Powerpoint 2013 unstable

Over a year later and this is still happening to me. I am about to loose 2.5 hours of work if I cant fix this!!!

When I add another chart onto the powerpoint slide after I try to save it comes up with the message we can't save because the file is read-only (it's not) and it tells me to save it under a different name or to a different place. However, when i try to save it under a different name/different place i get the error message we're sorry, something went wrong that might make powerpoint unstable. Please save your presentation and restart powerpoint. I can't save the presentation because of the previous problem.

Same problem with my users.

Single person editing a single 2013 PowePoint deck and they are cutting and pasting from a Word 2013 document or a even a 2nd 2013 PowerPoint deck and get the message:

"We're sorry, something went wrong that might make PowerPoint unstable.  Please save your presentation and restart PowerPoint."

But their deck is in read only so they have to do a Save As.

Please fix this issue, Microsoft.

I never had this error before I recently got a new laptop with Windows 8 & did the 8.1 update; then loaded Office 2013.  I am editing (and about 75% of the time successfully saving) about 10 different .ppt & .pptx files.

I have been (seemingly randomly) getting these same error messages (cannot save, read-only file, save with another name - resulting in 2 fractured files)  while I update PowerPoint slides (which I had no problem updating with a previous version of Ppt last fall, all downloaded from Dropbox).  I've been struggling with this issue on & off for a week now.  

This error has occurred after I edited text by changing the size of the font.  Another time after I changed the size of the space between bullet points.  Another time after I cropped an image (which PPt 2013 does not make look like a smooth process; the image gets way too big and looks like it's over-reacting to this task).  Another time after I removed an image and replaced it with a version of that image which I modified in another PowerPoint file. 

I have tried everything suggested in this post (and I had such high hopes that Bella's Nov 2013 post was the answer) as well as chkdsk on my harddrive (no problems), and the friendly agents at Geek Squad have run every diagnostic they have and have confirmed our suspicions that there seems to be file saving contention (including the steps suggested by MS engineers in a similar post at "PowerPoint 2013: Trouble Saving the Files").  So I also uninstalled Dropbox but had the same problem recur about 1 in 10 saves.  I have tried removing the oldest images from the file; that seemed to work, but then it didn't.  The fonts are standard; that shouldn't be the problem.

Watching me re-create the error, the most recent Geek Squad agent suggested I always save the file in its exact same location with the same file name (and not, as I have often done, intermittently perform a Save As then rename or relocate the folder).  So I thought, OK this must be it!  Office 2013 & Windows 8.1 are somehow contending for the file and I cannot use my old habits to work on the file in Downloads and then save it to a more useful location when done.  Instead, I determined to work on & save it in the first location, close it, then copy (or cut) & paste it into another file.  I didn't even get that far.

Sometimes it feels like it's about the 3rd save, others it seems more like the 10th save.

We need to keep posting what we've tried, what we've thought caused the problem, and give Microsoft more incentive & direction to get this issue resolved.  I, too, can't believe it was first posted almost 9 months ago and we don't even have more than one early Microsoft official response in this thread!  

I'm out numerous hours of work plus $100 to Geek Squad (purchased this week for help with this issue) & not to mention some portion of my sanity over this, and very possibly credibility for keeping my job.  Apparently I have some excellent company, but all we'd rather just get our work done.

Apparently today's Windows update did not address this issue.  

Come on, Microsoft!  Respond something useful!!

I have found that when I get this error, I can't save in the PPTX format; however, doing a "SAVE AS" a PPT (2007 - 2010) and the document can be saved.  Make sure you try another format before just tossing away all of your work.

I just had this problem for the first time and lost two hours work. It's been months, why hasn't this been fixed in a patch?