SOLVED

AutoSave feature causing frustration

Copper Contributor

As an independent financial modeller, I work on Microsoft One Drive as it ensures that my work is automatically backed up. This worked well for me until the new Excel AutoSave feature was enabled.

 

Am I the only one frustrated by this? As a financial model developer, I frequently save new versions of the models I develop using a labelling system. In between saving these new versions, I do also save existing workbooks frequently. However, what I do not want, is Excel saving my work automatically. Why? Because I sometimes test assumptions which I may or may not then want to keep permanently. Maintaining control of the 'Save' function is therefore crucial.

 

Now, I am aware that I can disable the AutoSave feature...BUT I cannot do this at a global level. Therefore, I have to do it for each file individually. Now, while I do this for all my new files, I have a litany of old models which I keep as an audit trail. If I now access these, the AutoSave is automatically enabled...meaning that often before I can even disable this, Excel saves the file again...meaning I lose the time stamp which used to show me when the last time was I worked on that file (which is very valuable information to me).

 

Am I the only person experiencing this problem? Am I missing some obvious trick? It feels to me that the AutoSave feature in its current form provides a safety net for people who do not save their work frequently (which is good) but without providing a workaround for others who already have a systematic approach in place.

 

34 Replies

@Marli van Staden I feel the same frustration.  In our office environment it is causing additional confusion as the last person to edit a certain file is also changed which is propagated all throughout O365 (i.e. Delve, SharePoint notifications/subscriptions etc.)

Hi @Frank_Dawson ! After I wrote this post, there appears to have been an update to Office 365 which now allows for globally disabling AutoSave for an application. To disable this in Excel, go to File => Options => Save and uncheck the box "Autosave OneDrive and SharePoint Online files by default on Excel". Your colleagues would need to do the same, but hopefully this helps!

I haven't tried this myself if it works but it seems these regfixes disables Autosave for selected applications:

https://lazyadmin.nl/it/disable-autosave-for-office-365/

Regedits could be pushed via GPO if thats applicable!

Try for one machine!

 

Not saying I would do it though! I like autosave :)

 

/ Adam

There are more problems. We have files online that already existed before this feature was introduced, but where we made sure the "Thisworkbook.autosaveon" flag was set to false. But any new user that opens the file will somehow ignore this feature and it gets turned on again by Excel.

 

Worse, I experimented with using vba code to programmatically turn off autosave the moment a workbook is opened, but somehow excel manages to already save before the user has had a chance to press the "enable macros" button. >.>

 

How do I permanently disable this feature for all users accessing my files in SharePoint, not just for myself?

Hello Adam,

 

Problem is I'm not an admin, not would I want to turn it off for all excel files everywhere - just for the excel files I created that other users work with. I had hoped it'd be as easy as simply setting the workbook.autosaveon flag to "False", but no such luck. Is there any other way I can turn off autosave when another user opens my workbooks, before the file is first auto-saved? (which is before the user clicks on "Enable macro's" apparently)

I really disliked the Autosave at first. Now I am on the fence.

 

I still get pissed off when I see a bunch of files that I know I haven't changed in 5 years with last modified dates in last month but I mostly avoid that happening now. 

 

It may just be that a few process changes will make it usable and maybe even an improvement. I have found it helps to protect files and choose read only (File, Protect Document, Always Open Read-Only). That way you, or someone else, has to consciously choose if you want to save the file.

Well, I get it! It’s a very different way of thinking and working! But as said you can try set the document as read only when opened! I would suggest trying to adjust though! There’s benefits as well and remember that you have version history for recovery in case of misshappenings!!

Adam

Maybe this is also an option: 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Announcing-the-new-cloud-based-policy-managem...

 

This is new functionality that you can enable or disable things in Office. You can sent these settings to a group of users. So you can deliver this only to those users who don't want the autosave option.

