PowerPoint 2016 won't open

[ljderek]

Hi there;

I've had a problem recently creep on a couple users' Macs that I can't seem to troubleshoot.

When the user tries to open PowerPoint, the application bounces in the docks and then does nothing. It is limited to the user profile, as any other user on the same machine does not have the issue. No error message is displayed. I've tried reinstalling the app and moving MicrosoftRegistrationDB.reg out of the Group Containers folder, along with the various other .plist files. I've also tried running the updater to install the latest updates.

Both machines I've encountered this with are running macOS 10.12.3 and are running Office 15.31 (updated to 15.32 as part of troubleshooting process). I've been renaming the user profile and having the users create a new one and then moving their files back over - which is not an ideal solution but works for now.

Any ideas?

[andrew_nicholas · Accepted solution]

I haven't seen this in some time, but shortly after Office 2016 had released I had this occur for a VIP. After rounds of fighting with it, eventually it was solved by purging the Office 2016 app directories in the Containers folder. Clearing those let them rebuild on the next launch of the apps and it was fine.

[ljderek]

Thanks, that worked. I removed ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.PowerPoint and that fixed the problem.

Derek

[Clap]

This worked for me too :-)

[catman]

Excellent advice - thanks so much, worked for me and I hardly ever fix things!

[Andersong]

Hi All

I am not as technical as many of you guys ! Can you give me a step by step guide on how to fix the Powerpoint App issue which does not open . I have a Mac with Office 2016 (365 Home) fully and Mac OS MoJave with all updates complete. If I click on the app it comes up with a message as follows :

"You can’t open the application “Microsoft PowerPoint.app” because it is being updated".

This is rather strange because there are no further updates to be done. You help would be appreciated.