set new "autosave" toggle to off by default

Anonymous
2017-09-21T20:22:19+00:00

there is a new feature that has an "autosave"  toggle per document opened. i have 1000s of excel files since the 1990s and do not want to turn off autosave for all of them. how can i disable this by default? id like to turn it off completely if possible, it's something that is not only unwanted, it's actively negatively impacting my workflow. i'm  considering trying to download an earlier version of excel that does not have the 'autosave' toggle. this is not to be confused with autorecover. 

if this is not possible, can this be escalated to the product team to add as a feature?

i cannot express how much i hate the autosave toggle and need it gone.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-21T22:18:18+00:00

    Hi Jonathan,

    The AutoSave is a new feature available for Office 365 subscribers wherein changes made on the file are saved in every few seconds. Regarding your concern, we cannot turn off the AutoSave feature by default in Excel 2016. However, we can turn this off to a file and Excel 2016 will keep it every time you reopen that file. To know more about the AutoSave feature and the FAQ's about it, feel free to check this link.

    Let us know if you need further assistance.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-21T22:28:48+00:00

    Hi Jonathan,

    The AutoSave is a new feature available for Office 365 subscribers wherein changes made on the file are saved in every few seconds. Regarding your concern, we cannot turn off the AutoSave feature by default in Excel 2016. However, we can turn this off to a file and Excel 2016 will keep it every time you reopen that file. To know more about the AutoSave feature and the FAQ's about it, feel free to check this link.

    Let us know if you need further assistance.

    do you offer legacy downloads of older versions of excel that do not have this ruinous feature? this is not something that works for me and will likely cause me to cancel my subscription. can you send this to the product team so that they can offer an option to turn off autosave toggles entirely?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-09-21T22:34:09+00:00

    One solution is to not store the Excel files on SharePoint Online or OneDrive. Autosave only works on files stored in those locations.

    You can submit suggestions for Excel at this website.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-10-26T01:38:16+00:00

    Users who turn-off AutoSave should also check that AutoRecover is enabled for the file - it may be disabled for that specific file.

    Note that users should be aware that each AutoSave operation will also clear the UnDo list.

    MS originally developed AutoSave in the 20th Century and implemented it in Office XP. It had similar issues as the new version added into Office365 and it took years for users to persuade MS to adopt the much better AutoRecover - and now we take another step backward (yes I'm aware that AutoSave improves collaborative working for the small minority who use it). 

    When will Microsoft learn not to mess with the default settings that users have got familiar with.

    If MS have a new 'better' facility to add to Office they should provide it as a selectable option, not as a default.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-11-02T20:30:37+00:00

    Looks like Microsoft did not implement well this feature to work with OneDrive/SharePoint sites.

    This is causing a lot of headaches and Excel crashes randomly and when it does, the autorecover cannot recover...

    Would be good to have this feature OFF by default for EACH document and let the users turn it on if they choose to.

    The solution provided here only DISABLES the AutoSave, which is not good either.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4036334/how-to-disable-autosave-in-office-365-proplus

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