can't open any files even though office 24 was successfully installed

Hello james leong, thanks for reaching out on the Q&A Forum.

You can try the steps below, as macOS sometimes gets confused about which version of Word or Excel should open your files, especially if you previously had Microsoft 365 or an older Office installed.

First, try resetting the file association. Find any Word or Excel file in Finder, right‑click it, and choose Get Info. In the Open with: section, choose Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel (make sure it’s the Office 2024 version), then click Change All… and confirm. This fixes issues where macOS assigns the wrong app after system or Office updates.

Next, check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access. Look for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and make sure they are toggled on. If they aren’t listed, click the + button and add them from the Applications folder.

If the apps still won’t open, try clearing their temporary preference data. Close all Office apps, open Finder, press Command + Shift + G, and paste this path: ~/Library/Containers

Then delete the following folders if they exist (this will not delete your documents):

• com.microsoft.Word
• com.microsoft.Excel
• com.microsoft.Powerpoint
• com.microsoft.Outlook
• com.microsoft.OneNote
• com.microsoft.Office

Empty the Trash and open Office again.

If the apps open but immediately crash or cannot open files, leftover licensing files from previous Office installations may be causing conflicts. You can refer to the troubleshooting steps in this related Microsoft Q&A article: PowerPoint on Mac keeps crashing and won’t open presentations

Hope this helps.

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