Forum Discussion
Files [READ ONLY] but no indication they are, so cannot save changes
Thank you Ed for the meticulous documentation of this issue. We see the same behavior: not every open of a file, but a lot of them, result in unexpected read-only. It seems to happen most frequently when opening through the MRU menu. Using the latest NGSC and Office suite. Would love to hear from Microsoft on this.
This morning I stopped syncing the one site that I used, deleted the "SiteName - Documents" folder (after backing it up), and re-synced the entire site (by browsing to the site in my browser, and clicking on the Sync icon).
It synced the entire thing, and now every single Excel doc I click on shows the READ ONLY yellow bar (which is good!), BUT when I click "Edit Workbook" it says "We're having trouble connecting to the server. If this keeps happening, contact your help desk". If I browse to the file on Office 365 within the browser, and click on it, it opens. Then if I click Edit in Excel, it opens in Excel, but the exact same thing happens...I get the yellow bar, and clicking on "Edit Workbook" gives me the same message.
As Dale pointed out, I used to see this issue more from the MRU menu as well...now it happens from the MRU or from File Explorer, or from sharepoint within the browser.
The only way I've been able to edit my documents is to go to the OneDrive settings and uncheck the "Use Office 2016 to sync Office files that I open" checkbox on the Office tab. That allows me to open the file...and so far, if I make changes and save it, it works. Although I'm concerned about whether I'm stepping on another user when I do so...or if I'm going to get the random "we can't save your changes because the file is ready only" popup (even though it doesn't tell me that when it initially opens).
I thought doing a re-sync would work. Maybe I need to re-sync ALL my sites? What about deleting the OfficeCache folder under AppData? Is that still necessary, or was that more related to Groove? I have not tried that yet.
Also, I'm considering wiping out my Office entries in the Windows Credential Manager. Perhaps something is out of sync there? Clearly the message I'm getting is bizarre because my machine clearly can connect to the server, or none of this would by syncing, etc.
Oh, I also when to File / Info in Excel, and it kept telling me I had local changes that could not be synced with the server, and I told it to discard them and get the latest from the server, and it closed the doc, but then just left me with a blank Excel shell. It never grabbed the latest doc, but also gave me no messages.
I also tried going to File / Account and under "Add a Service" re-entered my Office 365 credentials to connect to "Office 365 Sharepoint", but it didn't seem to make a difference. (It was already showing "Sites - CompanyName" under Connected Services, but I thought I'd try anyway.)
I also agree...I'd love to hear from Microsoft on this.