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The Autosave option has disappeared from Word 2016

Anonymous
2022-03-16T01:19:56+00:00

This issue https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/autosave-is-missing-from-the-office-toolbar-9cc33369-9fb9-4e31-bb5c-af5f7a14ed82 seems to have reappeared after the latest update. The default is that Autosave is on - I prefer to have it turned off but there is no option to do that; it's not even listed in the commands you can add to the Quick Access Toolbar.

My version is Microsoft® Word 2016 MSO (Version 2202 Build 16.0.14931.20128) 64-bit

Any ideas?

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-03-16T02:38:04+00:00

    It is also possible that this is one of the features not available for the perpetual Office 2016 license. You have the perpetual license version, not the subscription version of Office.

    It may have been available earlier because sometimes Microsoft makes mistakes in their distribution of update code. The subscription version and the perpetual license version are related and share most of their code. When updates go out, sometimes a subscription feature is included in the perpetual license update and then they discover their mistake. In another update, they remove that feature from the perpetual license version.

    https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-m...

    The idea of the subscription version is that when new features are added to Office, they go out to the subscribers. The perpetual license version is fixed at the features you purchase when it is released. Updates in perpetual license versions are for bug fixes and security, but not for features.

    You could subscribe if you wish to change, but there is no credit for the perpetual license.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-03-16T02:27:51+00:00

    Hello,

    This forum is a user-to-user support forum. My name is Charles and I am a fellow user and have authored help articles on the Microsoft site.

    AutoSave only works with documents on OneDrive or SharePoint. If your documents are saved to your computer, it does not work, regardless of any switching. As far as AutoRecover and Saving Backups, see this page from Word MVP Graham Mayor.

    http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm

    This is a link to a trusted Word MVP website or blog. It contains accurate safe information that I think will help you.

    Are you perhaps using the browser version of Word rather than Word 2016? They look somewhat similar on your screen, but the browser version is on a tab in your web browser. They are not the same and AutoSave is always on for the web version.

    https://support.office.com/client/Differences-b...

    I hope this information helps.

    Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

    You can ask for more help by replying to this post (Reply button below).

    Stay well

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-03-16T10:35:18+00:00

    Try moving your documents to your hard drive as a workaround.

    Again, are you sure that you are using your Word 2016 and not the browser version of Word. The default seems to be that when opening documents directly from OneDrive's cloud location, documents are opened in the browser version, which does use AutoSave.

    Are you using File > Open from within Word or are you double-clicking on documents to open them?

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  4. Stefan Blom 342.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-03-16T07:49:51+00:00

    At File > Options > Save, set the default save location to your local drive. This should prevent Word from trying to enforce automatic saves (on new documents).

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-03-16T06:06:08+00:00

    Hey Charles, thanks for trying but my issue is that I can't turn AutoSave off.

    My docs are saved on OneDrive so AutoSave should be an option (even though I have a perpetual version) - but again, not one I actually want.

    I would be happy to have the option disappear if the default wasn't set to have AutoSave on.

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