# Unable to save a Word document on a Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029 "2021-01-08T12:16:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/1 "2021-01-08T12:16:32Z")
Upgraded my Mac Mini to Big Sur before the new year. Ver. OSX 11.1 My Microsoft Office license is all paid up. Word ver. 15.39 The new Mac Mini I use has a 256 Gig SDHH. In order to get it going I had to pull the main Documents folder over to an external HDD. Seemed to work fine in terms of directing documents to be stored there. Word “knew” how to find Documents folder on the external HDD. Been able to use Word and Excel as before. A few days ago I wrote some notes and went to save them in Word. Gave it some innocuous name. What I got- for the first time ever- was a warning window: This is not a valid file name. Try one or more of the following: º Check the path to make sure it was typed correctly. º Select a file from the list of files and folders Utter mystery. I did try many different names for the document. All failed. I tried making a folder on my Desktop called “Documents”, and then went into Word\>\> Preferences\>\>File Locations. I am not able to find the Location for where actual Word docs are saved. Only peripheral elements such as Clipart Pictures, User Templates, Workgroup Templates, AutoRecover files, Tools and Startup. I clicked the little floppy disk icon called Save under Word Preferences but that offers no obvious assistance. I hate to remove all of Microsoft Office and do another download, though I do have the new version of a “License Key” from when I paid for the software. I thought perhaps my software was a yearly payment thing and I’d timed out. No- I bought it a few years ago in October and I’d used Word and Excel after Jan 1 of this year on this machine. Right before composing this I opened Excel and created a junk spreadsheet. Entered some gack. Went to save it. It saved perfectly. If my current download is a 32-bit version of Office and now with Big Sur everything must be 64-bit, I get it. But how could I have used Office even once on this new machine if that were the case? Thoughts? Anywhere I should have looked and haven’t? Many thanks in advance !! ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/2 "2021-01-08T13:54:40Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Utter mystery. I did try many different names for the document. All failed. I tried making a folder on my Desktop called “Documents”, and then went into Word\>\> Preferences\>\>File Locations. I am not able to find the Location for where actual Word docs are saved. Only peripheral elements such as Clipart Pictures, User Templates, Workgroup Templates, AutoRecover files, Tools and Startup. There is no one special place where Word documents are saved. When you Save As, you can provide the location as well as the name. Word will usually default to save where it last saved a document, or if you started with an existing document, will save where that document is. What seems to have happened is that Word is lost, and is trying to save your file to a path name that isn’t valid. You should be able to force it to save somewhere else. In the Save As dialogue you should be able to select any existing folder, including the folders you have just created. It should save there. It isn’t preference you set otherwise. The Mac file system has some interesting magic, and works with some different semantics to other file systems. At one level it looks like a Unix file system, but things will break if you assume that file names that only differ in their case are different (which they are under Unix file systems, but not Apple file systems.) Also under the covers, Mac files have identity in a manner that Unix files do not. This can lead to some really weird issues when multiple disk drives are in use, and also lead to unexpected behaviour when files are moved. I suspect that Word is trying to save the file to somewhere that doesn’t properly exist. At least not anymore. So you see a Save As dialog, and you put the name in, but the folder it tries to place the file in has been shifted in some manner by the upgrade to the OS. You should be able to force it to the place you want by simply navigating in that dialog box. The place it is defaulting to somehow has a stale reference that has been invalidated during the upgrade. > [@Cartooniverse](#): > > If my current download is a 32-bit version of Office and now with Big Sur everything must be 64-bit, I get it. But how could I have used Office even once on this new machine if that were the case? It won’t be a 32 bit binary. It would never have run at all. Most Mac binaries have been 64 bit for years, and Microsoft will have been delivering them so. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/3 "2021-01-08T20:30:01Z")
Navigating in that dialogue box fails. I’ve tried more than a dozen times. As I said in my O.P., I even created a “Documents” folder on the Desktop. Fail. Directed it INTO the external drive that has the proper Word Documents folder in it. Fail. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/4 "2021-01-08T23:00:12Z")
