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How can I turn OFF the autosave mode in excel and word files?

Anonymous
2023-12-14T15:13:26+00:00

I have all my files are in Onedrive including Excel and word files, nevertheless when I open a excel file I need to change Autosave from ON to OFF because I prefer to decide when save the changes and when no. How can I do it for all the files automatically? It is because there are a lot of them and is impossible to do it one by one.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-14T15:52:20+00:00

    Hello Rivera,

    My name is Adebayo, I will be happy to help.

    I understand that you want to turn off Autosave for all your files in OneDrive. There are two ways to do this:

    1. You can change the settings in each Office program, such as Excel or Word, to disable Autosave by default. You need to go to File > Options > Save and uncheck the box next to AutoSave OneDrive and SharePoint Online files by default.
    2. You can change the settings in OneDrive Sync client, if you have it installed on your computer. You need to right-click OneDrive icon in the taskbar > Settings > Office and uncheck the box next to Use Office applications to sync Office files that I open.

    However, these methods may not work for OneDrive Online and Office for the web, as there is no option to disable Autosave Function in them1. If you want to edit a file online without saving the changes, you may need to make a copy of the file or download it to your computer.

    Please do let me know if further assistance is needed.

    Kind regards, Adebayo.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-02-22T14:30:12+00:00

    This is really good information, it caught me out a few times.

    I am used to changing things in Excel files, like calculations or views, and then closing the file knowing that it would never be saved. Now we have to go to this dreadful sharepoint and onedrive and all of a sudden my changes were saved when that was very specifically not wanted and so my files were all messed up.

    I get that there are new possibilities, but you can't make your program behave in a totally different and unwanted manner because of it. Bad, bad, bad Microsoft.

    And restore is also not working very well.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-20T10:10:54+00:00

    Absolutely disgraceful MS! Users want to be able to arrange for themselves how they work, not have it dictated to them by you. Despite your so-called helpful answer I still haven't managed to turn this 'feature' off.

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-07-06T12:00:49+00:00

    same here. I HATE this new version. And don't even see the 'options' button under file, so I cannot even decide for myself. It's being done for me!

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2024-04-04T08:20:01+00:00

    I also think this option is undesirable and dangerous. People without IT knowledge are curious and open files to find out information and how information behaves, given the habits they have acquired in 20 years of working at Microsoft, they do not anticipate such unwanted storage without their knowledge.

    8 people found this answer helpful.
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