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"This is not a valid file name." error message

Anonymous
2018-09-11T19:57:29+00:00

When I am in a Word Document (which I use in my laptop's OneDrive folder system), and try to "Save As", I frequently get the following error message:

This is not a valid file name.

Try one or more of the following:

* Check the path to make sure it was typed correctly.

* Select a file from the list of files and folders.

(See screenshot below.)

I know that it is not an issue with the path because I haven't changed the path. I'm just clicking Save As and saving a new version in the same folder. I'm not adding any unusual characters that aren't allowed. I'm not making the file name any longer (usually just changing a rev number, from 3 to 4, for example). If I exit Word, go to the folder, copy and paste the document, and change the name of the pasted document to whatever my desired file name was, I receive no error message. This is an extremely unwieldy work-around, however. What is happening wit this error message?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-07-29T04:14:38+00:00

    Is there an answer to this??

    I have the same problem.

    Occurs when I am saving a file in onedrive shared folders. Doesn't occur when I save to desktop and then copy over to the desired onedrive location.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2019-09-06T17:44:37+00:00

    same issue

    been having it for months and finally getting annoyed enough to search out an answer.

    no special characters

    no length issues

    just error messages from Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

    Frustrating to say the least to have to save to hard drive and then copy paste or drag to OneDrive.

    Its as if using 'spaces' in the file name render it 'invalid'

    SFF

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2019-09-11T22:40:42+00:00

    I'm having this same issue. I'll be typing in a document for hours, autosave on, and then all of the sudden, I hit save and randomly it opens a save as box, but won't let me save no matter if I click on the file location through the fast links or go to the This PC and do it from there. It seems it's only the OneDrive synced folders. It seems to be saving as a temporary file and I used to be able to go to the This PC and click the folders and that would fix it, but not anymore.

    So frustrating. I am running windows 10 and Office 360 subscription.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2019-10-14T13:28:30+00:00

    Hi Alex, 

    Having the same issues, please could you contact me

    regards

    John

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-10-21T21:30:56+00:00

    I believe the latest update has broken it again. We are having the same issue. New File saving is OK but the same file when emailed and trying to save again, it gives file invalid error. Need help to fix it

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