'Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable.' What is the simplest way to resolve this please!

Anonymous
2012-01-11T10:55:22+00:00

When I open Word I get this message every time: 'Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable.' Word then crashes very often without autosaving. 

I've found many people asking this question but I utterly do not understand the answers people have given them! Is there a simple way to resolve this - I know literally nothing about computers! Please help with the easiest solution possible.

Many thanks!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-01-11T20:35:19+00:00

When I open Word I get this message every time: 'Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable.' Word then crashes very often without autosaving. 

I've found many people asking this question but I utterly do not understand the answers people have given them! Is there a simple way to resolve this - I know literally nothing about computers! Please help with the easiest solution possible.

Many thanks!

The error message "Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable". Can be caused by incorrect registry values in the key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders.

Click Start and in the start search field, type

Regedit

and press enter.

In the registry editor, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders

On the right hand pane, check the value data for Cache.

It has to be %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files.

If it is different, double click on Cache and type:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

under value data and click ok. Close the registry and  restart the computer and check if it works.

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-04-12T22:53:52+00:00

    Try renaming the normal.dotm template and normal.old and then restart Word.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-04-12T13:55:55+00:00

    Hello, 

    I am Facing the same problem, let me be very specific of what is happening.

    Whenever opening word from the start menu, i first get the error:

    "The Office Open XML file normal.dotm cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents"

    clicking on OK gives another error

    "Word found unreadable content in Normal.dotm. Do you want to recover the contents of this document? If you trust the source of this document, click YES."

    clicking on Yes gives the first error again. Clicking ok opens a blank word page, but interestingly the title of the document is "Document2", whereas before this creepy error, there was always "Document1"

    when opening a saved word file, this error pops-up

    'Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable.'

    and the file opens on (Read Only), so i cannot edit and save over the same file, and when i try to save it in any other location, the **"Save As"**Dialog box fails to open, without any error or warning.

    -

    SOS- Help

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-04-11T01:36:37+00:00

    Thank you....thank you RBN IT Guy. That did it! I switched browser to Chrome and finally I'm able to attach documents to emails without any problems. I really appreciate you taking the time to post solution. Have a great day and thanks again!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-10T03:10:25+00:00

    Hi All,

    Thank you for the long string of posts.  After reading through this I realized that is was probably a compatibility issue.  Believe it or not the sites you are trying to upload your documents too are not fully compatible with the version of Internet Explorer you have running on your machine.

    I was trying to upload some documents for my wife and she was frustrated and called me in.  After reading through your posts, I switched my internet browser over to Chrome and it worked. 

    You could use IE, but you would probably have to roll back to IE6 or IE7 to get it to work.  You may have IE8, IE9 or IE10 installed.  You can find out by going to your Menu bar and select ‘Help’ then ‘About Internet Explorer’.

    Any browser could have an issue with any website.  Chrome, Fire Fox or IE pick your browser.  If you have issue try rolling back to a previous version.  There are instructions on the web for how to do this for whatever browser you are running.

    Being this is a Microsoft site; if you search on how to restore a previous version the steps are pretty simple.

    Good Luck!

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