Share via

Powerpoint presentation not saving

Manon Watkins 21 Reputation points
2022-10-05T11:39:14.793+00:00

I started working on a presentation on one device then switched to another. But now I am unable to save the presentation, I've tried copying and pasting slides to a new presentation and that won't save either. Does this mean there are some corrupt images/videos on any slides? My presentation is very long is there a way of finding out what the issue is?

PowerPoint Management
PowerPoint Management
PowerPoint: A family of Microsoft presentation graphics products that offer tools for creating presentations and adding graphic effects like multimedia objects and special effects with text.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
232 questions
Accepted answer
  1. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,651 Reputation points
    2022-10-06T02:39:22.977+00:00

    Hi @Manon Watkins

    > But now I am unable to save the presentation, I've tried copying and pasting slides to a new presentation and that won't save either

    Is there any error message when you saving this presentation? If so, you can take a screenshot and share with us.

    Besides, does this issue occur with other new presenations created on your devices?

    If not, I would suggest you save this presentation as: PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation to have a check.
    You can also close your PowerPoint app, open File Explorer > Click View > Deselect the Preview Pane option > Re-open File Explorer and open this presentations.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

3 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Manon Watkins 21 Reputation points
    2022-10-12T15:45:36.413+00:00

    Hi, thanks for your help. I think the issue in the end was not enough storage on my device!

  2. The IT guy 25 Reputation points
    2023-06-30T03:34:45.5566667+00:00

    We have a similar issue, however, it definitely has nothing to do with disk space on the computer.

    When someone in our company opens a PowerPoint (PP) file, then modifies it, and then tries to save the changes (overwriting the existing file), they get an error message saying "An error occured while PowerPoint was saving %filename%".

    It happens ONLY if the Preview Pane in Windows File Explorer is ON.

    If we turn the Preview Pane OFF, then open the file, make changes, and then try overwriting it, it works.

    So, Microsoft, I have a question to the developer's team: what the heck, really? Disabling the Preview Pane is NOT A SOLUTION - and it has been suggested to be used as a solution on multiple forums. We actually had to force another company - client of us - to stop having the preview pane on in the file explorer as they could not work normally with the files.

    Is there a PROPER SOLUTION for this annoying issue?

    The Preview Pane must stay ON on customers' computers.

    Please advise.

    0 comments
  3. Bunny Black 0 Reputation points
    2024-10-03T00:27:17.08+00:00

    Hello, sometimes if your presentation won`t save but it will save as.. then try this EZ fix.

    Go to powerpoint --> File (tab) --> MORE.. --> OPTIONS --> Save (tab) --> Save Autorecover information .. --> select 23minutes

    This is because when you set it as low as: 1minute. ...it saves an autorecover + while pressing save as: it is trying to save the powerpoint aswell, at the same time.

    0 comments

Your answer

Answers can be marked as Accepted Answers by the question author, which helps users to know the answer solved the author's problem.