Significant issues with Office 2008 and Snow Leopard

[Bob Greenblatt]

So just to sum up...

After 6 days discussion, numerous theories with limited success, we are no
closer to a solution to the fact that the Office update fails on MacOX 10.6.

When is somebody from Apple or MS going to at least admit that it doesn't work
and star working to fix it?

Regards

Let's sum it up properly: "After 6 days ....Office fails to update on YOUR
installation of Mac OS 10.6"

It works fine on mine and I'm sure thousands of others. There is something
"fishy" about your installation. While you have every right to expect it to
work, it is unfair to blame Apple and/or Microsoft, or to expect them to be
working to fix YOUR configuration.

Clearly there is something wrong here. Have you followed all the suggestions
to get a clean and working machine?

 

[Diane Ross]

Is 12.1.6 or 12.1.7 available only as trial software? Because I've watched
someone update to 12.2.0 from 12.1.6 (trial software), but there's no updater
to get to 12.1.6.

Drag over their copy of Office that's updated.

 

[Diskdude]

Hi Bob - please replace 'YOUR' with 'LOTS' if you bother to go to the Apple forums you will see this is not an isolated problem. Yes I did a 'wipe/install' with a newly brought 'Snow Leopard' disc and then installed MS-Office for Mac - you can't get any 'cleaner'. Then tried to run the auto-update. It knows it has to update - downloads the file - then when I click install it goes to get the file again - at infinitum. Also please remember all the other non-English speaking people who can't (or don't know how) access these forums - I know at least 2 of my colleagues here in Geneva who are having the same problem. Maybe it is related to localisation? I am installing in French....

 

[veda]

Hi Bod,
I also have the same problem (database error and it is not updating).
I just want to notice something:
Before, when I just upgraded SL, Office 2008 with version 12.2 was working
very good. But I wanted to reinstall Office since I wanted Entourage (had not
installed it before). So when I reinstalled Office 2008 in Version 12.0, I
got the above stated problems. So could it be that you did not reinstall
Office 2008 in Version 12.0 (after upgrading to SL) and that this is not a
problem with "configuration"?
Cheers.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Hi Bob - please replace 'YOUR' with 'LOTS' if you bother to go to the Apple
forums you will see this is not an isolated problem. Yes I did a
'wipe/install' with a newly brought 'Snow Leopard' disc and then installed
MS-Office for Mac - you can't get any 'cleaner'. Then tried to run the
auto-update. It knows it has to update - downloads the file - then when I
click install it goes to get the file again - at infinitum. Also please
remember all the other non-English speaking people who can't (or don't know
how) access these forums - I know at least 2 of my colleagues here in Geneva
who are having the same problem. Maybe it is related to localisation? I am
installing in French....

It may very well be a localization issue. I was not intending to diminish
the extent of the problem, just to indicate that both have worked fine for
me and many others, probably with a configuration different than yours.

 

[Diane Ross]

Before, when I just upgraded SL, Office 2008 with version 12.2 was working
very good.

Office 2008 for Mac is a Universal application that runs natively on Leopard
and Snow Leopard, but if you are doing a clean install of Office, the Auto
Update application (Microsoft AutoUpdate) that shipped with early 12.0.0
copies of Office 2008 for Mac required Rosetta to run.

This is the download link for the English version. Sorry, but they have
removed the other individual links to download.

<http://tinyurl.com/25h3cg>

Once you install the SP1 updater it will update the MAU to 2.2.0.

 

[Diskdude]

OK re-installed it all (again) last night - still the same problem. This is what I did.
- executed the SL install.
- when asked used disk utilities to wipe disk.
- installed default SL
- from extras, installed Rosetta
- installed default Office-2008
- downloaded and installed MS-Auto-update 2.1.1
- started Word and ran auto-update.
- auto-update sees a update
- clicked install - update downloaded.

....then nothing. Auto-update returns to window offering the update - if I click 'install' again the same thing happens (update downloaded). This can then go on till I die

System is a 2007 20" iMac with 2GB memory dual core Intel etc - nothing special.

Can I find the downloaded file somewhere and try installing by hand? Are there some debug switches I could activate to help you help me?

Regards

 

[Diane Ross]

- installed default Office-2008
- downloaded and installed MS-Auto-update 2.1.1
- started Word and ran auto-update.

I suspect the problem started after the MAU update. Did you restart before
trying to download the next updaters? Did you quit Word before running the
MAU? All Office applications including the hidden ones MUST BE QUIT before
you update. Since they require you to open it from the menu this is
contradictory.

Since you have the MAU updated, follow these steps exactly as listed:

Steps to re-install Office

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/reinstall_steps.html>

When I did my clean install of Snow Leopard, I ran into problems with the
MAU download of 12.1.0. I downloaded the files from Mactopia and used those
to install and everything went OK after that.

You can find the direct download links for all required files at the end of
this article:

Troubleshooting Office for Mac with Snow Leopard

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2009/09/hot_topics_using_office_for_mac_with
_snow_leopard.html>

In case the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/ndmt4x>

Let me know what happens.

