Microsoft Office 2016 - Somebody else is working in {File} / Excel cannot save to this location

Question

We just suddenly started having this issue where Office 2016 (particularly Excel) can't save or overwritten files to/in a few specific folders on our SMB share.

Issue Overview

• In Excel, you go to Save As, browse to one of the affected folders on the SMB share (you have read/write rights), and choose to save the file there (both new files and also overwriting current ones).
• Excel sits for 5 seconds on:
• Then, Excel says somebody else is working in that file you're saving (even when you're creating an entirely NEW one):
• Finally, Excel says it cannot save the file:

Where it happens
This issue occurs on ALL of our Windows Server VMs (ranging from 2008 to 2019), but NONE of our end-user workstations.

Things I've tried

• Disabling Controlled Folder Access
• Checking Group Policy for any GPOs being applied to servers that could be causing the issue (nothing found).
• Restarting the file server hosting the SMB share.
• Checking for handles/open files on the file server (none).

It almost seems like it's an issue with Office and not our file server because a restart doesn't fix it and it's consistent across all the servers.
This issue is so bizarre and causing me a lot of stress, I can't figure it out and can't find help anywhere.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

Answer 1

I had this issue and it's now been sorted via a registry key entry fix:

Registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options] “DisableRobustifiedUNC” = dword:00000001

Robustified UNC

While the effect of the registry key has not been publicly documented by Microsoft, the “Robustified UNC” feature affects the security mechanisms used when opening a file from or saving a file to a network share in Office applications. Disabling the “Robustified UNC” feature could also solve issues such as documents not opening when double clicked from a network share (while Word does open) or hangs or slow performance when opening/saving files that are located on a network share.

Answer 2

Hi @SethWeber-6088,
Welcome to Q&A forum!

Per my research, please update your Office to the latest version first, and then please confirm and try the follwoing steps to check this issue.

can't save or overwritten files to/in a few specific folders on our SMB share.

< Please create a new folder for a check.

1. Do all Excel files have this issue? And how about Word documents and PPT presentations? Please try to check and delete temporary files locked on the shared drive (they are usually hidden files), this may prevent users from opening/editing Excel files.
2. Please check whether this issue occurs when saving Office files locally.
3. Please open the folder, and go to View tab to check and make sure both the "Preview pane" and "Details pane" are unchecked.
4. Try to save the files in safe mode: Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC.

Besides, please check the steps in the following link are helpful to you.
Troubleshoot why Excel doesn't save changes

Any updates, please let me know.

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Answer 3

@Seth Weber

Do you have solution on this? We encounter the same issue suddenly.

Thanks

Charles

Answer 4

None of the work-arounds solved the problem on Excel 2016.
Uninstalled Office 2016, and installed Office 365.
No more problems.