Making it so users cant disable autosave in office apps

[AB21805]

Hi all,

Is it possible to stop users from turning off autosave on office apps ie word through Intune? 

Thanks in advance!

[#2]

Hi ab21805,

You can set this via a PowerShell script or gpo. Please take a look at the following blogs

Method 1: Via gpo and oma uri

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/turn-off-autosave-via-group-policy-or-office-...

https://www.petervanderwoude.nl/post/deep-dive-ingesting-third-party-admx-files/

Please take a look also at the settings catalog profile in intune, maybe these settings are already present, and ready to use but I don’t know that

Method 2: Registry and PowerShell
https://lazyadmin.nl/it/disable-autosave-for-office-365/

Kind regards,
René

[#3 · Accepted solution]

If I am reading it correctly, he is looking for a method to DISABLE the possibility to turn off autosave, not to turn it off?
I don't know for certain when you disable that setting you mentioned is going to grey out the possibility to turn it off? Of did I read it totally wrong :) ?

[#4]

Hi Rudy,

My bad.

You're correct he don't want to disable the possibility to turn off auto save but he want to enforce it.

My answer isn't correct. I installed the GPO and I see the description "turn off autoSave by default in Excel". I thought when you set it to disable the autosave setting will be enforced.

This policy setting allows you to turn off AutoSave by default in Word. AutoSave automatically saves all changes a user makes to files that are stored in OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online.

If you enable this policy setting, AutoSave is off by default in Word. But, the user can enable AutoSave for Word by going to File > Options > Save. Or, the user can enable AutoSave for a specific Word file by using the AutoSave toggle in the title bar.

If you disable or don’t configure this policy setting, AutoSave is on by default, but the user can disable AutoSave by going to File > Options > Save or by using the AutoSave toggle.

[#5]

@Mr_Helaas  @Rudy_Ooms_MVP Hi Both,

So can I not DISABLE the possibility to turn off autosave? So that it stays on all the time 

[#6]

Hi @AB21805, 

In my opinion it is not possible to enforce it.

The user have always the possibility to manually turn Autosave off.

With GPO is their only a possibility to disable the autosave function but, not to enforce autosave.

Rene

[#7]

Hi

Not that I am aware off... unfotunately

[#8]

@Mr_Helaas @Rudy_Ooms_MVP 

Ok thanks both for the quick response. 

[#9]

@AB21805  If your question is answered. Please mark one of the replies as an answer

[#10]

Hello,

The setting is a standard registry key but I couldn't find a policy to enforce the setting. If you are using Intune as MDM you could use Proactive remediations to check the setting and if it is not set correctly then change it. 

This doesn't mean that the user cannot disable it but it will be corrected at the Proactive remediations schedule. This is a workarround and will hopefully helps you.

Registry key for Word: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word

AutoSaveByDefaultUserChoice

Dword value: 1

For Excel en PowerPoint it is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint

[#11]

Also interested in this! Turning off Autosave is a mess, some older people do it, because of "I always had to save a file manually" or "I can first work without thinking, then begin to think and realize it is all wrong, ok close without saving" or "Because saving a copy first than edit is not logical".
With AutoSave off we have many Sync errors and missing parts in the Documents, so it would be great to enforce the use of it.