[Solved] Autosave turned off - This workbook contains features that prevent it from using Autosave.

Question

[Solved] Autosave turned off - This workbook contains features that prevent it from using Autosave.

fernicar 21

For office files in my OneDrive, when Check compatibility is ON will display a Warning:

Autosave turned off - This workbook contains features that prevent it from using Autosave.

I know the warning will disappear when Check compatibility is OFF, however, the warning is misleading/unhelpful and do nothing when click.
Think this way, some files from office 2007 has this feature ON and will cause trouble when uploading to OneDrive, Users have no knowledge about what is happening, the forum has no solution, etc...
Question 1: Why is OneDrive incompatible with this feature?
Question 2: Why is the warning's link not working when click?
I expect the link to lead me to this solution, hope it helps to devs and users:

Colin - 70 Reputation points

2023-06-23T11:14:37.0133333+00:00

This is marked as solved, but I don't see an answer. There is a work-around provided by the original poster. I have the same problem. I have found that unchecking that box AND THEN SAVING AS A NEW FILE does fix the problem (just saving it to the same file does NOT). But with the question being why is this needed and what's going on, I don't see it as answered.

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Colin - 70 Reputation points

2023-06-23T11:14:37.0133333+00:00

This is marked as solved, but I don't see an answer. There is a work-around provided by the original poster. I have the same problem. I have found that unchecking that box AND THEN SAVING AS A NEW FILE does fix the problem (just saving it to the same file does NOT). But with the question being why is this needed and what's going on, I don't see it as answered.

Answer 1

Note that just saving the file to a new XLSX file, as recommended by the Excel help DID NOT WORK, Autosave still disabled. However, if I unchecked the box from step 5 in the screen capture and then SAVED TO A NEW XLSX file (just saving or even overwriting the existing file did NOT work), this seemed to finally trigger the compatibility update. There was never a Convert option under File -> Info for this file, which seems to fit with the sense that it's a modern Excel file.

Stranger, if I recheck that Check for compatibility box, then it stops working again. Now, that checkbox becomes a toggle for allowing autosave. Why?

It seems there are some documents in a state that Excel partially thinks they include older/compatibility features, but that it can't update to the modern version and can't tell the user what about the file is old.

No idea what's going on or why. Seems like a bug in Excel, at least with the Help if not the function. Maybe this is by design, but in that case, the Help needs to be updated to provide the actual steps to resolve, including telling users to uncheck that box. I spent over an hour just trying to turn on autosave because of this bug or incorrect Help.

Yodelayheewho 0 Reputation points

2024-11-26T21:13:00.74+00:00

This has been an ongoing issue for me. I followed the steps @Colin - shared and discovered the 'check for compatibility box' was already 'unchecked'. What is worse. I not only can't resave it with the same name at the same location. I can't resave it with a new name and a different location. I looked at the compatibility errors and it all looks like non-sense about older/compatibility features. I've been using MS 365 for three years. I welcome any other ideas.

Answer 2

Surein J 5

Unchecking the box and saving the file fixes the issue.

However, if AIP or Purview is used, the file has to saved as Public for AutoSave to work.

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[Solved] Autosave turned off - This workbook contains features that prevent it from using Autosave.

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