PingFang still missing in all Microsoft 365 Apps on macOS and iOS

Hi, Ostrichbeta Chan

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Sorry for this unwanted experience regarding the PingFang font. Here are the explanations of the situation and workarounds you can try to relieve this issue:

Why PingFang doesn’t show up in Microsoft 365 apps on macOS/iOS

Apple moved the PingFang system font in recent OS versions and, on iOS 18+, replaced the old PingFang.ttc with a UI-only variant (PingFangUI.ttc) that lives under private frameworks. That file is not an installable or user‑selectable font and can’t be opened in Font Book; Apple engineers have confirmed this change and recommend relying on CoreText APIs rather than file paths. Third‑party apps (like Office) that enumerate user-visible fonts will therefore not list “PingFang” as a pickable family.

Several users have reported that PingFang disappeared from Office’s font menu on Mac even though it still appears in Apple apps (Pages, etc.), reinforcing that this is an interaction between Apple’s UI font policy and how Office exposes fonts.

Practical options & workarounds

1) Use high-quality CJK substitutes that Office fully supports

If your goal is a clean, modern Chinese sans similar to PingFang for documents and slides (and that will embed/export reliably), these are good choices:

• Noto Sans CJK / Source Han Sans (SC/TC/JPK variants). Free, broad coverage, consistent across platforms; shows and embeds well in Word/PowerPoint.
• Hiragino Sans GB (often preinstalled on macOS), Songti SC/TC, Heiti SC/TC, Kaiti SC/TC—these are user-visible families Apple exposes to apps and will appear in Office’s font list.

These avoid the UI-font restrictions and typically behave better for PDF export and sharing. (Apple’s own guidance and developer materials point to using script-appropriate families rather than UI fonts.)

2) If you must visually match the Apple UI

For mockups or design comps that must look like PingFang/SF‑Chinese in screenshots:

• On macOS/iOS, text inside the OS UI will continue to render with Apple’s system font automatically; but inside Office you should pick a substitute (e.g., Noto Sans CJK SC) and note the substitution in your style guide.
• Avoid copying the private PingFangUI.ttc out of the OS, Font Book and Apple engineers explicitly indicate it’s not installable/usable that way.

3) Make sure East Asian features are enabled in Office (Mac)

Turning this on ensures the CJK font families and input are fully available in Office apps:

• Word (Mac) > Preferences > East Asian Languages > select Simplified Chinese / Traditional Chinese and restart the app.

4) If fonts that should be visible still don’t show

This won’t surface PingFang specifically, but it can fix general font issues:

• Resolve duplicates & rebuild caches with Font Book (Edit → Look for Enabled Duplicates → Resolve, then restart Mac).
• Ensure Office is up to date, then relaunch apps. These are Microsoft’s standard steps when fonts fail to appear in Office for Mac.

Hope this helps. Feel free to get back if you need further assistance.

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