Issue when saving Excel files

Question

I have been facing this issue for quite a while now and after lot of googling I had given up on it and assumed that it was an issue with the official laptop that I have. But it's amazing that I have the same issue even with a brand new official laptop n am thus posting it here with the hope that there may be some solution around.

The problem:

If I want to 'Save As' any MS Excel file, I get the below error: 

To clarify, I am trying to save the file at the same location where the file is currently located with a different name (shorter name or longer name does not matter coz I get the above error in each case) and the file folder is located on the laptop HDD and I have full read/write access to both the file and the folder.

My current workaround solution:

I save the any Excel file in a folder named 'EXCEL' that is located on the 'Desktop' and the file saves without any issues. I then cut the file from the 'EXCEL' folder and paste it in the folder that I originally wanted the file.

I do not face this issue with MS Word or MS Powerpoint but it is really painful having to go through the workaround solution for each and every Excel file :(

OS: Win 10

Office version: Office 2016

Can anyone please help with a solution for this odd issue?

Answer 1

Hello kgupta_999,

Am an independent advisor and Microsoft Office User like you.

I usually experience what you are going through especially when i am saving documents in drive C [ my computer/local disk c]

From your narrative, you have moved between computers but seem that where you are saving your excel documents, it is violating one of the four conditions as stated by the notification popup when you save in the current folder and not on the desktop.

Create/move your folder to the [my documents] folder and try using it from there, see how it performs with your requirement. Ensure that it is not write protected.

let me know if this works for you going forward.

kind regards.

Answer 2

From your narrative, you have moved between computers but seem that where you are saving your excel documents, it is violating one of the four conditions as stated by the notification popup when you save in the current folder and not on the desktop. 

I said that I am having the same issue in 2 computers (my current laptop and the new laptop that I got recently).

• Condition 1: Make sure the folder path exists - I am saving the file in the same folder that I opened it from, only difference being the filename
• Condition 2: Make sure the folder that contains the file is not read only.....The file or folder are not write protected as I am able to cut/paste files into the same folder without any other changes and this issue exists only for Excel files, Word or PPT files work fine
• Condition 3: Make sure the file name does not contain any of the following characters: < > ? [ ] : | or *  ....I don't have any illegal characters in the file name and am able to save the file in the 'EXCEL' folder on the Desktop with the same filename that I wanted
• Condition 4: Make sure the file/path name doesn't contain more than 218 characters .....this issue occurs even if I want to save the file with a filename shorter than the original filename. Also, I am able to save the file in the 'EXCEL' folder on the Desktop (with a filename of my choice) and the cut/paste it to the original folder.

I am unable to understand which of the 4 conditions is being violated...can someone please elaborate.

Create/move your folder to the [my documents] folder and try using it from there, see how it performs with your requirement. Ensure that it is not write protected. 

The original folder where I wanted to save my Excel file is a subfolder within the [Documents] folder as the root folder which in-turn is under my User folder in Windows C drive. And yes the folder is not write protected else I would not have been able to cut/paste files in there from other folders.

Answer 3

my apologies kgupta_999, for sure you have tried many work-rounds to the issue.

Have you tried opening excel in safe mode and saving a file while in that state?

Answer 4

my apologies kgupta_999, for sure you have tried many work-rounds to the issue.

Have you tried opening excel in safe mode and saving a file while in that state?

Thanks for your suggestion.

I tried saving the files with Excel in Safe mode but unfortunately nothing changed and I still got the same error :(