MS office word saves in wrong destination

Question

MS office word saves in wrong destination

tubeman 45

This is creating so many frustrations as whenever I change to save doc location in word, it always selects default "personal onedrive" and I hate this cribbery. I changed files into local C but it makes no difference. I have power cuts and don´t want to depend on outside cloud saving. I am very close to closing down onedrive for good to rid myself of the data cribbery and annoyance when I have to run on battery.

Any comments welcome.

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Answer accepted by question author

Restee Miranda 14,130 Independent Advisor

Hi tubeman,

Thanks for sharing here in the community. I understand your frustration that Word is saving it in a different location. I'm happy to help.

To stop Word from defaulting to personal OneDrive, you need to change the default save location in the Save tab of the Word Options menu by enabling "Save to Computer by default" and selecting a local folder. You may also need to unlink your PC from OneDrive in Windows settings or within the Word Account settings to fully remove it as a save option.

In Word Options

Open Word and go to File > Options.
Click on the Save tab in the left-hand menu.
Check the box for "Save to Computer by default".
Under the "Default local file location" setting, click Browse to select your desired default save folder on your computer.

save to computer word

Hope this helps.

Rez

tubeman 45 Reputation points

2025-10-29T07:23:05.3733333+00:00

The real problem for me in living in the sticks (and others) is when the Network fails, that it seems by default the save setting on MS programs automatically defaults to their hub cloud OneDrive data hog, instead of saving on one´s C drives so they can continue to use some programs offline. Maybe MS, who want to prioritize & dominance over cloud data saving should be clearer on this choice, when many users aren´t so computer savvy being led up the wrong path with their privacy basically being cribbed by the MS "side door". Central European cultures are more sceptical regarding data intrusion & privacy, considering the amount of cloning and hacking going on as times get harder.

It appears the morning after I took your suggestions, I no longer see OneDrive in the program save/default boxes....(it took sometime for the changes to work through), that is somewhat reassuring but I shall test the truth of this. However, little do many know the dangers of AI being used by a expert persuing financial extortion is a real issue considering the amount of prolific online and smartphone saving of passwords. I don´t own a smartphone and never save passwords in any machine!

2 additional answers

Your answer

tubeman 45 Reputation points

2025-10-29T07:23:05.3733333+00:00

The real problem for me in living in the sticks (and others) is when the Network fails, that it seems by default the save setting on MS programs automatically defaults to their hub cloud OneDrive data hog, instead of saving on one´s C drives so they can continue to use some programs offline. Maybe MS, who want to prioritize & dominance over cloud data saving should be clearer on this choice, when many users aren´t so computer savvy being led up the wrong path with their privacy basically being cribbed by the MS "side door". Central European cultures are more sceptical regarding data intrusion & privacy, considering the amount of cloning and hacking going on as times get harder.

It appears the morning after I took your suggestions, I no longer see OneDrive in the program save/default boxes....(it took sometime for the changes to work through), that is somewhat reassuring but I shall test the truth of this. However, little do many know the dangers of AI being used by a expert persuing financial extortion is a real issue considering the amount of prolific online and smartphone saving of passwords. I don´t own a smartphone and never save passwords in any machine!

Answer 1

Thanks for the reply.....Tried that one but word document still saves in OneDrive. This has me in absolute knots. Nothing will allow me to change the default destination of OneDrive. My take is that MS wants to get everyone to use onedrive against their will, but it´s pretty hopeless when I cannot use the files as my IE line goes down.........living in the sticks. I open the Word/Excel program and it automatically shows >connected services "Onedrive Personal". It´s the connected services bit I need to get rid off and replace with >"C". I have a crashed notebook and is taking time to restore, but OneDrive has basically hijacked the whole show to leave one helpless.

I try and try but patience my heavens!

Answer 2

Hi Tubeman,

I apologize for my late reply. Please try this:

Open Word or Excel, go to File > Options > Save, and look for "Save to Computer by default". Make sure that box is checked. Then set your default local folder under "Default local file location".

To remove OneDrive as a connected service, go to File > Account, and under Connected Services, click Remove next to OneDrive. If it doesn’t let you, it might be tied to your Microsoft account, which makes it trickier.

If you’re using Office 365, it’s even more persistent. You might need to sign out of OneDrive or unlink it from your PC entirely. You can do that by right-clicking the OneDrive icon in the system tray, going to Settings, then Account, and clicking Unlink this PC.