Like almost all programs, Word is not without some small flaws. In fact, many users complain that Microsoft Word hangs while saving automatically. I therefore decided to write this article to explain to you what to do in these cases.
Word integrates an automatic save feature, which is turned on by default. This function allows you to save every 5 minutes the document you are writingto avoid losing the work done in case something goes wrong.
Without a doubt, this is a very convenient function, but apparently, it can happen that the automatic saving of word creates some problems. In some cases saving may take longer than expected, in other cases it could even completely block Word. In the following paragraphs I will explain how to solve the problem.
Microsoft Word hangs while saving automatically
If Word crashes during automatic saving, the first thing I recommend is to have a little patience and wait a few seconds.
If the document you are creating is rich in content, such as images or other multimedia content, the autosave may take longer than expected to complete.
If, on the other hand, you notice that the program crashes even with small documents, carry out the procedures outlined in the following chapters.
Check your internet connection
The entire Office suite is closely linked to the OneDrive Cloud service and the latter is also used during automatic saves. If your Internet connection does not work or is unstable, you may have problems saving the document.
In these cases the most frequent problem is the considerable increase in the time required to perform the save.
Therefore, before continuing to read the article, I suggest you check if your Internet connection is working properly.
Check the space available on OneDrive
As written in the previous chapter, Word uses OneDrive when autosaving. Microsoft’s cloud offers 5 GB of storage for free.
If you are running out of free space, Word may not be able to synchronize your documents and thus finish autosaving successfully.
In this case you will have to save the document manually on your computer, do a cloud cleanup to recover some space or upgrade OneDrive to a paid plan that offers more storage space.
Rename the default templates file
If you’re having trouble connecting and if you have enough OneDrive storage space, but Word keeps crashing while automatically saving the document, try renaming the default templates file. To do this, the procedure to be followed is as follows:
- Close Microsoft Word;
- Start the Run tool by pressing from the keyboard WIN+R;
- Type: “%appdata%”then click the button “OK” or press ENTER;
- In the File Explorer window, open the folder “Microsoft”;
- Open the folder “Templates”;
- Locate the file “Normal.dotm”then right-click on it;
- From the context menu that opens, click on the option “Rename”;
- Rename the file to “OldNormal.dotm”.
Now Word should no longer crash when autosaving.
Disable add-ons
Word add-ins can make many tasks easier, however, the presence of a malfunctioning add-in could cause several problems and could be the cause of Microsoft Word crashing all the time.
So, if you have done the above steps but still having problems then I suggest you try disabling Word add-ins.
- Click on the entry “File”present in the upper left;
- Click on the entry “Options”present in the lower left;
- In the window that opens, click on the entry “Additional components”present in the left sidebar,
- From the drop-down menu at the bottom, select the item “COM Add-ons” and click on the button “Go”;
- Select the add-on to delete and click the button “Remove”.
Turn off automatic saves
If Microsoft Word keeps crashing, the problem could most likely be caused by a system malfunction, such as corrupted system files or the presence of a virus or malware.
If, waiting to solve the problem permanently, you want to use Word, I suggest you disable automatic saves, to do so:
- Click on the entry “File”present in the upper left;
- Click on the entry “Options”present in the lower left;
- Select from the left sidebar, the item “Rescue”;
- Remove check marks from entries “Auto-save files stored in the Cloud by default in Word” And “Save AutoRecover Information”;
- Click on “OK”.
