Having an issue in Word 2013 on a computer.



Randomly Word will start to open documents as "Read Only".
If Word is open, clicking on a document will cause that document and any subsequent opened documents to open as "Read Only."

If all Word windows are closed and then reopened, documents will open properly.
It's like Word gets a setting to open all docs as "Read Only" and when the program is cleared from memory and reopened, it behaves properly.

We've tried recreating the issue but have so far failed, it will just start happening randomly and maybe not for a few days or weeks.

We've removed and reinstalled office on the computer but the issue keeps happening.

It has happened on another computer but less frequently that the more problematic computer.

Any help would be appreciated
Patrick

I have seen this before. I think it was caused by Word running out of memory, not just from having so many documents open but because it was keeping temporary saves of every open document. In Word options, I think the default is to save autorecovery information every 10 minutes. You might try changing this and see whether it improves the situation.

The closest we've come to solving the issue is that when you open an attached document from email, Word opens it as Read Only. We tried reproducing it via that way but other documents from the desktop after opened in normal mode.

We didn't wait 10 mins so we'll try that and see what happens to other docs opened after 10 mins.

You may have to clean out old temporary files left behind (in particular, this applies to so-called lock files which would force read-only on files). See http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm. Try the steps even if Word hasn't crashed recently.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional