Microsoft Word is accidentally deleting documents rather than saving them
Users of Microsoft Word for Windows may need to take extra care when saving their work following a rather awkward issue for the software.
The widely-used word processor has confirmed a bug which instead of saving files, actually ends up deleting them.
The issue does not affect every version of Microsoft Word, but users are being warned to be on their guard when saving their work.
Microsoft Word deleting files
In a support page outlining the issue, Microsoft noted, “users may encounter an issue…where their file is deleted after save if the title contains a capitalized file extension (.DOCX, .RTF) or #”.
The issue, which affect Word for Microsoft 365 version 2409, build 18025.20104, occurs when the user closes Word after making an edit to the file and saves when prompted to. Doing this may cause the file to simply disappear – although it may end up in the Recycle Bin, from where it can be restored.
Microsoft’s advice to users struggling with the bug does not inspire a lot of confidence – users are advised to simply manually save their documents before exiting Word.
“Our current tests show the issue occurs after saving when prompted on clicking X to close Word. It does not currently reproduce when manually saving before close,” the support page notes.
Users can also enable the option, “Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts”, which can be enabled by going to File > Options > Save > Don’t show the Backstage, when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts.
Microsoft says users can also revert to an earlier version of Word while it investigates and works on a fix.
Via BleepingComputer