AutoSave causes 'Document not saved' error in Excel 97

[David North]

We are running Office 97 on our Windows Server 2003 Citrix/Terminal Servers.
We have been experiencing a frequent problem with saving in Excel, where the
process does not complete - the temporary file is saved and the previous
version of the file is deleted, but the temporary file is not renamed. The
error we get is either "Document not saved" or another message saying that
the file could not be saved under its original name and has been saved to a
temporary file (sorry I don't have the exact message). This has only happened
since I sent an email to users telling them how to enable AutoSave, so I
assume that AutoSave is the cause, although it sometimes occurs during manual
saves.

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi David,

the temporary file is saved and the previous
version of the file is deleted, but the temporary file is not renamed.

I suspect this is not caused by Autosave, but rather by a network/server
problem. Autosave just makes it more likely to happen because the save
frequency drastically increased.

You could check:

- whether user has delete rights in folder
- if virus scanner is perhaps holding the temp file locked when XL tries to
rename
- other networking problem

You might consider my autosafe:

www.jkp-ads.com/download.asp#autosafe

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com

 

[David North]

Hi David,


I suspect this is not caused by Autosave, but rather by a network/server
problem. Autosave just makes it more likely to happen because the save
frequency drastically increased.

If I had had some reports of the problem in the 18 months between when the
servers were installed and when users started enabling AutoSave, then I would
agree, but it's gone from zero reports in that time to about a dozen in the
last week or so. I would hope that the users were saving reasonably often
anyway.

You could check:

- whether user has delete rights in folder

Yes - otherwise the original file could not be deleted, and the problem
would be consistent, which it isn't.

- if virus scanner is perhaps holding the temp file locked when XL tries to
rename

Possible I suppose.

- other networking problem

I'm not aware of any other apps having problems. It's a server-to-server
link that has always been very reliable as far as I know.

You might consider my autosafe:

www.jkp-ads.com/download.asp#autosafe

Thanks - I might well give it a go.