AutoSave switch greyed-out.

Anonymous
2017-08-04T15:40:16+00:00

A couple of days ago, I noticed that the save icon at the top of the Excel window in version 1707 of Office 365 has been moved a little to the right because a new greyed-out AutoSave button has appeared. It is set to "Off". 

Does anyone know how to turn it on?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-08-04T16:25:12+00:00

this is from:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-is-AutoSave-6d6bd723-ebfd-4e40-b5f6-ae6e8088f7a5?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

"AutoSave is enabled when working on a file that is saved to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online. If the file is saved to another location, then AutoSave is disabled. This will happen if your file is on a SharePoint On Premises site, a file server, or saved to a local path like C:.

There are other reasons AutoSave could be disabled as well. For example, if your file is in an older format like .xls, .ppt, or .doc., it will be disabled. It will also be disabled if your presentation is in slide show mode, or if your workbook contains password protection. If AutoSave is disabled, you can always hover over the AutoSave switch and a tooltip will tell you why it's off."

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-02-06T21:41:17+00:00

    I'm on a Mac and it works the same way. Auto-recover doesn't have the same functionality.

    So if you want Auto-save enabled, you have to start by opening the doc in the online editor, then select "Open in PowerPoint", for example. Voila! The Auto-save is enabled. Until you open in a different sequence next time. And then you are back to the grayed out option.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-02-06T16:48:44+00:00

    This is the most annoying thing I've ever seen. Seriously considering switching to a Mac.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-02-03T17:06:28+00:00

    So, if the AutoSave switch is greyed-out and "Off" because you do not use OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online, is your work only saved if you save it manually?  If the application or your computer crashes, is your work since the last time you manually saved it lost?

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-01-30T20:11:00+00:00

    So "AutoSave" is only for used with OneDrive?  Okay - that's useless.  I'm using Excel for Mac 16.9 (180116) which as of today is the most recent.  I've noticed that PowerPoint and Word also now have this feature.

    Fortunately the latest Excel, Word, and PowerPoint all still have AutoRecovery.

    They also have Preferences for the Ribbon & Toolbar so you can remove the annoying none functioning AutoSave if you don't want to look at it...

    Why do large software vendors like Microsoft assume everyone is going to use "the cloud" or "their cloud" for everything?  I have OneDrive (which with Office365 is 1 TB and is great), Google Drive, iCloud, AWS, company SharePoint drives, blah, blah, blah.   I do use OneDrive, but not for working documents; I use it for archival purposes (and for sharing with other devices).  Most of my OneDrive is setup so files I have on OneDrive only show up on my computer if I want them to.  Otherwise they are safely archived and not filling up my local hard drive.

    When I do a lot of my work I don't even have access to the Internet, so guess what?  No Cloud.

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