 

Maurits

Hello Adam,

 

I looked at that option as well, but if I set the files to read-only, the built-in macro's won't be able to write to the files when they should, either - and apart from the effort required to update the macro's contained in several hundreds of files, I cannot do so without the datestamp on those files getting changed.

 

I just hope there's a workaround - the files already contain a macro that immediately saves the files locally as soon as the user makes any changes, and only transfers the changes to the online version when they press the button to do so.

If the files were already saved online prior to that macro being triggered (or macro's being enabled at all by the user pressing 'enable macro's'), I would need to have the macro undo the unwanted auto-save by restoring the last version in sharepoint that wasn't autosaved after the opened file was stored locally (or is closed online without changes)

 

Is that possible, to find and restore an old version in SharePoint using vba?

@John Twohig  I am so HUGELY pissed at microsoft for the poor implementation of autosave - sending millions of users to change habits (open as read-only, etc.) which is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to enforce. We have lost an incredibly important feature of he windows explorer, namely, the "Last Modified" field has lost all meaning. It used to be that I could tell which file was the latest to be updated. Now, as soon as someone opens a file just to read it, the "Last modified" date gets updated. SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT!!!!!!!! You should have thought of a way to preserve this critical piece of information that millions of users use every single day when looking at our work. 

@adam deltinger Thanks for the pointer.  Unfortunately, it does nothing to solve the real problem because at the end of the day, due to the way "auto-save" was implemented, it changes the meaning of "last modified". It used to be that "last modified" really told you when the last intentional change was made to the file. 

By design, the auto-save feature (which is very important in and of itself), renders the "last modified" field meaningless, or rather, it completely changed its meaning. It now tells you that someone has opened this file, even if only for reading purposed. You can no longer tell when the last real change was made. Had Microsoft understood this, they clearly could have found a technological solution (programming) to detect when a user actually made a change to a file, versus when they simply opened it without making any changes.  I am astonished that nobody at Microsoft thought of the critical importance of the "last modified" field in daily work, in the way that users search for files. For example "I can't remember the file's name, but I am sure it is the presentation that was the last one I changed". Well, until auto-save, it was no problem to identify that file. Simply sort on "last modified". To make things even worse, I now think twice before opening a file because I don't want to needlessly alter the "last modified" value for the file, if it wasn't really the one I meant to open. THIS IS A HUGE OVERHEAD OF BIG HEADACHE added to the daily work of millions of users.  Auto-save is an important feature, but why did we have to give up the incredible useful "last modified"???????  Why has it been two years now, and they still haven't fixed it???????  With all due respect, solutions that require retraining will never work sufficiently, and they increase the load of things to do and remember, instead of making our lives easier with technology. There is no reason I should ever need to think about whether to turn "autosave" on or off for any given file, or when I'm in a rush, have to berate myself for forgetting to do it. Technology is supposed to solve problems, not create new ones. And what drives me crazy is that the technological solution is no rocket science!!!! It just requires some thought!!!! 

AGREED!  TURN off the gosh-darn auto-save! It just ruined some files that I opened, I seriously though it was turned off in office, and in every app manually already, and yet I just opened up about 5 documents and one the save was off and a few other it was on. Incredible how stupid this feature is!

 

Its arrogant to think we would want a file to have CHANGES COMMITTED WITHOUT ASKING by default?

 

Am I crazy or is this some first year C minus university drop-out student project garbage level of thinking? 

 

 

FIX THIS!!!

 

I swear this will end in lawsuits!

 

 

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It is a real mess. If it is autosave - basic thing is to save on hard drive an backup on cloud. Autosave backups on cloud - ONEDRIVE and messes up with your hard drive file. 

 

You have now two different versions. I made a mistake using autosave and messing up my hard drive file. 

 

I do not believe in this as the intent is to move you permanently to one drive where MS has control on you. I have disabled MS. When I pay MS for Office 365, I believe that MS has to synchronize both versions, it is basic responsibility as provider to a paying client. 

 

I have lost trust on this. May reconsider due to lack of honesty.