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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

7400+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

58 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-09T01:20:12+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.

    This isn't a fix, it just hides the problem.

    The dialog is not an "Error", it is an "Informational" message, which is less severe than an error. It just says there "MAY" be personal information in the file.  That is pretty useless, is there is there not personal info.  Who would know better, MS has the inside info to be able to tell us.  This is another fine example of a half-assed effort.  MS could tell us exactly what and where this alleged personal information is, but they are too lazy to do it right.

    Disabling the informational warning does nothing to remove the personal information, if it is there.

    Was this answer helpful?

    90+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. 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 !!!

    Was this answer helpful?

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-07-15T07:33:18+00:00

    helpful. thanks dude

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-08-23T18:44:55+00:00

    Excellent, thanks for this.

    I did it and it works great

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments