Cannot save Excel file to a Network Drive

We often use Network Drives for Team Collaboration and save various documents, including Microsoft Excel files. However, there are times when you are unable to save Excel files to the shared network drives. And whenever you try saving your Excel file to the network drive, it throws up an error showing the message “Your changes could not be saved”. The error message you see could be:

Your changes could not be saved because of a sharing violation

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

If you’re encountering this Excel error, this article can be a great resource to resolve your issue. Through this article, we will talk about possible causes and workaround on how to fix them.

Cannot save Excel file to a Network Drive

Causes why ‘Your changes could not be saved’ error occurs while saving Excel file to shared network

There can be a number of reasons why this error can occur while you are saving your Excel file on a network drive and here are 10 very likely reasons.

1. The file name or path no longer exists and is already modified or deleted.
2. The file may already be used by another application. So, close the application and try reopening the Excel workbook file.
3. Another Excel file exists with the same name that is read-only. Hence, change the Excel file name and try saving.
4. Check if the Excel workbook file is shared among different users and if it is a possibility that another user may be accessing it at the same time. Wait for the other user to close the file.
5. Your drive space may be exhausted hence you are unable to save and get the error
6. You don’t have Delete and Modify rights for the appropriate folder on the network drive. You must have Delete and Modify rights to save an Excel workbook file with the correct file name to the folder.
7. The file path character has crossed the maximum limit and hence you are getting the error.
8. The connection to the network drive is lost.
9. The workbook might contain any of the items such as PivotTables, Visual Basic for Applications modules, or Embedded objects (like clip art)

10. The Antivirus application installed on the PC can also create issues and prevent access to the folder. Disabling the antivirus can prevent them from accessing the folder and might resolve the issue.

So, now that we know the causes let us check out the solutions.

Your changes could not be saved Excel error

Here are the fixes you can try to resolve the “Your changes could not be saved” error in Microsoft Excel:

1. Inform Network Administrator of folder rights
2. Save the Excel workbook file on the Local Hard Drive
3. Temporarily disable the Antivirus program
4. Repair corrupted Excel Workbook
5. Add Subkey in the Registry Editor
6. Change the file extension of your Excel workbook file
7. Rename your Excel workbook file.
8. Move the worksheet of your Excel

Read further to understand these features in more detail.

Fix Excel Sharing Violation error

1]  Inform Network Administrator of folder rights

This could be the first check that you must apply to resolve this issue. Notify your network administrator that you need Delete and Modify rights for the folder on the network drive where you are saving the Excel file with the correct file name.

2]  Save the Excel workbook file on the Local Hard Drive

This is another workaround that you must surely try before following any complicated fix. Try saving the Excel workbook file to the local hard drive. You can also try to save the workbook to the folder in which you have rights for modification and deletion.

After this, just share the file through any USB drive or online sharing medium.

3]  Temporarily disable the Antivirus program

Many a time Antivirus programs that have access to all files on the PC can create issues for the saved Excel workbook files. Even the antivirus on the network server can create an issue as at times they conflict with the Excel file-saving process. Therefore, disabling the antivirus or removing it can prevent them from accessing the folder and might resolve the issue.

4]  Repair corrupted Excel Workbook

If your Excel workbook file is somehow corrupted there are chances that they won’t be saved onto the shared network drives.

You may need to repair the potentially corrupted Excel workbook, there are manual as well as other methods.

5]  Add Subkey in the Registry Editor

In the registry editor, you can modify the windows applications’ different register values. By Modifying these values, you can bring significant improvement in the performance of the applications. Here is how you can add a subkey in the Registry Editor,

• Firstly, type Run in the Windows search bar and press enter.
• In Run windows, type regedit on the box and click on OK.

• After clicking on OK, the Registry Editor window will open
• Navigate to the below address to open Options folder,

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options

• Next, right-click on the Options folder and then go to New and then click on DWORD (32-bit) Value.

• After clicking OK, a new value will be there alongside the previous ones. Rename the value by right-clicking the mouse and then double click to open a new window. In that window, input 1 in the Valid Data field as shown below.
• Click ‘OK’

Post setting the value as 1, you should be able to save the Excel files on the network drive successfully.

6]  Change the file extension of your Excel workbook file

Try changing the extension of the Excel workbook file from .xlsx to .xls (or vice versa) and see if it works.

7]  Rename your Excel workbook file

Try renaming your file by modifying some words. In a shared network, some words can be in restricted mode, so renaming could do the trick for you.

8]  Move the worksheet of your Excel

To see if the parent Excel worksheet file has issues within, try moving the sheets to a new workbook. In case the parent workbook has issues, then the problem would go away.

I hope the above solutions explained in this post helped you fix the issue. If you have any other fixes, do let us know in the comments.

Read: Microsoft Excel Document not saved error

How to fix corrupted Excel files?

Follow the next steps to repair corrupted Excel files

1. Click the File and then on Open.
2. Click the location and folder that contains the corrupted workbook.
3. Now, in the Open dialog box, select the corrupted workbook.
4. After that, click the arrow next to the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.
5. Select Repair to recover as much of the workbook data as possible.

I am not able to save my Excel file, what should I do?

You can try the following solution:

1. Restart Windows in safe mode
2. Now try to save the workbook to your local hard disk.
3. If you use a network location to save your workbook, try to restart Windows in safe mode with network support, and then try to save.

Read next: Excel – The File couldn’t open in Protected View.