Forum Discussion
Office 365 AutoSave to OneDrive - how to choose the folder location where a new document is stored?
Paul_Van_CotthemAlthough you can't change the default folder for OneDrive in Office AutoSave there is a way to change the OneDrive folder WITHIN Word/Excel/Powerpoint itself but only AFTER you have saved it by any name.
To do this first AutoSave your file to OneDrive:
Once saved, click the Menu option for Version history on the same bar as AutoSave in Word:
Then click the >Location drop down - This tab also shows the OneDrive folder where your file has been saved by default and then in the next window you can move it wherever you want:
It's really typical and frustrating that Microsoft doesn't provide an option for something as basic as selecting a DEFAULT folder for AutoSave!!
f1demon Thanks, this resolved the issue I had, where auto save insisted the file was located in the default document folder root. If I moved it in OneDrive the Auto Save was disabled again and I was going around in circles!!
However, changing the location in Word as you described worked ok !
This thread had a lot of activity in 2020. Here we are, 3 years later, and even with Windows 11, nothing has changed. There doesn't seem to be a way to have the autosave function work except if the file is stored in onedrive>documents. I have a whole hierarchy of folders under onedrive and would like to be able to select the appropriate one for my documents created in Office 365. These are in my case created in Word, Excel or Powerpoint. Of course, I can (and do) save files "manually" in these folders but it would be a help if MS allowed me to autosave them there rather than in the default (documents) folder.
- I too have a detailed file structure, mine is on my 'D' Drive separate to programs etc on my 'C' Drive. I want to work on my files on my drive and have them saved to OneDrive on the same file structure. The structure is there but I cannot auto save to that structure. Furthermore when I open my file on my drive the autosave option is clear. I reset it but then have multi files on Onedrive of the same.
How difficult is it to improve this? I/We get choice to save files where wanted everywhere apart from this, and as stated, this has been a point of disgruntlement for many years. Isn't it about time that this is resolved?PeterAWHurst From the great amount of time it is taking to fix such obvious numskull solution I would suspect fixing it would take rewriting Windows and Office. Seriously, I lose so many, many documents it is driving me crazy. I have Autosave turned on, but I cannot find ANY documents on OneDrive ANYWHERE. I can access them (old ones) through Word, so they are saved somewhere, but I do not know where. Moreover, when I get the path by right clicking on the document in Word list of documents I get a ridiculous path. Following the path requires me to sign in, but none of my credentials work. It is so frustrating I cannot even describe how it feels. Would anyone PLEASE let me know how to discover the path to my documents? Many thanks!
Muzzo4444 well but have you tried to auto save it back to the folder where you have the file originaly stored with the same filename? .... Hey, Microsoft! why it is impossible?
Muzzo4444 Sadly this did not work for me. When I change it's location using the bar at the top, and then close the file and re-open it within that location, the auto-save is no longer turned on. And when I turn it on, it asks me to re-upload it again and puts it right back in the default Documents folder. This is pretty disappointing behavior and I don't believe it always worked this way. I'm not sure if this is the intended behavior but it discourages use of AutoSave (including for collaborating on documents) because I can't find a simple way to turn saving on and off.
TurnerWFU If I open the document from the folder structures or from onedrive, I see the same behaviour as you - the doc will not Auto Save if it is not in the default folder. To resolve this, I always open the document from within the application. For example, if you are using Word, open the document from the File/Home/Recent list, Auto Save will then work irrespective of the folder the document was last saved in.
Muzzo4444 Oh how fascinating, I did not realize that. I also realized that there is a setting in OneDrive that I needed to change. If I right click on the OneDrive icon in the taskbar, then Settings --> Office I needed to check the "Use Office applications to sync Office files that I open" option. It was off previously, and once I made this change it seems to work when I turn on autosave even after opening the file from the folder.
