Word Doesn't Save Changes after Initial Save

Question

Background:

We are using Word 2016 and also OneDrive. We have redirected Windows known folders to our users' OneDrive folders, so Docs, Desktop, etc are located under c:\users\OneDrive\PC Files\Documents, for example.

Problem:

When a user creates a new Word file or open an existing file. The first change they make and then save, saves successfully. For any subsequent changes, the "Save" is not working. We've noticed that after the first save action, the sync icon overlayed on the Save button is missing.

First/Initial Save:

Added to the document, notice the missing sync on the Save button:

Even when prompted to save the document when I close it, the save doesn't stick. Here is the document after I reopened it:

Has anyone else experienced this issue before?

Answer 1

Hi NF_29,

We appreciate that you posted back and confirmed the scenario with us, we also appreciate that you spent your precious time doing those tests.

We read your description, and it seems that five users have the same problem and only Word application has this problem. Word Online doesn’t have this problem.

If so, according to your tests, since this issue only occurs on Word on multiple computers, this issue may be related to your Word client.

Since our category focus on Office 365 business product, and you are using Microsoft Office professional Plus 2016, due to the limited resource, we may not use Word professional Plus 2016 to test it on our side. Given this situation, we do understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it.

The best way to troubleshoot the issue is to report the issue to the related Team. We’d suggest you contact your office 365 administrator to go to Office 365 Admin Center-> Support-> New Service Request, the support engineers there have the correct escalation channel and this is the most efficient way to report such issue. You can refer to this article to check the way how to raise a ticket. Ways to contact support for business products - Admin Help. And the engineers in related team have enough resource and environment to help you test.

At the same time, you can also go to Microsoft Q & A forum to post a new thread, which is specific channel to handle Microsoft Office professional Plus 2016 related questions.

Thank you for your patience so far.

Best Regards,

Sukie

Answer 2

Hello,

Thanks for your response, here are the answers to your questions:

1. I don't know if it's all users, but I have confirmed it's happened on at least 5 users' computers. I was able to recreate the issue on my computer.
2. Word 16, version 16.0.5266.1000
3. At this point, it only appears to be Word. I tested with Excel and could not recreate the problem.
4. Changes made via OneDrive Online using Word Online are saving. It appears to be affecting Word desktop version only.

Answer 3

Hi NF_29,

Thank you for querying in this forum.

From your description, it seems that you have redirected Windows known folders to OneDrive, and when a user tried saving the existing files or new file, it will only save the content at the first time, and then it cannot save any changes.

May I know if my understanding is right? If so, for the situation you encountered, we do understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it.

We have also tested it on our side with Office 365 for business products, we opened the file from OneDrive sync folder, and we can save files without any problem.

We noticed that you mentioned you are using Word 2016, to narrow down if this issue is related to Office 2016, we want to confirm the information below:

1. May I know if all users who use Office 2016 have the same problem?
2. Could you provide the version and product information of Word? You can go to Word > File > Account and provide the full screenshot of it.
3. May I know if the other Office files have the same problem? For example, Excel files and PowerPoint files.
4. To narrow down if this issue is related to OneDrive sync folder, we’d suggest you go to OneDrive Online then opened it from OneDrive Online to Word application directly to check if the same problem will occur.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Best Regards,

Sukie