Be careful! Parts of your document may include personal information that can't be removed by the Document Inspector.

Anonymous
2013-09-27T08:26:34+00:00

Hi All

I have an Excel 2013 document that I've been using for over two months and have had no problems with editing or saving it. Today I edit it and than saved it and I received a strange looking error message "Be careful! Parts of your document may include personal information that can't be removed by the Document Inspector."

I have tried to find out any information on what it might be, by using Bing and Google without any success. It looks like I'm the only one who has received this error message. I hope it's not a virus!

Please help

Colin

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2013-09-28T02:05:11+00:00

I had the same problem, it's incredibly annoying and there's strangely little posted about it on the interwebs.  Anyway, here's how you fix it: Goto File in the upper left hand corner, then Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > then un-check the check box that says "Remove personal information from file properties on save", then hit OK.  Hope that helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-05T02:11:50+00:00

    It maybe a little annoying, but I found this feature absolutely necessary to prevent unintended personal information leakage. There is always a balance between convenience and privacy/security. I once received a job description from a head hunter, the JD was written by their client of course, but from document properties I can clearly see which company is hiring and who wrote this document. This is definitely an unintended consequence of ignoring the privacy settings.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-16T13:12:50+00:00

    And this is EXACTLY why sometimes I love the internet!!!

    Thanks guys :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-12T05:32:36+00:00

    I had the same problem, it's incredibly annoying and there's strangely little posted about it on the interwebs.  Anyway, here's how you fix it: Goto File in the upper left hand corner, then Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > then un-check the check box that says "Remove personal information from file properties on save", then hit OK.  Hope that helps.

    Thank You so very much !!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-01-19T19:14:01+00:00

    SJC63 replied on February 7, 2014

    I fixed it by going to File, Info, Check for issues, and inspect document.

    Keep everything checked and run it.

    Mine came back with no errors and afterwards the message no longer appeared on save.

    In Windows 10 

    File, Info.

    Clicking “Allow this information to be saved in your file” solved the issue.

    Afterwards "Check for Issues" changed to:

    The second bullet now has "and absolute path" - why that now shows is queer; a minor defect (inconsistency), or meaningful?

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