Powerpoint 2013 unstable

Hi Bella, I think your fix would really help, but in Windows 8.1 I am not seeing MSOSYNC in FIle Manager anywhere nor have I been able to find "Offline files" in the services.msc window.  Step 3 still works, though!  Any tips or screen prints would help, if you can still see those two items (MSOSYNC and "Offline files" in Windows 8.1 since success with Step 3 alone isn't totally helping eliminate the problem.

Today's theory, and I think this is very close if not the actual issue:

In Office 2010, I always saw a message at the bottom of the window when Office was auto-saving in the back ground.  When that message appeared, I would never try to do something important like save my own copy because it wouldn't work.  I don't think it would cause a file corruption, though.

In Office 2013, I am not seeing that auto-save message (in Ppt or in Word, probably not in Excel either but I haven't noticed yet.)

My theory is that when we happen to save at the same time Office is auto-saving a temp back-up file, the new Office 2013 mode is "oh, suddenly this is a read-only file and you can't save it unless you call it sthg else or save it somewhere else" and then when I have saved my work that way, I then get two fragmented files with the earlier version showing broken images & text that are different from the newer version broken images & text.  When I first encountered this I spent even more time trying to reconcile the changes I had made & still needed.  Twice the amount of time plus the stress time.  

Now, instead of following the "save as sthg else" advice (to much better results):

I close the file without saving, close out of the entire program, get up & walk away from the computer, take some deep breaths, get some water, and come back to open my latest-saved version of the file (with no problem and no loss of work, and keep working hoping I won't save at the same time Office is doing a back-up.  One tip that seems to work: wait until you see a delay in response from the program (that's probably when the auto-save is happening).  Then wait a minute and make your own save.  So far, so good.

So, Microsoft team, two requests:

1. How can I turn on that auto-save message?  I used to find it somewhat annoying, but if my theory is correct - I really need it now.  I've looked in the file Options and see other controls but not this one.
2. The Backstage takes a millisecond or two (or more) extra time in any Alt-S and I realize it can be turned off, but please make sure this is also not getting in the way of the background auto-save.

Still waiting for a response from MS team, please!

I have followed everything and have made some changes.  For a little while it looked promising until this week.

Note I am only saving to my hard drive and there is absolutely no synchronization involved of the folder and any other source.  I have disabled my file sync altogether just to be sure and yet it still fails.  Have tried to go back to older file types and it kind of works but then we lose some functionality and professionalism. 

I can't believe with all the comments MS has not received enough info to come up with something positive.

>> I assume MS does not really read these post and consider our lost time valuable.  

They've read the posts and they do understand the value of our lost time.

>> Worst part is our users think it is us in IT versus MS and are demanding we fix the problem.

I get hit with some of the same thing when MScrewups make my add-ins appear to be misbehaving.  I understand the pain.  Really.

But unfortunately, they can't tell us when we can expect a fix until they know what the fix is.  So far, it's been one of those "My car keeps making this noise until I take it to the mechanic.  Then it stops." kind of problems.  What MS can't observe/reproduce, they can't fix.

Have you followed the rest of this (long,long,woeful,long,long) thread and followed the suggestions to either disable any automatic file synching software or at least to not work on PPT files that are subject to synching (ie, move them to an unsynched folder, work on them, save, close PPT, them move the files back if you want them synched)?

I can't believe this continues to go unfixed.  I assume MS does not really read these post and consider our lost time valuable.  Just this week our company has lost over forty hours of combined time and folks are not happy.  Worst part is our users think it is us in IT versus MS and are demanding we fix the problem.  When we say we could try another product they get worried.

MS PLEASE TELL US WHEN WE CAN EXPECT A FIX!