October 9, 2024 at 12:48PM
Microsoft has resolved a bug in Word for Microsoft 365 version 2409 that caused documents to be deleted instead of saved if filenames included the # symbol or had capitalized extensions. Users should restart Office apps for the fix and can utilize workarounds if they still experience issues.
### Meeting Takeaways
1. **Issue Resolution**: Microsoft has resolved a significant bug in Word for Microsoft 365 (version 2409, build 18025.20104) that caused document deletions for some Windows users.
2. **Bug Details**:
– Affected documents faced deletion after saving, specifically if the filename contained the # symbol or used capitalized extensions like .DOCX or .RTF.
– The issue occurred upon closing Word after edits when users were prompted to save their documents.
3. **Company Acknowledgment**: Microsoft publicly acknowledged the issue following numerous user reports and has implemented a service change to fix it for all affected customers.
4. **Recommended Actions**:
– Users should restart all Office applications on their devices to apply the fix, ensuring to reopen Word afterwards.
– If issues persist, users should close all open Office apps before re-opening Word.
5. **Workarounds**:
– Affected users should check the recycle bin for any deleted files and manually save documents before closing Word.
– Another workaround is activating the setting to prevent seeing the prompt that triggered the issue: Navigate to File > Options > Save and enable “Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts.”
– Users may revert to a previous version by executing specific commands in an elevated Command Prompt.
6. **Ongoing Support**: Microsoft has provided temporary fixes for related issues in the past months, including problems with Gmail sign-in in Outlook and crashing issues for several Microsoft 365 applications.
This summary encapsulates the key points from the meeting regarding the Word bug and Microsoft’s response.