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Solution "your Changes Could Not Be Saved" "the Document May Be Read-only Or Encrypted"

Here's a little public service (and a reference point for me the next
time this happens if I forget) for people stuck with this type of Excel
behaviour...

You try to save a file (for me, 53Mb excel file using extensive VBA and
autofiltering to an NTFS compressed network share) and get the
following type of message;

Your changes could not be saved to '<<filename>>.xls", but were
saved to a temporary document named 'D933D120'. Close the
existing document, then open the temporary document and
save it under a new name."

You attempt to save and get an error "File not saved".

You close, reboot, wait for a three-quarter moon etc etc, try to open
the temporary file and get the error
"Excel cannot access 'D933D120'. The document may be read-only or
encrypted."

Thank you to those authors describing the above as a garbage bucket
error message, commonly having nothing to do with either read-only
attributes or encryption, which got me thinking "what else could stop a
file being opened".

Here's the solution;
Right click the file
Properties
Security

For me, the security settings were blank. It appears that the saving
process which creates this temp file when "overwriting" (actually
creates new file(the temp file above), deletes old, renames new with
old name) an old file fell over before it could apply the relevant
access lists and rename the file.

Simply add yourself as an authorised user for the file, with full
permissions.

I was then able to open the file, rename etcetera, as described on the
original error message.

As to the original cause of the issue, ie why the save process fell
over;
?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291204/ - didn't get identical
messages, so not 100%

?Various mentions of antivirus software - unconfirmed

?NTFS compression - takes so long on some large files that a timeout of
some sort occurs- hypothetical only. May depend on network traffic at
the time.




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Excel VBA Course - From Beginner to Expert

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Become a master of VBA and Macros in Excel and learn how to automate all of your tasks in Excel with this online course. (No VBA experience required.)

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Similar Topics







Hi all,

I've been getting this error on occasion recently.

- It's a shared document
- There is usually 10-12 people using the file at the same time

I've read on the Microsoft Help site that the issue is that somebody is accessing the file while another is trying to open it.

Is there a way, perhaps through VBA, that I can not allow a user to save while somebody else is opening the document? Other suggestions on how to avoid this error?

Thanks!

We have an Excel spreadsheet that sits on the network.
People need to open the file to be able to sign up for various duty rosters.
We would like for the file to open for the first person.
And then for any others after that, get a message that the file is in use
WITHOUT the option to open a read-only copy.
Our staff can't read and they keep opening additional copies of the file!
I have read about sharing the file and I don't think that would make things
any better.
Thanks,
Lynn



Hello,

I have a number of different files that I often need to run a macro on. In order for me to do it on the 75-100 files I have at any given time, I need to open one, run the macro, close and save, then open the next one.

Is it possible to write a macro that will start with the first file in a folder, open it and update links, run a macro, save and close, and open the next file in the folder until it has open all the files in the folder.

I have experience with creating macros that reference different workbooks, but not sure how to go about opening files with different filenames (without referencing the exact filename).

I'd like to be able to have basic code for opening, saving and closing, opening next file, saving and closing, etc. and input the macro I'd need to run in each file in the appropriate location. Is this possible? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Jason


I have workbook in which I want to save a specific worksheet to a new file with only the values saved - all data in this worksheet are references to cells on another worksheet, which is using VLOOKUP to pull data from a database.

Found the following code and it gets me close, but it copies the cell references, not the values. It also allows me to specify the file name from a cell reference.

I want the new workbook file to simply be saved, not opened, and a message box to display stating where the file was saved (will always be in the same location on the LAN).

What modifications do I make to this to get this to work per above requirements?

Sub CopyMe()
Dim SaveMeAs As String
SaveMeAs = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("B2").Text
Sheets("Sheet3").Copy
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:="C:\My Documents\" & SaveMeAs
End Sub


I have an excel 2007 file sitting in a shared network folder. I only want one user to be able to make changes at a time (any other users would get a read-only). For some reason it currently does not do this, and I have multiple users with the same doc open. I'm concerned that changes will get over-written when 2 people are saving their changes. Can anyone help me with the settings for this.


I need help desparately. Last night I spent several hours working on an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet and it has disappeared.

I saved it routinely as I was making many changes updates etc. I opened
original file --stuff.xls --- made changes and saved it as again as
stuff.xls. I have done this several times before.

Today, when I go to open stuff.xls, it is nowhere to be found!!!!! I have
done a search, for any file modified since Thurs and nothing has appeared. I
have checked the recycle bin, this did not go into auto recover nothing of
the like. I am just traumatized, because I have NEVER had anything like this
happen before.

