Show data loss warning when editing comma delimited files option doesn't work

Question

Hi, 

I lost hours of work because I forgot I was working on a .csv file in Excel.  I did have "Show data loss warning when editing comma delimited files (*.csv)" checked.  But I still did not get any warnings.  My Mac OS is Big Sur.

Answer 1

Hi XZhu_339,

Yes, that is the warning you are looking for. After enabling the option, the warning “Possible Data Loss-Some features might be lost if you save this workbook in the comma-delimited (.csv) format….” will pop on.

Regards,

George

Answer 2

Hi XZhu_339,

Sorry for what you encountered.

According to your description, may I reconfirm whether the warning will pop on after you restart Excel or reboot your Mac?

If the Possible Data Loss message still won’t pop on, please try the following suggestion to troubleshoot the issue.

1. Update your Office to the latest version.
2. Move the cache folder to Desktop and check again

Close Excel

Go to ~/Library/Containers/, move the folder Microsoft Excel.

If the issue still exists, I would like to collect more information.

1. Your Office version
2. Does the issue exist in a specific .csv file or also in a newly created .csv file?

If you have any updates, please feel free and come back to share with us.

Regards,

George

Answer 3

Hi XZhu_339,

 

Sorry for what you encountered.

 

According to your description, may I reconfirm whether the warning will pop on after you restart Excel or reboot your Mac?

 

If the Possible Data Loss message still won’t pop on, please try the following suggestion to troubleshoot the issue.

1. Update your Office to the latest version.
2. Move the cache folder to Desktop and check again

Close Excel

Go to ~/Library/Containers/, move the folder Microsoft Excel.

 

If the issue still exists, I would like to collect more information.

1. Your Office version
2. Does the issue exist in a specific .csv file or also in a newly created .csv file?

 

If you have any updates, please feel free and come back to share with us.

 

Regards,

George

Hi George,

Thanks for replying!  However, After I remove the Microsoft Excel folder from ~/Library/Containers/, I still don't see any warning when saving .csv file after editing.  My Excel is Version 16.48 (21041102) which I recently upgraded from version 14 last week.  This issue exist in all .csv files.  My Mac OS is version 11.3.

I would love to have my Excel go back to version 14 if at all possible.

Thanks,

XZhu_339

Answer 4

Hi XZhu_339,

Thanks for posting back.

Before you reinstall the previous version of Office, please create a new Mac user profile (if you have another user profile, no need to create a new user profile), switch to the new/existing user profile, open Excel and check again.

If the warning still won’t pop on in the new/existing user profile, please try to completely uninstall Office, then reinstall the previous version of Office.

Regards,

George

Answer 5

I created another user, didn't get the popup warning. 

I un-installed, and re-installed the earliest one (16.27) that has a downloadable package on the website you referred, still no pop up. 

Is there a place I can get version 14 instead of 16?  Let me know if you have any resource or get some ideas on what's going on.  In the mean time, I'll use Numbers for .csv files.