Word – Microsoft Office 2010 Word not saving

microsoft wordmicrosoft-officemicrosoft-word-2010

I create a new file on Word 2010. I type a few words. Then I press Ctrl + S to save it or click on the diskette icon on the toolbar. But Word does not save. Does nothing. When I want to close the file clicking the X button of the window, it prompts me if I want to save the changes or not.

Then I have uninstall MS Office 2010 and installed MS Office 2013. I wanted to understand if the problem is sourced by wrong configuration and/or settings. But NO!

The same problem persists on MS Office 2013 Std too.

I have searched for similar problems on Google, but found no helpful solution. I think it is a macro virus but do not know how to overcome it.

UPDATE by Art Gertner:

Experiencing identical problem. Excel and PowerPoint also affected. Attempted the following:

  • Restarting PC
  • Deleting Normal.dot
  • Starting in safe mode (winword /safe)
  • Disabling all addons
  • Cleaning up c:/temp
  • Checking Office activation status (shows valid license)
  • Checking that default file location in word (options > save > default file location) is valid path
  • Creating a new user account (issue is still present)
  • Checking the file system with chkdsk /r (no effect)

Additional details:

  • OS: Windows 7 x64 pro. Office 2010
  • Disk encryption is not used
  • the issue used to be intermittent for several days. Used to disappear after restart. Now it is permanent. Cannot save documents at all.
  • File > Open and File > save actions are also affected (nothing happens when clicked)
  • The following workaround is valid. Use windows explorer to navigate to directory where you want to save the file. Right click to call context menu. Select New > Microsoft Word Document. Document is created. Any changes to this document will be successfully saved.

Best Answer

The Only answer I could find for this problem was to create a new user account and move data over.

My customer said:

It was random initially and then became frequent and then permanent and then spread from MS Office products to other programs as well.

Creating a new user account might not be the most ideal thing for everyone but I had to give up & move on at some point. :( looser

Different stuffs I tried in two days are below:

  1. Not only disable the add-ins but uninstall programs which had any add-in for Office Apps like Mcafee & Lexmark printer toolbar
  2. Clean boot the computer
  3. Plug HDD to a different computer and run virus/malware scans
  4. Tried Office apps in safe mode for sure
  5. Disconnect Network drives as I have seen them causing problem with file Save & Open action at times in past

  6. Played around with Process Monitor, compared then deleted and re-created following registry keys with another similar system.

    HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OpenFind\MicrosoftWord\Settings\SaveAs

    HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CIDSave

    HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32

  7. Ran chkdsk /r

  8. Re-installed MS Office too
  9. No component store corruption detected on DISM /CheckHealth & /ScanHealth
  10. Didn't try System File Checker because I haven't been lucky with it ever

Affected system was a Windows 10 with Office 2013 installed, Which I upgraded to Office 16 later and the problem was still there until a new User account was created

Related Question