When creating a new document in Desktop Word and trying to save it to the Desktop or another location, I get a "Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission" error.
I've noticed that when I click Save, the focus switches to Save As, but I still get the error. However, if I use Save As directly, everything works fine. If I turn on AutoSave, I don't get the error, but I don't see a Save option either.
When I use Browser Word and save to the Desktop, my "Normal" file reverts to its default settings, but at least I don't get the error.
All other Office products work as expected.
What I've Tried So Far
I've tried the following solutions found on this forum and YouTube, but they didn't work:
Quick Repair
Online Repair
Install from Account
New Normal file
Possible Conflict?
I also use a different Word/Microsoft 365 account for volunteer work, and the problem persists whether I'm signed in to that account or not. Could it be that Desktop Word is getting confused between the two accounts or has corrupted a file somewhere?
This issue is annoying, but not a major blocker. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
This is a pretty frustrating issue, but we can troubleshoot it step by step.
First, let’s cover a few things you’ve already triedHAL. Quick Repair, Online Repair, and installing from your account are all common solutions. Creating a new Normal file is also a good idea.
Since none of those worked, let’s dig deeper. Here are some things you can try:
Multiple Accounts
You’re right to suspect that the two different accounts might be causing conflicts. Sometimes, having multiple accounts signed in can mess with permissions.
Try signing out of both accounts completely, then restart Word and try saving a new document. If it works, sign back in to your main account.
If that doesn’t work, try signing in to your volunteer work account and see if the issue persists there as well.
AppData Folder
Sometimes, Word’s settings can get stuck or corrupted. Let’s try clearing the Word settings folder.
Close all instances of Word.
Go to this folder: C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word
Delete the entire Word folder.
Start Word and see if that helps.
Reset Word Settings
Similar to the above step, let’s try resetting all Word settings.
Close all instances of Word.
Open Command Prompt as Admin.
Type: word /r and press Enter. This will reset Word to its default settings.
permissions on Your Desktop
It’s possible that the issue is with the folder you’re trying to save to.
Right-click on your Desktop and go to Properties.
Ensure your user account has full permissions to read and write to the Desktop folder. If not, modify the permissions accordingly.
Reinstall Word
If none of the above steps help, it might be time to reinstall Word. Uninstall Word and then reinstall it from your Microsoft 365 account.
Let me know if any of these steps help solve the problem.