Forum Discussion
Prompt to save changes in Word
I have recently set up a new laptop. When I close Word documents, I no longer get a dialogue box asking me if I want to save changes to the document. The changes are saved automatically. 95% of the time, that is fine: usually I of course want to save the changes that I have made. But sometimes I play around with a document, and then decide that I preferred it as it was. So it is useful to be able to choose to NOT save changes. But I can't work out how to reactivate the dialogue box. I don't know whether it is an option that no longer exists, or whether I perhaps inadvertently did something while setting up the new laptop that has disabled the option.
Can anyone help?
9 Replies
If you're using Microsoft 365 or Office 2019 and have a version that supports AutoSave, follow these steps:
- Open Word.
- Open a document.
- Look for the AutoSave toggle at the top left of the window. If it is turned on, this feature automatically saves your document in real-time to OneDrive (or SharePoint, if applicable).
- Unticking the "File / Options / Advanced / Save / Allow background saves" is the ONLY workaround that works so far.
By the way I am constantly waiting for an update that fixThe automatic saving of documents I merely open but haven't changed with new dates / times has been driving me crazy. After unchecking this option it now prompts me to save or not and I can now sort documents by date again. Thank you so much for this information.
It is possible to switch off autosave for all documents.
When in word File->Options->Save
untick the box "AutoSave file stored in the cloud by default in word".
Other MS applications (e.g. excel) have the same option.There have been many posts from people who have lost work relying on AutoSave. Yes, it can be convenient. I generally avoid working on documents on OneDrive and very seldom will edit one using the browser Word program.
I urge you to look at the page Automatically backup Word documents by Graham Mayor, MVP for a true and working AutoSave as well as the quirks and failings of Microsoft's scheme.
By default, Word saves to OneDrive which means that automatic saving is activated.
You should be able to turn off automatic saving for a particular document, via the autosave button on the Quick Access Toolbar.
Their is no autosave button on my quick access toolbar
If you go to the little drop-down button on the end of the QAT and click on it you will get a menu. You can add it. Note, if the document is on your hard drive it has no effect.
See also: Automatically backup Word documents by Graham Mayor, MVPAlso, earlier versions of Word did not have AutoSave (i.e. Word 2010).
