Fix ‘Error Downloading Template’ in Microsoft Office Templates
Office apps can be used to create complex spreadsheets, beautiful documents, and engaging presentations. Users have access to a large number of design tools within the respective Office apps that they can use to create a custom layout and design.
Designing documents and presentations etc. is time-consuming and you need somewhat of a basic understanding of design principles themselves to create a good-looking document/presentation/brochure/etc. If you don’t have the time to design something yourself, you can download a template.
Microsoft Office Templates
Microsoft Office has an extensive library of templates available for its apps. Some commonly used and popular templates are already downloaded when you install Microsoft Office but others featured on the New File screen can be downloaded directly from inside an Office app.
The templates are fairly small in size and download within seconds (or minutes) but sometimes the download can fail. If it does, you will see the ‘fix ‘Something went wrong while downloading your template’ message.
‘Something went wrong while downloading your template’ Error (FIX)
Run through these basic checks and then try the fixes listed further below.
- Make sure you’re connected to the internet.
- Make sure you’re signed into the Office app.
- Run Office with admin rights and try to download the template.
1. Download templates directly
If you’re unable to download an Office template from within an Office app, the simplest and surest alternative is to download it directly from Microsoft’s template library.
- Visit the Microsoft Office template library in your browser.
- Scroll down and select the app you want to download a template for.
- Find the template you want to use and select it.
- Click Download and use your template by moving it to the template folder.
2. Repair Office
The previous solution will get you the template you want to use but it won’t fix the problem in the Office app. To do that, try repairing Office.
- Open Control Panel.
- Go to Programs>Uninstall a program.
- Select Office or Microsoft 365 and click the Change button at the top.
- Repair the installation and restart the system.
- Check if templates can be downloaded.
3. Install Office updates
If you’re unable to download templates from Office apps, it may be because your Office apps are not running the latest updates. To update them, follow these steps.
- Open the Settings app with the Win+I keyboard shortcut.
- Go to Update & Security.
- Select the Windows Update tab and click Check for updates.
- Check if the available updates list updates for Office.
- Download and install the updates.
- Restart the system and try downloading templates.
4. Uninstall an update
A pending update to Microsoft 365 can cause problems downloading templates but an update that’s been installed can do the same. It comes down to the individual updates and whether or not they’re broken. If downloading templates suddenly stopped working, it may be because of a recently installed update and you will have to uninstall it.
- Open Control Panel.
- Go to Programs>Uninstall a program.
- Click View installed updates in the column on the left.
- Look for the Office updates and select the most recent one.
- Click the Uninstall button at the top.
- Restart the system after the update has been uninstalled and try downloading templates.
5. Uninstall Visio Viewer
Users who have Visio Viewer installed have complained about not being able to download templates. Uninstalling the app resolves the problem in some cases.
- Open Control Panel.
- Go to Programs>Uninstall a program.
- Select Visio Viewer and click Uninstall at the top.
- Restart the system.
6. Toggle internet access in Office
Office is allowed to access online content. This setting may or may not interfere with the templates that you’re trying to download.
- Open the Office app that you’re trying to download templates in.
- Go to File>Options.
- Select the Trust Center tab.
- Click the Trust center settings button.
- Go to Privacy options and click Privacy Settings.
- Enable “Allow Office to connect to the internet” if it’s disabled or disable it if it’s enabled.
- Restart the app and try downloading templates.
MS Office Templates Errors: Conclusion
Templates can be downloaded directly from Microsoft’s library but installing them is a little tedious. Users have to manually move them to the correct Templates folder.
The built-in option to download templates takes the manual part out of the equation which is why it’s important to fix it.
