Microsoft Word’s hidden “Find File” command has been broken for years, and despite repeated reports, the issue remains unfixed in Word 365, 2024, 2021 and 2019 on both Windows 10 and 11. Instead of opening documents as intended, the feature fails entirely—leaving users to wonder why Microsoft has ignored such a long-standing flaw in one of its most widely used programs.
I’m obliged to Office Watch reader Steve D. who says Find File has been broken for some time:
“When you use Find File, find your file and click on the “Open” button Word does nothing … Seems like I noticed this years ago.”
Find File is quite simple. It just opens a File Open window in Explorer just like Word does via File | Open | Browse . Most people don’t know about Find File, let alone use it because it’s buried in the “Commands not on the Ribbon” list. I’ve added it to the Quick Access Toolbar.
The “Find” part of “Find File” is just the regular Windows search box at top-right of any Explorer window.
Find File doesn’t work
But there’s one tiny little catch with Word’s Find File … it doesn’t work!
No matter what I try, Find File won’t open a document.
None of the Open options work with Find File; Open, Open Read-Only or Open in Protected View. Open as Copy works a little bit, see below.
Not a big deal because there’s plenty of other, more direct ways to open a document. For example, the File | Open menu, search in the File | Open pane, double-clicking a document in Windows Explorer or the Recent/Recommended list in modern Windows Start Menu.
A long standing bug
We did some quick test with Word 365, 2024 and 2019 with Windows 11 and Windows 10 (because the bug could be in either Word or Windows) . None of the combinations we tried had a working “Find File” in Word.
Which begs the question – why hasn’t Microsoft fixed this? They must know about the bug because some paying customers must have reported it over many years. Most likely the company has decided it was too minor or too difficult to fix.
Find File works part way
Choosing “Open as Copy” partly works. A clone of the document is made (prefixed with Copy(1) etc) but Word doesn’t finish the job by opening the copy.
Before you ask …
A few points, in case you were wondering.
- File | Open | Browse in Word opens the same Windows File | Open dialog and works OK.
- The Windows File Association setting for .docx files (among others) is set to Microsoft Word.
- The same bug appears in both Windows 11 and Windows 10.
- Find File is only in Word for Windows, not Excel or PowerPoint.
