All MSFT Excel files are opening with this prompt - "this file has been renamed we recommend saving it now to get the new name" Nothing has been changed - how do I stop this from happening?

Anonymous
2024-03-20T01:55:54+00:00

"This file has been renamed. We recommend saving it now to get the new name." I X out of this message. Then I get an i in a blue circle and this message "We need you to save the file to finish renaming it. Add-ins and VBA might not work until you save. Save in a white box." I save and then exit. I then reopen the same file an X in a red circle and the message "UPLOAD BLOCKED We ran into a problem with this file and can't save any new changes. Please save a copy to avoid losing your work" with 2 options "Save a Copy" or "Discard Changes". I saved a copy with a different name and then reopen it and it's the same issue.

My version is up to date and it's called Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-11-22T13:57:47+00:00

    I found the problem has gone away as well.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-11-22T13:27:30+00:00

    Looks like MSFT accidentally or otherwise has done something that has made this go away for me.

    Interesting now that I look at what happens, When you save a doc, the status in the title bar shows as "Saving" then after a couple of seconds it shows as "Saved". It was the send part that was where the doc name was being corrupted.

    It does look like the post from fhwat has some merit but, with no MSFT reply to this thread,, one will never know whether they knew about the issue and fixed it directly or if it just went away from something else they did.

    Anyway, happy for now that it works but disheartened a little with MSFT.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-10-20T22:35:31+00:00

    Thanks for your perspective.

    This bug has been happening for many months, but what irks me is that MSFT seem to be totally ignoring the issue and not addressing it. I have given up on MSFT being responsive and I am working with my files in my control not dictated by MSFT. Again why are we paying for these services when they fail to a) recognise a problem and b) correct the problem. By the way it also happened to Word documents.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-15T14:08:31+00:00

    Do not waste time doing the drastic measures cited in many answers here.

    I know what is triggering this problem. It seems to be OneDrive and Excel file path length related - probably due to a recent Windows/OneDrive change causing a new longer internal cloud file\path name which is running into an Excel limitation.

    Pausing the OneDrive syncing (task tray, OneDrive, settings) can quickly temporarily solve it when you need to work with the Excel file(s) now. But shorter directory names, leading to shorter full path names, will fix it until Microsoft recognizes and fixes the problem.

    This is why simply moving the Excel files to a higher directory or directly on the C Drive (say C:\Temp) works.

    I agree that this is very annoying, but it is a new BUG. I have had the same folder hierarchy for many years without this problem. I have Office 365, so it is the latest version.

    Are seeing this Microsoft?

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-10-01T22:14:46+00:00

    This started a few days ago for me. I found that if I copy the files over to C: drive and access them from there they work OK. I'll just back them up to OneDrive every day if I remember. Looking at some posts it seems this problem has been around for some time, but MS has remained quiet on the matter. Disappointing when I'm paying my subscription to OneDrive/Office 365

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