Microsoft pushed an upgrade out in updates this past weekend.
After my system applied the updates all of my macros that I use in Word are gone. I did have to reenable macros after opening Word the first time but when I pull up the macros dialog box it is completely empty.
When I checked the start up folder there is no macros file.
I contacted the Microsoft Answer Line and they told me that I had to contact Microsoft Tech support. Microsoft Tech support won't even open a ticket without my credit card so they can charge me $499.00.
Has anyone else had this problem? And more importantly, has anyone figured out a fix or where Microsoft might (please dear god) have saved a copy of the old macros before updating?

What you describe is a known issue. In the User Templates folder, look for a template called Normal15Pre.dotm or Normal.dotm.old (whatever the exact name, the time stamp will be the day the updates were installed); it will be a renamed version of your old Normal template. Rename the file that is currently called Normal.dotm and then change the name of the new template back to Normal.dotm.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks for the quick response Stefan.
Unfortunately both files (the normal.dotm and normal.dotm.bak) were blank. I think this might be due to something our IT did while trying to fix this as I did see him change the names of files.
I'll be retyping macros from now to June.
thanks again

Are there any files (in the User Templates folder) with names similar to "Normal"? It might be worth opening each of them and see what comes up...

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Stefan,
There was a normal.dotm, a normal(2).dotm, and a normal.dotm.bak file but all were empty. I had at one time converted all my macros to a word doc and I was able to copy and paste those in but I hadn't updated that doc in a while. That won't happen again.
I have purchased a backup from seagate. Will that back up my macros or should I stick with my low tech copy and paste backup? Hopefully this will never happen again but I would like to be prepared this time.
Thanks!

Using backup software is a good idea. To find out what is being backed up, you have to look at the documentation.

File History in Windows 10 may be an alternative, but I suspect it primarily backs up document files, not templates.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Here is a KB article on this situation.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3129969