 

[boltonr]

Bob:
Add me to the growing list of 10.6 clean install users that cannot reinstall
Office 2008 without getting the database corruption message. 12.1 and 12.2
updates do not solve the problem. Perhaps somebody at Microsoft could
actually try to duplicate this?
Office 2008 was working fine with 10.5 and all updates on my macbook pro.
Sincerely,
boltonr

 

[boltonr]

A few notes:
1. I had to download updates 12.1 and 12.2 manually as disk images to get
them installed. The installer program wanted to keep installing 12.1 over and
over again as mentioned by others.
2. The programs open and appear to work OK after installation and update. I
just get the "There is a problem with the Office database" message a few
seconds after each program launch.
3. This problem does not occur if you install 10.6 over 10.5 (Office
upgraded to 12.2 before 10.6 was installed. It only happens with a new
install of Office on a clean install of 10.6.
boltonr

 

[boltonr]

Final Notes - two more installs:
1. I installed Office for the first time on a newer MBP unibody, after 10.6
was installed as an upgrade over 10.5. Minimal install, just Word-PPT-Excel.
After initial install before updates, I got the "There is a problem with the
Office database" message after launching Word. Used Autoupdate thru 12.1-SP1.
This eliminated the problem message. Autoupdate also worked to install
12.2-SP2 and 12.2.1 this time.
2. I went back to 1st gen MBP that had clean 10.6 install, deleted all
Office 2008 files, and tried a minimal Word-PPT-Excel install as above. This
time, SP1 did not eliminate the problem message. Autoupdate did work this
time for SP2 and 12.2.1 updates, but i still get the problem message after
launching the apps. Repairing Disk Permissions did not help.
3. I observed that Office 2008 installations done after 10.6 installations
varied by machine. My older MBP is a Core Duo 32 bit processor and the
unibody is a Core 2 Duo 64 bit. Don't know whether this is a factor; the 10.6
kernal loads in 32-bit mode by default anyway.

 

[Diane Ross]

the database corruption message.

Quit Entourage

Move the Microsoft User Data folder to the desktop

Open Entourage. This will create a new Microsoft User Data folder and a new
blank Identity. (If you get an error at this point there are issues with
your base files.)

Quit Entourage. Drag from the desktop your old Identity and place it in the
Office 2008 Identities folder.

Open Entourage. Does the error go away now?

 

[veda]

Hi all together,
as I stated before, I had issues installing Office 2008 on my MacBook with
SL (database error and no update working).
Finally I got Office 2008 installed with no problems:
At the beginning I upgraded Leopard to SL. Than I overwrote my existing
Office 2008 (V12.2) in order to get Entourage which I did not install the
first time. There was my issue. I deleted Office 2008 manually (deleting
every file from Microsoft, all folders, everything; my Office removal tool
did not work either). Then I installed Office 2008 again and updated it
manually (with the downloaded updates from the Mactopia page). And this time
there was no database error and all updates did work (but I did not test the
Autoupdate in V12.0).
Thanks for all these posts. Was quite helpful.
Cheers.

 

[Diane Ross]

Thanks for the feedback. We all learn from each other.

Diane

 

[lobo]

I have tried everything suggested here. No luck. Am I just out $100. til
Microsoft gets its act together?

 

[Diane Ross]

I have tried everything suggested here. No luck. Am I just out $100. til
Microsoft gets its act together?

Considering it's working for others, why do you say Microsoft needs to get
it's act together?

 

[lobo]

Because I am not a techie but just someone who want to get things done on the
computer. I tried all of the workarounds and still it doesn't work.I guess
"others" are more technically advanced than I. This is why I switched to
MAC. I got tired of the Microsoft arrogance. Thanks for nothing.

 

[Diane Ross]

You were trying to say it was Microsoft's fault that it was not working,
when the problem is on your end. You don't have to be a techie, but you do
have to accept that the problem can be on your computer and learn how to fix
it.

We can help you if you are willing to learn, but it all you want to do is
throw insults at Microsoft and volunteers on this list then what will you
accomplish? It certainly isn't going to get your problems fixed.

 

[lobo]

Thanks Diane, I really appreciate your assessment. I really do have better
ways to spend time with a computer than trying to make it work. I will go to
an Apple program which I like better anyway. And I won't have to spend hours
trying to make it work. Thanks for the reminder of why I switched to Apple
and will have nothing more to do with anything Microsoft....

 

[Choueiri7]

I have installed office 2008 12.0 on a Clean SL installation. Manually
downloaded 12.1 and 12.2. tried install SP1 and it failed multiple times, so
I got into Show packages of the SP1 installer and removed
"Office2008_en_excel_12.1.0.combo.pkg" from the packages. and tried
installation again (U have to remove the SP1 installer from the .dmg file if
it is there and place it on the desktop). This time the installation
completed succesfully, but Excell was still 12.0 so I applied 12.2 and all
office applications including Excell were 12.2 and they launched
successfully. Hope this helps solve some of the installation problems on SL

Thanks Diane, I really appreciate your assessment. I really do have better
ways to spend time with a computer than trying to make it work. I will go to
an Apple program which I like better anyway. And I won't have to spend hours
trying to make it work. Thanks for the reminder of why I switched to Apple
and will have nothing more to do with anything Microsoft....