Can you open an existing Word document in a known good place and Save As with just a different name? It might be possible to just wipe out all your Word settings and have it start again without a re-install. A bit fiddly as the settings live in a hidden folder. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/5 "2021-01-08T23:06:31Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Navigating in that dialogue box fails. I’ve tried more than a dozen times I don’t know if I’m much of a help, cause I’m a Windows guy, but this behavior lets me suspect that the dialog tries to open an old, non-existent folder and somehow freezes so you can’t navigate elsewhere. ETA: if I’m right, I’ll leave it to the Apple guys to solve such an issue on a Mac. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/6 "2021-01-08T23:11:13Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Can you open an existing Word document in a known good place and Save As with just a different name? > > It might be possible to just wipe out all your Word settings and have it start again without a re-install. A bit fiddly as the settings live in a hidden folder. Great question. I was just successful in doing that. Opened, extended the name to a new one, saved. It landed below the old one on the External drive where it already lived. Wipe out all of the Word settings? Glad to- how and where?? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/7 "2021-01-08T23:12:25Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@Cartooniverse](#): > > > > Navigating in that dialogue box fails. I’ve tried more than a dozen times > > I don’t know if I’m much of a help, cause I’m a Windows guy, but this behavior lets me suspect that the dialog tries to open an old, non-existent folder and somehow freezes so you can’t navigate elsewhere. > > ETA: if I’m right, I’ll leave it to the Apple guys to solve such an issue on a Mac. I wondered that. But-- when I create a Doc as a test, I can manually guide it to land on the External drive. I mean, I click through and make sure that drive is chosen. It fails. It’d annoy me to have to manually set that every time- but I don’t write many new Docs per week. However it fails. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/8 "2021-01-08T23:18:20Z")
If you go to the control panel (System Preferences, under the Apple menu) and click on Security & Privacy and then Files and Folders, does Word have access to all the disks/folders you think it should? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/9 "2021-01-08T23:22:21Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Wipe out all of the Word settings? Glad to- how and where?? This appears to be the official answer: [https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice\_word-mso\_other-mso\_mac2016/reset-the-settings-of-word-2016-to-default/b0df6be0-3fe8-4d6d-8188-b67f80ab63ac](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_other-mso_mac2016/reset-the-settings-of-word-2016-to-default/b0df6be0-3fe8-4d6d-8188-b67f80ab63ac) In general you can go to the Library folder in your home folder, and work your way down through Application Support, Microsoft, Office, etc and remove the preferences. The Library folder in your home folder may be invisible, so you need to make it visible: > **[How to show hidden files on a Mac](https://www.macworld.com/article/671158/how-to-show-hidden-files-on-a-mac.html)** > > We explain how to see hidden files and the ~/Library folder so you can make adjustments. But beware, they are hidden for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/10 "2021-01-09T00:44:43Z")
Superb. I thank you and will attempt this in the morning. And will report back. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/11 "2021-01-09T18:48:20Z")
Didn’t work. I did not remove every .plst but I removed the one for Word. Put it on the desktop. No difference. Put it into the Trash. No difference. I am going to Uninstall all of MS Word and try to install again and see if that does it. If the .plst files remain, I’m kinda screwed. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/12 "2021-01-10T01:58:37Z")
I have trouble saving Word files on my Mac, too. I keep all my files on an external hard drive, and I have to always open and save to that specific drive - trying to open from “recently used” results in Word trying to save them all wonky. I think it always tries to save to the cloud, which I don’t use. I am always able to open and save the documents manually, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/13 "2021-01-10T02:21:31Z")
I also don’t use a Cloud for anything. Did a fresh download of MS Office. That replaced all of those funky hidden files. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unable-to-save-a-word-document-on-a-mac/930029/14 "2021-01-10T03:28:10Z")
Brilliant. 🙂