I even thought perhaps I didn't save it as often as I thought, (I know that
I did) but I remembered that I saved it at least once and I can't even find
an Excel file that has been modified since Thurs!!!

Does anyone have any idea what could have happened to this file?? BTW, I
have prayed, rebooted, run spybot, called witch doctor, all with no success.

I have never had a file to just disappear with no trace. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance---



I did a bit of browsing on this problem. Found others suffering the same but haven't found any conclusive answer yet.

Every so often when I attempt to save a file, (including save as), Excel won'r let me. By won't let me I mean:

using Save doesn't appear to do anything using Save As doesn't either do anything, the dialog is not displayed and if I am doing via the File menu then the File menu is exited and the previous ribbon tab is displayed (i.ethe one I was on before clicking 'File') if I close the workbook I am prompted to save, close without saving or cancel. Clicking save just invokes the same msgbox again. I can't work out when it goes into this mode. Some days I can work without this problem, other days I encounter this 2 or 3 times.

The only thing I could suspect was I think this started around about the time I installed xlDennis' code library. I have uninstalled the addin and so far so good, but I cannot categorically say that this was the cause.

Anyone have any idea?

Cheers
Jon

Edit: I have read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271513
Doesn't seem to cover the issue I describe


I get the error message "reference is not valid" each time I open my spreadsheet. I get this message three times, and once I am done clicking ok on all three of them, my spreadsheet works just fine. The problem is, I have to send it to a bunch people.

I have a sheet with raw data a sheet with pivot tables a sheet with a dashboard and a simple macro
I don't have any #REF cells either.

Someone has any idea of what could be the problem?

thanks

NA


I have searched and read all the help files. I find the properties of
an object, I see how I can "lock", "size and move with cells" or "not
move with cells". No matter what I select, the object moves off the
screen, when the user, scrolls to the right of the spreadsheet.

Is there a way to lock the position, let's say , in the upper right
corner and have it stay there?

This would be quite useful for an EXIT button, that I have created,
that will close the program without saving (it's a read-only file.)

Thanks to all the wonderful people here that have been so helpful and
give us their valuable insight and time.

Jo




I was wondering if there is a way of getting a macro to open the "save as" dialogue box and then have it fill in the "file name" field.

I dont want it to actually make the save though as I want the user to have the chance to check that the save location is correct and the option to change the filename if required.

Cheers.


I know this question has been asked a bajillion times, so I apologize for the redundancy.

I am working with an Excel spreadsheet and saving it as a .csv file in order to upload to an application that parses out the .csv data as transactions. The system requires .csv files, so this is how I need to save my doc (with this extension). I have been successful at preventing Excel from coverting that long number into scientific format. I have saved as a TXT file, pasted the longer number and it displays correctly. That is all good. But I have to save as a .csv. So if I do that, close the Excel window, and then open again (as the .csv file), the numbers are back to being displayed in scientific format. I have tried creating an Excel doc from scratch and entering text in Text format, to see if this created a cleaner file. But again, the second I save as .csv, close the window and then open that file up again, that dang scientific format is back.

Does anyone have any idea of how to work around this? Once I have successfully gotten the numbers to display as the long-chain number, how can I get them to "stick" so that they don't revert back to scientific format when I reopen the file?

Thanks so much for your help!


I have a file that became too big due to phantom bloat, unused range saved by Excel and all that kind of reasons. Thank to previous posts on that board tackling that issue, I was able to find how to proceed to reduce the file back to its normal size.
But I did so in a beta file (test file). The real file has become so big (103MB!) that Excel cannot even open it anymore! The file contains archive info that we do not have anywhere else.
Is there anyway then to open the file or to reduce its size without opening it (through magics...)? I just honestly don't know how to retrieve that info before deleting that file.

Thank you very much for your help.


I have a large spreadsheet in Excel 2007. I am converting it to a .csv file to import in to another program. I need to delete all commas from all data.

When I try to replace all commas (with nothing or with another character), I get the error message "The formula you typed contains an error."

I have tried various formats (text, general, etc.) and various file types (.xls,.xlsx, .csv) and still get the same error.


file locked for editing , can I kick the other user out if its my file?

