How do I turn off READ ONLY permanently???

Anonymous
2016-10-02T07:44:44+00:00

I'm sick of office locking my files to Read Only.

I have files I use all the time in my one drive folder, I'll open one and word decides it is Read Only and to make a change I need to save it as a new name.

I email a file to my wife to read, she makes changes and emails it back...now its Read Only.

How do disable this frustrating crap interfering with my workflow?  It's making me crazy!!!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-10-30T14:14:04+00:00

    I've just had an automated email from Big Brother asking me if I can close this as "Resolved"

    ...I cannot, it is not resolved.  I wanted to prevent Office deciding to open files as Read Only....and that has not been answered.  Anytime a file is sent by email Big Brother Microsoft opens it as Read Only.  I want to get control over my PC and my Files and how they open and Big Brother won't let me.

    It is normal for e-mail attachments to open Read Only. This prevents you from losing changes you have made to a file opened from the temporary files location (where it ends up if you open it directly from the e-mail). See also http://www.gmayor.com/outlook_attachments.htm.

    However, if you are saying that files open in Protected view even though you have turned off that option, it is possible that this is a remainder of the bug which should have been fixed months ago.

    For now, the only workaround is to download the file to your hard drive, click "Unblock" in the file Properties window and then open the file from the drive.

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  2. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-10-20T19:39:10+00:00

    If you find that Dropbox works better, then you should use it, of course.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-10-17T00:00:20+00:00

    That tells us that the problem is definitely with the synchronizing. For general troubleshooting, see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Fix-OneDrive-sync-problems-83ab0d8a-8400-45b0-8dcf-dc8aa8a6bcf8?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-14T06:31:50+00:00

    Hi Stefan,

    Yes I can use a browser to download from Onedrive on the net.

    And when I close a file I can see word and excel uploading to One drive.

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  5. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-10-14T06:06:05+00:00

    As I said, clearly something is wrong. But, for testing purposes, could you confirm that you are able to access your OneDrive documents by navigating to the online location for OneDrive OR by uploading them manually?

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