Microsoft fixes Word bug that deleted documents when saving

Microsoft has fixed a known issue that was causing Word to delete some Windows users' documents instead of saving them.

On affected systems, locally saved files were deleted after saving because of this Word bug issue if their filenames included the # symbol or had a capitalized filename extension, such as .DOCX or .RTF.

This only impacted users of Word for Microsoft 365 version 2409, build 18025.20104, only when they closed Word after editing and saved their documents when prompted to do so. After saving changes to their documents this way, the files would disappear from their original location.

Redmond confirmed the issue last week following widespread user reports that Microsoft Word was deleting some of their saved files.

In a Tuesday update to the support page acknowledging the saving problems, the company said the bug has now been fixed with a service change, which rolled out to all affected customers.

To get the fix, Microsoft recommends restarting all Office apps on affected devices and opening Word again.

"If you're still seeing the issue, please close all open Office apps and re-open Word to ensure the change has been picked up," it said.

Workaround also available

Several workaround measures are also available if the service change has not reached your system.

Before rolling out the fix, Redmond advised affected users to check the recycle bin for the deleted files and manually save their documents before attempting to close Word.

Those affected by this bug can also enable the "Don't show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts" setting from File > Options > Save to prevent them from seeing the prompt causing these saving issues.

Another workaround requires reverting to a previous version by opening a new Command Prompt window with administrator privileges, pasting the following commands, and hitting Enter after each of them:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun

officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=17928.20156

Redmond also provided temporary fixes in August for bugs triggering Gmail sign-in issues for classic Outlook users and causing Outlook to crash after opening.

In September, it fixed another known issue affecting Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, and OneNote, which triggered crashes when typing or spell-checking a text.