User Microsoft 365 Apps Freeze when Trying to Save

Open Office in Safe Mode (hold Ctrl while launching Word/Excel)

To disable all add-ins / customizations

If saving works (no freeze), it strongly implicates add-ins or extensions. Microsoft Learn+2Microsoft Learn+2

Disable all COM / VSTO / Excel / Word add-ins

Even if Safe Mode helps, you’ll need to find the offender

Under File → Options → Add-ins, disable COM add-ins first, then Excel/Word add-ins. Test Save / Save As. Microsoft Learn+2SoftwareKeep+2

Perform a Clean Boot / minimal startup

Removes interference from third-party services or shell extensions

If freezing goes away, you can re-enable services incrementally to find the culprit Microsoft Learn

Test saving to a completely local folder (not OneDrive-synced folder)

To see if the cloud / sync side is involved

If Save works locally but not in OneDrive, that local vs cloud boundary is critical

Use a different user profile on the same machine

To isolate whether it’s user-specific settings

If a freshly created user account does not have the issue, then the old profile has something problematic (e.g. registry settings, Office config)

Disable AV / security real-time scanning temporarily

To test whether the antivirus is interfering with file operations

If the freeze disappears when AV is off, this is a major clue

Use ProcMon / File Monitor / Process Explorer

To see what process is hanging or blocking the save

E.g. capture events during Save/Save As and see which DLLs or hooks are involved

Capture Office / Fiddler / diagnostic logs

Microsoft support often asks for logs when Office freezing / stuck on OLE / Save issues

Use Office’s diagnostic logging and Fiddler (if saving to cloud endpoints) to see where the delay stalls