Good afternoon friends. Word does not save the document, what should I do? Are you having trouble saving your work in Microsoft Word? Here are a few steps you can take to fix the problem. If Microsoft Word gets stuck saving your document, you should stop working until you fix the problem. There is no guarantee that Word will save any new changes after it crashes.
Instead of looking at the document status and hoping for the best, try the tips below to get back to editing Word documents quickly. So, let’s look at what to do if a Word file error appears when saving?
Because for most people this is a whole problem. This is what this error may look like in many cases:
- Can’t save Word 2016, 2013, 2010 file . This error sometimes appears in any version of Word. The error most often occurs due to the template file. From here, you need to create the template file again and then, all that remains is to find out if the error has disappeared?
- There was an error in saving a Word 2016 document. Add-ons are mostly to blame for this failure. To resolve the error, you need to start Word in “ Safe Mode ” and disable each add-on that you have made;
- I can’t save a Word file with the Read-Only setting. This is due to incorrect registry settings. To resolve the error, delete certain settings in the registry (Word Data) and see if the error has disappeared?
- I can’t save Word to the desktop . It happens that when you save a Word document, permission errors occur. In most cases, this is due to the antivirus. If this is the case, then you need to disable it, or look at its settings.
Word does not save the document, what should I do? You need to wait
There is a chance that Microsoft Word is not stuck, but it just needs more time. If you inserted a large number of images or any other multimedia content that increased the size of the document, Word may take longer to save the changes. If Word still persists for a very long time, like several minutes, then move on to the next solutions.
Launch Word in Safe Mode
It happens that when saving a Word file there is an error, the problem arises due to the settings of this program. To fix this problem, you need to launch Word in Safe Mode. To do this, you need to go through the following steps:
- Make sure you close the program completely;
- Click on the Word icon, hold down the CTRL button and launch Word;
- You will be asked whether you really want to run Word in Safe Mode.
Next, Word starts in BR without any add-ons. Then, we check if the error has disappeared. If this problem is not present in the BR, then the error is in the add-ons.
Disable Microsoft add-ons
Add-ins should improve your productivity because they’re designed to extend Word’s capabilities so you don’t need another app to write math equations, load stock images, or add an electronic signature.
But if one of the add-ins is damaged or outdated, it can cause Word to get stuck in an endless save loop. In this case, you should disable all installed add-ons.
- To do this, in Word, open the File menu.
- Select the Options tab .
- From the menu on the left, select Settings .
- In the left column, select “Add-ons” (Options).
- Next to the Manage command , you need to set the Com Add-ons option and click on the “ Go ” icon.
- In the new window, to disable add-ons, uncheck the box next to them. To remove one of the add-ons, select it and click Remove .
- Once you’ve finished disabling or removing Word add-ins, click OK .
- Save the file again and check if the problem is resolved.
Change the template name Normal.dotm
The Normal.dotm template is the file that your system opens every time you launch Microsoft Word. The file stores settings that will determine the appearance of your documents. If the template is corrupted or crashes, you’ll experience all sorts of problems, including Word freezing when saving your work. So:
- Launch Explorer and navigate to drive C;
- Then select the Users folder;
- Next, we need to select Username;
- In the new window you need to select the AppData folder;
- Next, select the Roaming directory ;
- From the long list, select the Microsoft folder;
- In the following list, select the Templates directory ;
- There you will find the Normal.dotm file and rename it to something you like. Launch Word again and check if you can save your documents.
Disable automatic capitalization
It happens that Word system settings cause this error. Eg. The auto capitalization option (auto capitalize) sometimes does this. If Word does not save the document, then it may very well be that this setting is causing the problem and you need to disable it. Then, we check if the error has disappeared. To do this we will do the following:
- Click on the “File” menu;
- In the left column, select the “Parameters” file;
- A pop-up window appears where we must select the “spelling” tab in the left column, and click on the “AutoCorrect Options” button in the right column;
- After that, in the window that appears, select the “AutoCorrect” tab;
- Then we need to uncheck the commands “Capitalize the first letters of sentences,” “Capitalize the first letters of table cells,” and “Capitalize the names of days.” Click OK.
