Why does AutoSave in Office 365 only work on Microsoft OneDrive?!?

Mateosh - I originated this thread, and agree with you completely. AutoRecover has failed me on more occasions than I can count, and as a result I don't trust it at all. I'm back to 1999 - trying to remember to hit save every 5-10 minutes.

Microsoft has pulled yet another blatantly self-serving, anti-competitive move here that in aggregate have made it one of the most hated companies on the planet. Office really should have been split off from the Borg in the early '90s anti-trust suit.

Although Jim Gordon does a valiant job of explaining for Microsoft, there's simply no good reason to require OneDrive for an AutoSave capability - other than trying to sell more OneDrive. This is blatantly anti-competitive behavior that no one at the Justice Dept is paying attention to these days.

So we just have to live with it. UFB.

Jim - I read the "File recovery and version history - Dropbox" you referenced, and nowhere does it claim to be able to AutoSave your documents. It just lets you recover accidentally deleted files and view version history FOR FILES YOU HAVE ALREADY SAVED. The same goes for Apple Time Machine - it can only retrieve previously saved copies.

That's not AutoSave - it's AutoRecover. The user still has to initiate a save from the source app, which in this case is MS Word or Excel. DropBox doesn't help you until you've already saved the document somehow. THAT IS NOT THE USE CASE EVERYONE IS MAD ABOUT.

Microsoft is hiding behind cloud techno-BS to justify the extortion of requiring OneDrive for a simple AutoSave. I'd really like to see  an *official" explanation as to why it would be so difficult for Mr. Softie to allow its apps to periodically SAVE a document back to WHATEVER FOLDER YOU OPENED IT FROM, whether it's on the cloud or not. "Save" and "Save As" can certainly figure that out today.

I really feel like they're gaslighting us all who remember setting a 1-2-5-10...-minute interval for a document to be saved, whether the facility was actually AutoRecover or not. And it actually worked, reliably. 

MICROSOFT ARE YOU LISTENING? CAN GIVE US AN EXPLANATION? (And please, please, do not tell me that the answer is AutoRecover - by common experience, it just doesn't work often enough to rely on).

This fails to answer the question. 

I want to Autosave to DROPBOX--NOT OFFICE 365.  I have my DROPBOX set up EXACTLY as I wish and I do not wish to waste precious time and money moving over to One Drive.  

You have answered "How to autosave to OneDrive or some other Microsoft Product.  NOT How to Autosave to Dropbox or any other folder on our machine.

Microsoft should read this very errudite thread.

By default Microsoft should let you auto-save your documents anywhere you want - or in more than one place simultaneously.

That means if you want two copies in two places - your local hard drive, and any clud service, it should work.

There should be a *Recover an earlier version of this file/any file" button.

Having said the above, I prefer to only save in the OneDrive system.   Files are always in one place available from every device.   I don't need to close down the open file on my Mac to carry on working on the file using a PC or iPad.  Any change on the latter machines is instantly reflected on the Mac.  That is incredibly convenient.

For those who find AutoSave button is off and greyed out, it is simply because you are saving on your local drive instead of OneDrive.  Easy to solve if you are willing to use OneDrive.  Understandably, many users don't want to use cloud storage for security and privacy reasons.  That is why Microsoft needs to extend the auto-save feature to include other locations apart from just OneDrive.

Hi LK

Every once in a while someone comes along and posts a truly thought-provoking topic. Your is one of those and I thank you for it.

Cloud vs local file storage is an interesting topic in itself. What are the benefits? What are the risks? What is the right approach to take? What happens to your files when something unexpected goes wrong (power failure, you dropped the device, flood, internet goes down, etc.)? In particular, what happens to files that are open when something unexpected goes wrong?

Google solves the location problem by allowing only cloud locations. OpenOffice/LibreOffice allows local storage and OS supported file locations. Microsoft allows both cloud and local locations, which adds complexity.

I know less about how Microsoft and Google deal with the back-end handling of open documents in the cloud than I do about documents that are saved locally. I assume something similar is going on within the servers of cloud storage systems. This support article describes what happens with Word documents in Word for Windows. A similar set of temporary files is used on the Mac. This support article presumes that the document was saved locally:

Description of how Word creates temporary files

When you make a new document, workbook or PowerPoint presentation, that stays in RAM until you save the file somewhere. If you close the document without having saved it anywhere, it's simply lost forever.

