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.

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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
    2015-08-31T18:44:21+00:00

    I used this technique and that box goes away but now it just says "document not saved."  No information about why.  Save As doesn't work either.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-26T16:57:17+00:00

    excellent tip

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-27T12:35:21+00:00

    Thanks lot. It helped me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-02-13T23:20:35+00:00

    I agree that it's frustrating; I felt the same. But the problem you bring up is not specific to Microsoft; For one, it's natural that people who can relate well with computers and other people alike are rarer. But it's also a question of priorities, which ultimately goes back to the consumer: Most consumers don't make their buying decisions by usability, but by shiny new features. By the time they get stuck, they grumble a bit, wait till the early adapters who enjoy that kind of challenge post a solution on the internet, and move on. 

    One thing I am worried about, though, is that the most popular solution is just to keep personal information in the file properties on save, which seems to defeat the purpose.

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