Office 365 Keeps Freezing or Not Responding — 2025 Fix

Are your Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint freezing, hanging, or turning “Not Responding” again and again? You’re not alone. Thousands of Windows 10 and Windows 11 users face this issue daily, especially after updates, corrupted profiles, or faulty add-ins.

In this 2025 updated guide, you’ll learn why Office 365 freezes and the exact steps to fix it permanently. These methods work for both personal Microsoft 365 and business accounts.

🔍 Why Office 365 Keeps Freezing or Not Responding

Office apps freeze mainly due to:

• Corrupted Office installation files
• Broken or incompatible add-ins
• Outdated Windows Search index
• Damaged Office user profiles
• Large or corrupted normal.dotm file in Word
• GPU compatibility issues
• Faulty Office updates
• Slow OneDrive sync or conflict errors

The good news? You can fix all these issues using the step-by-step solutions below.

🛠 Fix 1 — Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration

A very common cause of freezing in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook is GPU acceleration.

Steps:

1. Open any Office app (Word/Excel).
2. Go to File → Options.
3. Navigate to Advanced.
4. Scroll down and check:
   “Disable hardware graphics acceleration”
5. Click OK and restart the app.

This alone fixes freezing for many users.

🛠 Fix 2 — Start Office 365 in Safe Mode

This identifies whether an add-in is causing the app to freeze.

Steps:

Press Windows Key + R → type:  outlook.exe /safe  (or winword /safe)

If the app works fine in Safe Mode → an add-in is the culprit.

Disable them:

1. Go to File → Options → Add-ins
2. Click Go beside COM Add-ins
3. Uncheck all add-ins
4. Restart Office normally

🛠 Fix 3 — Repair Office 365 Installation

This repairs corrupted system files that cause freezing.

Steps:

1. Open Control Panel → Programs & Features
2. Select Microsoft 365 Apps
3. Click Modify
4. Choose Quick Repair → If still freezing, run Online Repair

Online Repair reinstalls Office without losing your data.

🛠 Fix 4 — Reset Normal.dotm (Fixes Word Freezing)

If Word freezes on startup or when typing, reset the template file.

Steps:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates

Rename normal.dotm to normal-old.dotm.

Word automatically creates a fresh one.

🛠 Fix 5 — Rebuild Windows Search Index

Office apps freeze when search indexing is corrupted.

Steps:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Indexing Options
3. Click Advanced
4. Select Rebuild

This can take several minutes but fixes both freeze and search issues.

🛠 Fix 6 — Stop OneDrive Sync Conflicts

OneDrive syncing large files or conflicts can freeze Word/Excel.

Steps:

• Click OneDrive icon
• Pause Sync for 2 hours
• Reopen Office apps

If Office works fine while OneDrive is paused → OneDrive is the issue.

🛠 Fix 7 — Create a Fresh Office User Profile

Sometimes your Office profile cache gets corrupted.

Steps:

1. Go to Settings → Accounts → Email & Accounts
2. Remove Office account
3. Sign in again with your Microsoft 365 login

🛠 Fix 8 — Update Windows & Microsoft 365

Freezing is often caused by outdated builds.

Steps:

• Settings → Windows Update → Check for Updates
• Open Office → File → Account → Update Options → Update Now

🛠 Fix 9 — Run Office’s Built-In Troubleshooter (SaRA Tool)

Microsoft offers a repair tool for freezes:

Download Microsoft SaRA Tool

Run the tool → Select the app freezing → Follow guided steps.

📌 Internal Quick Links (Highly Recommended)

• Office 365 Search Not Working After Update
• Office 365 Login Problems (Authentication Errors Fix)
• Microsoft 365 Apps Crashing After Update