Solved—Unable to Save Excel File

By Sophia | Last Updated January 03, 2024

"I got an Excel file and modified the data according to my needs. But at last I was unable to save this Excel file. I use Microsoft Office 2016, excel document not saved, how to solve? Help me!"

Microsoft Excel plays a significant role in our work, which helps us to handle a great number of documents. But it is really annoying when you get the error message—unable to save excel file. It means what you did cannot be saved and shared. And here, we will discuss the useful solutions to this issue.

• Why the Error "Unable to save excel file" happens?
• Solution 1: Simple Fixes to Excel Document not Saved Issue
• Solution 2: Manually Open and Repair the Excel File
• Solution 3: Utilize Excel File Repair Software to Solve the Problem

Why the Error "Unable to save excel file" happens?

First of all, you should know what leads to this error. And here we collected the possible causes for this error:

• 1. There is not enough space for you to save the excel file in the destination location.
• 2. The Excel file is a shared Excel which does not allowed editing.
• 3. Antivirus software stops the Excel file to saving.
• 4. The character length of your file name is over 218 characters.
• 5. Your Excel file is corrupted and cannot be saved.

So, it is necessary for you to make out what caused your Excel cannot be saved.

Solution 1: Simple Fixes to Excel Document not Saved Issue

You can check the reasons listed above and try to simply solve the error:

• 1. Save the excel file to other location. If the error is caused by the insufficient space on the destination location, you can change the location to save the excel file.
• 2. Check whether you are allowed to edit the Excel or not if the Excel file is the shared one. You can ask the creators to change the restrictions and allow you to make the modifications.
• 3. If the error is caused by the antivirus software, you can simply uninstall the software. After you successfully save the Excel file, you can install it again.
• 4. If you made the mistakes on the character length, just change the file name!

For the corrupted Excel files, you can try the following methods to repair it.

Solution 2: Manually Open and Repair the Excel File

If this error message is caused by the Excel corruption, you can use the Excel Open and Repair utility to repair it.

Step 1: Open a new Excel file and then hit Files > Open option.

Step 2: In the pop-out Open window, go to the location where the excel file lies and then select it. After that, click the down-triangle and select the Open and Repair option.

Step 3: Click the Repair button to recover your corrupted Excel file data.

After that, if the error can be repaired, it will immediately open the repaired excel file for you. If it fails, you can go to try next solution.

Solution 3: Utilize Excel File Repair Software to Solve the Problem

The Excel file repair software can help to repair the corrupted or damaged excel file. iSunshare Excel Repair Genius is highly recommended here, which is easy to use for everyone. You can just repair the corrupted Excel XLSX file within simple clicks in minutes. Besides, this Excel file repair software is compatible with MS Excel 2007/2010/2013/2016/2019 on almost all Windows computer.

Step 1: Free Download iSunshare Excel Repair Genius on your computer and then complete the installation.

After that, run the software and click the Open button to select the corrupt Excel file from your local computer. And then you can click the Restore button to repair the file.

Step 2: In no time, the software will restore the Excel file. You need to click the OK button to continue.

Step 3: Save the repaired Excel file to the location you like.

Step 4: After the saving, you are offered two options: Open the Excel file or not. It all depends on you.

As you can see, the whole process is extremely simple so that the people who are not familiar with the software can easily handle it.

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