Microsoft KB Archive/291070

= XL2002: &quot;Your Changes Could Not Be Saved&quot; Error While Saving to a Network Drive =

PSS ID Number: 291070

Article Last Modified on 2/7/2003

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Excel 2002

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This article was previously published under Q291070



For a Microsoft Excel 2000 version of this article, see 214032.

For a Microsoft Excel 97 and earlier version of this article, see 113600.



SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Excel, when you save a workbook file on a network drive, if you do not have both Modify and Delete rights for the folder to which you are saving the file, one of the following occurs:  When you save a new workbook file to the network drive, you receive an error message similar to the following

Your changes could not be saved to, but were saved to a temporary document named. Close the existing document, then open the temporary document and save it under a new name.

where  is a random eight-character alphanumeric string, and   is the name of the file being saved.

-or- When you save an existing workbook file to the network drive, the file appears to be saved with the name you entered in the Save dialog box. However, when you open this file again from the network, your changes do not appear in the file. The file is actually saved to the network drive with a random file name that contains numbers and letters, such as 4CCA4100.



CAUSE
Microsoft Excel saves files in three steps:
 * 1) Excel writes a randomly named temporary file, such as CEDD4100 with no file extension, to the destination directory.
 * 2) Excel deletes the original file (if you are saving an existing file).
 * 3) Excel renames the temporary file to the intended file name, such as Book1.xls.

This error message occurs if Excel cannot delete the original file or cannot rename the temporary file, causing the save operation to not be completed successfully.

If Excel cannot delete the existing file (because you lack Delete rights), both the original file and the temporary file remain in the destination folder.

If Excel can delete the existing file (or if you are saving a file for the first time), but Excel cannot rename the temporary file (because you lack Modify rights), only the temporary file will be saved in the destination folder.

This error message only occurs when you save a file in the Microsoft Excel Workbook or Template format.



RESOLUTION
Notify your network administrator that you need Delete and Modify rights for the appropriate directory on the network drive. You must have Delete and Modify rights to save a Microsoft Excel workbook file with the correct file name to the directory.

To temporarily work around this problem (until you have proper rights on the destination directory), try the following methods:
 * Save your workbook files to your local hard disk, or to a directory for which you do have Modify and Delete rights. You may then be able to copy the file to the network drive on which you do not have Modify or Delete rights.
 * If you have an antivirus program installed either on your computer or on the network server, turn off or remove the antivirus program, and see if the problem still occurs. Some antivirus programs may interfere with the save process in Microsoft Excel.

NOTE: You may want to check with the maker of your antivirus program to see if an there is an updated version that addresses the save problem in Microsoft Excel.



MORE INFORMATION
Several issues in addition to user rights can cause this issue, such as third-party antivirus and replication software. To verify that you do not have the rights on the network to modify or delete a file, try renaming or deleting the file on the network drive from Windows Explorer. If you cannot rename or delete the file from Windows Explorer, you cannot save a file to this drive from Microsoft Excel.

Additional query words: err msg novell novel privilege macafee mcafee f-prot ibm norton fprot hard drive prb XL2002 Octopuss OfficeErrorMessages 10036

Keywords: kberrmsg kbinterop kbnetwork kbprb KB291070

Technology: kbExcel2002 kbExcel2002Search kbExcelSearch kbExcelWinSearch

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