I have made an excel file where other people have to go in and update it. This process takes 2 secs but some people forget and stay in it over lunch etc causing a great annoyance.
Is there anyway I can "kick" them out my file? Im not concerned if they lose any data they've entered as I'm sure this will help them get the message to get out the file quicker..
Its really doing my head in... pls help


I have an excel form, I want my users to be able to open the form, fill in appropriate data, then click the save button. When the button is clicked, the data in the form should be saved to a new file and then the original form should be reset (clear all values) for a new set of data entry. When the data is saved, I want the new excel sheet to be saved to a location specified within the macro so the user doesn't have any options and I want the title of the new file to be the value of one of the cells.

I'm new to macros and would appreciate any help this board can offer. Thanks...


I'm having a problem in a workbook with several ActiveX command buttons. I had been using the form control buttons to run macros, but the boss wanted each button to have it's own, different color. So I removed the form control buttons and created new ActiveX command buttons. I got into the button properties and set the background colors. I added the _Click code to run the macros when the user clicked the buttons.

All of the buttons were working fine. Then I saved and closed the workbook and went to lunch. Now when I open the workbook, the buttons don't work! When I click them nothing happens. They appear frozen. They don't even seem to click. No error message. Nothing.

If I right-click the button in Design Mode and select Properties, I get sheet properties not the button properties. I can't seem to locate the command button properties any longer. I still see the button name "cmdButtonGetInfo" and "=EMBED("Forms.CommandButton.1","") in the name box and formula bar. The odd thing is if I create a new button it works fine until I save and close the file. When I reopen the file none of the buttons work.

It's like the buttons are being disabled when I close or open the file. Any suggestions?


Hi all,

I've had a long search through your pages to see if this question has been answered before but having browsed through about 50 pages worth of threads I couldn't see anything, but if I am repeating prior information I do apologise.

I've written a macro that is relatively simple. It just takes some information in one format, rearranges it, adds some formatting and performs some calculations. Nothing incredibly fancy but it works fine on my computer.

Now, I need to share this macro with some other people, so basically I've just sent that excel file on to the people that need to use it. Should be fine and in most cases it is, however there is one user who although they can open the file, can't seem to get the macro to run properly.

It seems to get a small way through the macro but then stop with no error messages or any sign that it hasn't completed properly.

I have checked Macro Security level and that is the same as mine, Tools - Add-Ins is the same, In Visual Basic, Tools - References is the same as mine. It is the same Operating system and the same version of Excel.

I have even signed into this person's computer as myself (it's a big company network thing) and tried to run the macro and it works fine, so there is nothing wrong with the hardware.

I've googled and searched and tried everything I can think of but I'm no closer to solving this problem, so if anyone has read through this wall of text and can come up with a possible solution, that would be greatly appreciated to save me from tearing ALL my hair out!

Thanks very much for your time.


I have a VBMacro Excel file loaded on a Server that numerous people access. A Macro in this file creates a Copy of a specific Sheet within the Active Workbook and I want to Save it to the individual's Desktop.

How do I find out what the current User's desktop folder path is each time the Marco is run by a different User?

Example User's path: 'C:\Documents and Settings\jfarc\Desktop'

Where 'jfarc' is the name of the current User which, will of course change with every different User that runs the Macro.

Also, is there a way to pull out of Excel what is the current User's 'Options | General | Default File Location' entry? Which may differ from the above directory.

I am familiar with and use the following coding for Opening/Saving files to the current directory of the opened workbook, but it only gives the path of the existing Excel workbook and not the current User's Directory Path:

Dim wbThis As Workbook
Set wbThis = ThisWorkbook
ChDir wbThis.Path


I have a co-worker's file that he is having trouble with. He is using Excel 2000 SP3. When copying a cell with a formula in it of "=D6+C6" and pasting it into the next cell down, it will display the same value in the cell as the calculated value from above, but has the correct formula displayed in the formula bar of "=D7+C7".

Example:
A1: 50
A2: 10
B1: 60
B2: 20

A3: Formula: =A1+A2 Displays: 60
Right click A3, Copy, right click B3, paste
A3 displays 60

When I click save, it will change the display value to 80.

I am trying this on his workstation and mine. Mine has Office 2010, so I think there might be an issue with the file itself.

Also, not just copy and paste. I can also just click the top cell after filling in the formula and then drag the bottom right of the cell downward and it will do the same of filling in the correct formula, but have the incorrect value.

I know that I could get him to just click save each time before really looking at the results, but that is just a band aid to the problem.

Any ideas how to fix this?


How do I grant only specific people to be able to open, view, edit an excel file? I don't want anybody else besides these two people to be able to even open the file, so I'm not talking about password protecting to prohibit editing a file. I would assume I need to go to the properties, security settings but I'm not sure?