Why is Word asking me to save changes when I have not made any changes (happening only from September, October, November 2025)?

Dear @AB, 

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.   

I am currently facing the same issue myself, and I truly empathize with how confusing this experience is. 

Since this is a widely reported issue in recent Microsoft 365 updates, the ultimate and most comprehensive solution may be to wait for an official fix from Microsoft. 

This file is the one saved on your computer, right (such as on drive C)? Because if it's saved on the cloud (for example, OneDrive), you won't be asked about that. If possible, update to the cloud and turn on AutoSave to be able to bypass this issue.

Can you take a screenshot of your file's path so I can see where the file is saved?

When file saved on OneDrive

When file saved on computer

Nevertheless, for Microsoft to permanently and quickly resolve this error, we should collectively submit reports to the official community channel Ideas · Community so that the Product Team can receive the information and release a patch sooner. 

Please help me provide your file's path. Looking forward to your reply!  

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That it is not happening in Safe mode means that the problem is not your Word installation. It is something on your computer. Repair or reinstallation will not fix this.

What do you mean when you say that you cannot edit in Safe mode?
You should be able to do so. It is a diagnostic step, not a way to regularly use Word but documents can be edited and saved in Safe mode..

Steps to take if the problem is not present in Safe mode:

1. Check the Normal.dotm file. With Word closed, find and rename your Normal.dotm file. Then check to see if the problem persists. If it does persist, close Word and rename the file back to Normal.dotm. If renaming eliminates the problem, and you have customizations stored in your old Normal.dotm, post a new question with a link back to this question saying which customizations are in the file that you would like to copy or move.
2. Check Add-Ins. You almost certainly have Add-Ins, even if you did not intentionally install any. There are multiple kinds of Add-Ins and each needs to be eliminated. You want to have Word running without any of them to see if one is causing this. If running with none of them fixes the problem.
   https://www.addbalance.com/word/addins.htm#PageStart
   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-troubleshoot-problems-that-occur-when-you-start-or-use-word-c58cf51c-eff7-4205-89ce-1a23f8f8096e

Note that almost all Word documents contain fields. When they update, Word reads that as a change to the document, even if you did not type or delete anything.

Respectfully, please re-read my post.

I asked "What do you mean when you say that you cannot edit in Safe mode? You should be able to do so. It is a diagnostic step, not a way to regularly use Word but documents can be edited and saved in Safe mode." An answer to this question may help me or others here help you.

If this is not happening is safe mode, there is something on your computer(s) that causes the problem that is not a part of the Word installation. You apparently have ruled out problems with the normal.dotm file.

It is possible that the program itself has changed in a way that is causing some Add-In to bring on this problem. You may well have the same Add-Ins on multiple installations. Checking Add-Ins is a key troubleshooting step. I provided two links on this.

I understand your frustration. I do not work for Microsoft. I am a fellow user.

Note that nothing posted here is seen by people who can make changes to the Word program. To get a message to those people (and their supervisors) use the feedback mechanisms. Here is how: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/giving-feedback-on-microsoft-word-or-other/8df81a9b-84aa-46ef-bf88-24fb7fec96ba.

Copilot

Microsoft has acknowledged the bug where Word prompts to save unchanged documents after the September 2025 update, but as of now, there is no official patch released. The company has stated that they are investigating the issue and working on a fix for a future update, but they have not provided an exact ETA for when it will be resolved. [learn.microsoft.com], [learn.microsoft.com]

It does the same thing for Read-only files...

(BTW, shift + right click, "Open As Read Only" doesn't work)

Changed attributes of a word file to Read-only.

Open the file

Title bar says [filename] - Read-Only - Saved

A few seconds later the window refreshes. The word "Saved" disappears. The read only notification belatedly pops up in the upper right side of the window.

Upon closing the window, user is prompted to save.

If "Save" is clicked, the Save As dialog opens (as it would be expected to do if the RO file was actually changed).

Anyway, as a workaround, the new procedure is, open a file, start working, after "Saved to this PC disappears", stop working, click Save. "Saved to this PC" reappears and remains. Use the file as usual (in this case, without changing it, inadvertently or otherwise). When done, close the file as usual and not be prompted to Save the unchanged file and not giving it a double take and not question ones short term memory. Downside is the date on the file changes. In this circumstance, it rarely matters to me as they are usually "notes" files.

I hope this is a bug and not clever (one-drive) marketing. This is basic functionality that goes back to when I still had hair and PS2 mice roamed the Earth.