Error saving Word file? Checking the antivirus
It often happens that antivirus software prevents you from making the necessary settings in files. To solve this problem, you need to go into the settings of your antivirus program and turn off options like “Folder Access” or “Folder Protection”. If this method did not help, then you can completely disable the antivirus program and check whether the problem has been resolved or not?
Disabling controlled access to folders
This method is similar to the top one, since the culprit in this case may be the Windows Defender system antivirus. Windows Defender has an option for built-in folder protection, and if you have activated this option, then Windows Defender will not allow you to save documents in folders it controls.
To solve this problem, you need to disable this option. In general, this matter is quite simple, and you just need to go through the steps:
- Press the Win+I keys to enter “Options”;
- Select the “Update and Security” tab;
- Select the “Windows Security” command in the left column. In the right window, click on the button “Open Windows Security Service”;
- In the window that opens, we need to select the option “Protection against viruses and threats;
- Next, click on the link “Setting up protection against viruses and threats”;
- Now we just have to scroll down the window to the “Access to a managed folder” command;
- Next, you need to make sure that the “Controlled folder access” option is disabled.
After the changes have been made, we check whether the error has disappeared or not?
Removing the Word Data registry key
As some users have noticed, quite often a file error appears in Word when saving if the registry is configured incorrectly, and to fix it, you need to delete one of the keys in the registry. So we need to do the following steps:
- Press the Win+R keys to open the “Run” window. Enter the regedit command and confirm the command by clicking OK;
- After the System Registry application appears, we need to enter the following path into the address window (or type it yourself, if you prefer) Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Data This address may vary slightly. This depends on the version of Word;
- Right-click the Data folder and select the “Export” command from the drop-down menu;
- Select the required path. Enter the backup copy as the file name and click the “Save” button;
- All we have to do is right-click on the selected branch and select the “Delete” command from the context menu. In the confirmation window, click on the “Yes” button.
Then, all we have to do is launch the Word program again and check whether the saving error has been resolved. If the error remains, then run the backup.reg element , which was created in step 4, to restore the original data in the registry.
Recreating the document
If you were unable to save a Word document, then it is possible that the essence of the problem lies in the use of formulas or macros. Some users like to use various formulas in Word. At the same time, these formulas sometimes cause various errors and malfunctions in the functioning of the program.
To solve this problem, you need to select the text you need and copy it. Next, reload the document or create a new one in Word. Then all we have to do is paste the copied text into the created document. Next, we just have to save it, without any errors in saving.
Save it on your computer
If you edit a document stored on OneDrive and still expect Word to save it, then you should save a copy on your computer.
- Go to the File menu;
- Select Save As;
- Then you need to select the This PC command to create a local copy.
Check your internet connection
You can update Word with every change you make in OneDrive, so you don’t risk losing your progress. However, if you have a slow or no internet connection, Word will get stuck when trying to save your document. In this case, you can try reconnecting to the Internet or switching from 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz to improve Internet speed.
Free up space on OneDrive (cloud drive)
If you sign up for a free account, you only get 5GB to store your documents. When you run out of free space, OneDrive (Microsoft’s cloud service) may not save new changes you make to documents.
- To check how much free space you have in your account, launch OneDrive and go to Help & Settings;
- Then select Settings .
- After that, you need to open the “Account ” tab and check the OneDrive section.
If you are running out of storage space and can’t delete unnecessary files, you should upgrade your OneDrive plan or move some documents to Google Drive as it has 15GB of free space.
Conclusion : Word does not save the document, what should I do? There is nothing more frustrating than losing your text document after hours of work. I hope you will no longer experience an error when saving a Word file thanks to my advice. If this crash continues, then you may need to install file recovery software on your computer. Good luck!
Sincerely, Andrey Zimin 07/07/2022
PS Article edited 08/06/2022