Once it has been saved someplace (in the cloud or locally) what you see on your screen where you edit is a copy in memory of the file. There are a bunch of scratch files (as described in the previous link) that come into play. In Microsoft Office, it is heavily dependent on where you saved your file as to where the temporary files are located.

LOCAL SAVE and SAVE TO LOCAL NETWORK DIRECTORY

One of the temporary files that is saved periodically (assuming you have not turned this off in Preferences) is the AutoRECOVER file. In Word, you can specify a location for these AutoRECOVER files. In Excel and PowerPoint you cannot. Recently, someone posted an excellent discussion thread regarding detective work surrounding Excel and AutoRECOVER. I recommend it to you. Perhaps it will help you recover your lost work.

Excel autorecovery location finally found!

SAVE TO ONEDRIVE OR SHAREPOINT

Those temporary files are usually located on the same directory that was used to open the file. When saved to the cloud, those files are inaccessible to the end user. Microsoft seems confident that they can recover temporary files saved in the cloud using AutoSAVE. I have not seen any questions that suggest that there are times when AutoSAVE failed to recover work. I just saw an article this morning that Microsoft is changing the order in which temp files are handled so that files saved to OneDrive and SharePoint will open faster. This is an indication that Microsoft is actively working on cloud storage technologies.

SAVE TO OTHER CLOUD SERVICES

When opening and saving files on other services such as Google Drive, DropBox and Box, you are relying on that service knowing how to recover the temporary files made by Microsoft Office apps. These are beyond the control of Microsoft, but that doesn't mean that Microsoft can't do anything to help with recovery if they chose to do so. It would be extra work for Microsoft. The other services may not share with Microsoft technical information required to make such scenarios work and could make unexpected changes to their file systems that could impact Office files. Undertaking recovery support for these scenarios could be risky for Microsoft and Office users.

Your particular power loss scenario is one that may be more common in the future. Power outages are skyrocketing.

Trends in Power Outages

One way to protect yourself is to switch from desktop to laptop. Another more complete and environmentally friendly way, would be to install solar panels.

How does the Tesla solar roof compare to normal solar panels?

Regarding confusion between AutoSAVE and AutoRECOVER as well as the confusing wording in Office Preferences, I completely agree with you. Just yesterday, an MVP tried to explain the difference and the correspondent just didn't catch the nuance. And this was an experienced user.

Before I make this an official suggestion, I'd like to run this by you and get your take on it. I'm thinking there should be a RECOVER tab in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint preferences. This tab would allow the user to:

Choose a default save location for all files for the application

Choose a default AutoRecover location for locally saved files and provide a shortcut to the current AutoRecover location

It would also explain that unless the file was saved somewhere (anywhere) that nothing can be recovered.

I think the apps should have some sort of indicator showing when a recover file is available (regardless of whether the file is local or in the cloud) and it should be a caution when the file has not yet been saved or is saved to a location the Office does not have a recovery option.

I'm thinking there should be a single name for the feature. Get rid of the distinction between AutoSAVE and AutoRECOVER and just use one of those terms.

What do you say?

Jim

Lots of valid points regarding cloud computing and storage, the simple matter however remains that remote workers working on sites not near urban populations often no connectivity or connectivity with very low bandwith.

I fell foul of lost data due to an Excel crash twice in the last week, auto save did not work and auto recovery did not have any file information relating to the work I was carrying out.

The result being loss of work and myself getting angry at the lost of a function which has automatically been changed by Microsoft.

Why can't autosave work to a local drive? It can but Microsoft have deactivated it to push you to use OneDrive.

By doing so I'm fairly certain this an illegal practice in the UK as it does not allow fair choice for the user and is anti competitve. MS got a nosebleed on this point with IE many years ago. I see no difference.

we actually use OneDrive and SharePoint a lot with work and believe me sharepoint has lots of issues.

I don't believe any of this strategy is aimed at improving the customer experience but rather at driving growth for its online platforms and services and ultimately revenue.

A very disgruntled Office user.

Stuart