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Forum Discussion
How do I fix a 'Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges' error?
I have been using dropbox to store and access microsoft documents on my mac for months but out of nowhere this morning when I clicked to open a document I was told 'Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges'. I created the document so I don't see why there would be an issue. Does anyone have advice on how to fix this? Thank you
Resolved it with a restart. Thanks again
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
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!
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?
- Walter
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.
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.
