Forum Discussion
Files [READ ONLY] but no indication they are, so cannot save changes
So I think I have some more info on this. After talking to some other co-workers and hearing that they were NOT experiencing the same issue that I was, I started checking into the version of Office 365 that I was running. Lo and behold, I discovered that my Excel was at version 1609, which I believe means it was last updated in October 2016! No matter what I would try to get it to update, it would always tell me that I had the latest version of Office, but since I was on the Current Channel, it was obvious I did NOT have the latest version. My suspicion was that when you tell OneDrive to let Office 2016 handle the syncing, it does -- but then if you are stuck with an old version of Office 2016, it doesn't do it correctly.
I also had wondered why my PC had STILL never been offered the Anniversary Edition of Windows 10. When I would run Windows Update, it would also tell me I was up to date, but clearly I was not. I even noticed that it would tell me that it was "last checked" on something like 12/3/2016, even though I had just clicked the Check for Updates button minutes ago. Clearly something was amiss. After trying a number of things I discovered that if I unchecked the "Check for updates for other Microsoft Products" it suddenly discovered the Windows update 1607 and so this weekend I finally updated to the Anniversary Edition. Seemed to go pretty well, although as a developer I was disappointed to see it didn't re-install IIS and I lost all my AppPools and test apps, but that wasn't too bad. It also failed to install any .NET versions (I guess because it was really a full install, with a windows.old folder and everything.
But basically, sometime in early November my PC stopped getting Office 365 updates, and sometime in early December my PC stopped getting Windows updates.
I was hoping the OS update would trigger Office 365 to resume updates as well, but alas, it did not. I tried to uninstall Office and it failed. I tried the magic "fix it" download from Microsoft and it failed, too. So I spent an hour or so manually deleting all folders and registry settings. I then ran the "fix it" a few times again and it seemed clean, and I was able to re-install Office 365 with the latest version. (It appeared that I had remnants of Office 2007, Office 2013, and Office 2016 that were confusing things. Just amazing that MS would release such a disaster of a ClickToRun install process that can't clean itself up.) The installer failed at 90%...and I eventually rebooted anyway after waiting for hours and hours. I'm sure there is something messed up with my install now, although i was able to do at least a Quick Repair afterwards (just to see) and it appeared to pass.
All that to say, now I have the latest version of Excel. And guess what? Every time I open an Excel document on my synced sharepoint folder, it prompts me to Edit Workbook...and when I click on the button, it actually works! I can't say that I've done much more than test a few folders and docs, but so far it appears to work as expected (which is what my co-workers said they were experiencing). Incidentally, through all my upgrades and re-installs, I never had to re-install OneDrive or re-sync my folders, which was a nice consolation.
So I'm wondering. What versions of Excel are you guys running, and can you get it to update somehow? I'm now on Excel Version 1611 (Built 7571.2109). And my OneDrive is now at Build 17.3.6743.1212.
Hope this helps someone?
Luke Gatchell wrote:So I think I have some more info on this. After talking to some other co-workers and hearing that they were NOT experiencing the same issue that I was, I started checking into the version of Office 365 that I was running. Lo and behold, I discovered that my Excel was at version 1609, which I believe means it was last updated in October 2016! No matter what I would try to get it to update, it would always tell me that I had the latest version of Office, but since I was on the Current Channel, it was obvious I did NOT have the latest version. My suspicion was that when you tell OneDrive to let Office 2016 handle the syncing, it does -- but then if you are stuck with an old version of Office 2016, it doesn't do it correctly.
While you should certianly be on the latest version of Excel, this isn't the issue. I am on the Fast Ring build, so way ahead of what is in the current or deferred channel, and we also have people here in the office with the confirmed latest versions in the current channel.
- Yes, very irritating. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out. I did notice that I had to open all the files in my recent/pinned list before it would show the Edit Workbook button (and then it does everytime after that). So I wonder if something in the way Excel saves the link is an issue.
I've tried numerous old files that I've not opened for years and so far I'm getting prompted by those each time. But we'll see. I know MS says this isn't a "support forum", but I'm not sure where there is such a forum if this isn't it! All - please report this to MS and even link to this thread. Right-click on the blue cloud in your system tray and select "Report a problem."
But don't run any /reset commands on your OneDrive. THat will not fix anything and will just erase any preferences you have set in checking/unchecking any folders to sync.I hope you have fixed it for you, but give it time to fail again. I've noticed that it rarely fails on the same file, so if you are working on a bunch of the same files over a few days, it should work ok. I most often get bitten when working on a file I've never worked on before, or not in a long time - like weeks or even a few months. It seems to me that ODB needs to cache some info about the file.
Irritating as heck. Almost as irritating as MS's silence and notable absence in this thread.- Interesting. Maybe all the other updates I did, plus all the registry cleaning and uninstalling of other Office versions was what really was causing the problem and ended up fixing it. All I can say is that every file I've interacted with over the last few days has properly shown the Edit Workbook button, and every time I click it, it works (I haven't seen the "can't contact the server" message yet).
Not saying that it all couldn't break in a moment. :-) I did, incidentally, update Office this morning and it grabbed the 2/23 release, so it now truly is up to the latest Current Channel (although not ahead on the Fast Ring like you).