A colleague at another schools shared a power point with me, it is ready only but why I try to save a copy as ppt or pdf it doesn't work

Question

A colleague at another school shared a large power point with me.

I can view it but not make changes. I go under File, create a copy, download a copy and I get a message

Your presentation is ready and I can click download or cancel, but when I click download nothing happens.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Hi @J Learman, 

From what you've described, my first guess would be one of two things: 

• The browser is preventing the download from starting (for example, a pop-up blocker, extension, or cached browser data interfering with the process). 
• The presentation is being shared from another school's Microsoft 365 tenant, and the owner may have applied download restrictions or a sensitivity label. In those cases, the Download a Copy option can still appear, but the actual download may not be allowed. 

A few things I'd suggest trying: 

• Check your browser's Downloads page to see if the file was downloaded in the background without a notification. 
• Instead of downloading the file, try Create a copy and save it to your own OneDrive first. If the copy is created successfully in your OneDrive, you should then be able to edit it and export it as a PDF or PPTX. 
• Open the shared presentation in Edge InPrivate or Chrome Incognito mode and try again. This is a quick way to rule out browser extensions or cache-related issues. 

If none of the above works, it's worth asking your colleague to review the sharing permissions or the sharing link settings for the presentation. Alternatively, they could send you the file directly as a .pptx or PDF via email, OneDrive, or Teams. 

Please feel free to post an answer or leave a comment if you have any updates. 

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