Certain Size Documents cannot be saved as a .txt file from a docx file, causing program to fail.

Question

After a recent software update I can no longer save certain documents as .txt files from .docx files. I am not prompted at all by the file conversion dialog box, simply nothing happens and the file does not appear in the folder that it is saved to. However, if I delete certain elements of the document to reduce the number of characters, the file does convert successfully with and the dialog box appears. It is no specific character that is causing the issue and does not matter which section of the document I delete.

Manually pasting the document into notepad or another text editor wont be adequate as a workaround since this function is needed in a multi step program.

Answer 1

Dear  @Justin D,

I hope you’re having a good day. 

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and for providing such detailed observations.

The detail that stood out most to me is that the conversion succeeds after reducing the document size, regardless of which section is removed. That suggests the issue is unlikely to be caused by a specific character or section of the document and may instead be related to the document conversion process itself.

After researching this further, I found several recent reports from other Microsoft 365 users describing behavior very similar to yours:

• Can't save some .docx's as .txt - Microsoft Q&A
• Save As in Word won't save as Plain Text - Microsoft Q&A

In addition to reviewing those discussions, I also performed my own testing. During testing, I was able to reproduce similar behavior when attempting to save a Word document as Plain Text (*.txt). Rather than displaying the expected conversion prompt and creating the TXT file, Word remained in the Save As experience and did not complete the conversion successfully. In some cases, the interface also indicated that the selected file type was unsupported, which is consistent with the symptoms you described.

I also reviewed Microsoft's published list of recent Word issues and, at the time of writing, I have not found an officially documented Known Issue specifically covering failures when saving Word documents as Plain Text (*.txt).

However, given the number of similar reports and the consistency of the behavior across different users and environments, I suspect this may be a regression or product-related issue on Microsoft's side that requires further investigation by the engineering team. If that is the case, the issue would likely need to be addressed through a future service or product update rather than through user-side configuration changes.

For that reason, I would strongly recommend reporting the issue to Microsoft Support and raising a support ticket. The more reports Microsoft receives from affected customers, the easier it becomes to identify patterns, reproduce the issue internally, and prioritize investigation.

If you are an end user within an organization, you may also want to contact your Microsoft 365 administrator and ask them to open a support case through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center so the issue can be reviewed through the appropriate support channels.

Your admin can raise a support ticket from Microsoft 365 Admin Center>Support>Help & Support.   

For reference:  Get support | Microsoft Docs    

I hope this explanation helps reassure you that you are not alone in experiencing this behavior. Other community members are reporting similar symptoms, and your post may help those users find relevant information and understand that they may be encountering the same underlying issue.

If you found this reply helpful, you may consider selecting "Yes" and kindly upvote it. This helps make the information more visible to other affected users who may find this thread while troubleshooting the same problem. Increased visibility and additional reports can also help raise awareness of the issue and encourage further investigation.

Thank you again for bringing this to the community's attention. I wish you all the best, and I hope Microsoft is able to identify and address the root cause as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

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