Forum Discussion
AutoSave feature causing frustration
HI Marli van Staden.
First of all, before editing the registry be EXTREMELY careful!
If you make a mistake you can render the machine unusable.
(You should also make a backup of the registry before modifying it.)
All this said, if you want to try, you have to ADD the "DontAutoSave" key inside "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel". The key type should be DWORD and its value should be 1.
Also, as an introduction to editing the registry, you can give a look to https://www.howtogeek.com/school/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro/lesson5/
Hope it helps...
To disable AutoSave on a given machine through the Windows registry, see:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4036334/how-to-disable-autosave-in-office-365-proplus
Hope it helps...
Thanks, but I'm afraid that method indeed only allows me to do it one file at a time...which does not solve my problem for older files (because each time I access an old file, the file might be automatically saved even before I can disable the feature, meaning I lose the true 'last saved' details).
Not sure to understand what you mean...
That method completely (i.e. globally) disables the AutoSave feature for the relevant app (namely, Word, Excel and PowerPoint). Hence when afterward you will open an old file, no AutoSave at all will be performed, and this holds true for EVERY file.
So, edit the registry and, just to be sure, reboot the machine. From that moment on, the behavior of the relevant app should be exactly the same as it was before the AutoSave feature was introduced.
Hope it helps...
Ah sorry, I see now - I only looked as far as the Summary where it says
'This feature applies to each document. It can't be disabled on the application level.'
I have now followed the steps lower down on the link, but once I get here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel
I can't find 'DontAutoSave'...I can only see something labelled 'AutoSaveInterval'.
(Admittedly this is my first time hanging out in the registry, so I have no clue what I am doing...
HI Marli van Staden.
First of all, before editing the registry be EXTREMELY careful!
If you make a mistake you can render the machine unusable.
(You should also make a backup of the registry before modifying it.)
All this said, if you want to try, you have to ADD the "DontAutoSave" key inside "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel". The key type should be DWORD and its value should be 1.
Also, as an introduction to editing the registry, you can give a look to https://www.howtogeek.com/school/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro/lesson5/
Hope it helps...
What version are you running, I'm on first release slow (Targeted) 1711.8730.2102 and I just did a trial with the following results.
Basically open new spreadsheet, slide the Autosave slider to off, save the file manually to onedrive. Closed the file. Opened the file again ... and the Autosave stayed off. It now stays off unless I slide it to the on position.
So seems to work for me.
Yes, but that slider will only work for that specific file. If you open another file, for which you have not disabled it yet, it will be switched to 'On' again...which is what I am trying to avoid