office App

Calvince Nyawara on
When starting an Office app, you might get this error “Something Went Wrong”. Here are some quick methods you can try to fix this problem.
Fix “Something Went Wrong” When You Start an Office App

Occasionally, when opening up an Office application, the app may not work you’ll receive an error message saying “Something went wrong”:

If this happens to you, try the following troubleshooting steps:

Method 1: Restart Your Device

The error may be caused by your computer’s background processes. Restarting your device, re-signing into your Microsoft account and launching the app from fresh may be enough to get it working again, so try this first.

Method 2: Repair Office from your Windows Control Panel

If it still doesn’t work after restarting your computer, then Control Panel in Windows allows you to run a Repair on your Microsoft Office apps.

Step 1 (varies for different versions of Windows):

  • Windows 10: Right-click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen and click Apps and Features. From the list, click on the Office program you want to fix and select Modify.
  • Windows 8/8.1: Right-click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen and click on Control Panel. Open Programs and then select Uninstall a Program. From the list, right-click on the Office program you want to fix and select Change.
  • Windows 7: Click the Start button in the bottom left of your screen and click on Control Panel. Open Programs and then select Uninstall a Program. From the list, right-click on the Office program you want to fix and select Change.

Step 2 (same for Windows 10, 8/8,1 and 7):

  • If given the option, choose between Quick Repair or Online Repair options and then click Repair

Note: Quick Repair only fixes corrupted files, while Online Repair fixes everything

  • Otherwise, just select Repair and click Continue. 

Method 3: Uninstall and Reinstall Microsoft Office

If neither restarting your computer nor repairing your Office program work, then try uninstalling your Office and doing a fresh installation.

Step 1: Uninstall Office

  • Microsoft offers an Uninstall Tool on its website which you can find a direct download link for here. Just download the tool, open it up and follow the instructions to uninstall your Office program.

Note: if you have any problems running the tool through Internet Explorer, try using another web browser, such as Chrome or Firefox

  • If the Uninstall Tool isn’t working, then try following our guide here for how to manually do a complete uninstallation of your Office product

Step 2: Restart your computer

  • If you used Microsoft’s Uninstall Tool, it will automatically re-open after you restart your computer, to complete the uninstallation process

Step 3: Reinstall Office

  • Once the uninstallation process is complete, you’re now ready to do a fresh installation of Office
  • You can either install Office again directly through your or, if your internet connection’s unreliable, you can use the Office offline installer

Note: To use the offline installer, you still need to download it first from your online Microsoft account. Once you’ve downloaded it, you can then run it anytime, without worrying about an internet connection.

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Tags: How To