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

Question

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

AB 55

Micrsoft word is asking me to save again and again even if I do not make any changes. My autosave will be turned off always.

Say I open a MS word document, the "Saved to this PC" is seen at the top left of the MS word document all the time. After opening, I just leave it without clicking anywhere in the document, in a few seconds - "Saved to this PC" vanishes automatically. And then when I try to close it, it asks me if I want to save the document or not. This is really frustrating. This issue is happening in all of my computers. Not just one computer.

I reported this error multiple times to Microsoft through MS word.

I update MS word multiple time. Even now it is in the latest version, but still this error is happening.

I also did "Online Repair" of Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise - en-us multiple times. About 20 times till now. Every day from the end of September 2025. But still this error is happening again and again.

I also tried working with the .dotm template. I tried all possible trouble shooting. It did not work.

I also tried safe mode. This is not happening in safe mode. But we cannot edit the safe mode document. This is not a solution.

Anyone else is having this issue? Has anyone found a solution?

James Deutsch 0 Reputation points

2025-12-16T03:49:31.3+00:00

Yes, this has been extremely annoying for several months and nothing I have tried has fixed the problem. However, the problem suddenly did go away for two days, following a recent MS-Windows update (December 11). But that also led to four instances of the "Critical Process Died" stop code. When I undid the update (which stopped the "Critical Process" code), the "save" problem returned. One thing I have noticed is that if I keep a Word document open for less than 30 seconds, I am not asked to save before closing. Only documents that are open for more than 30 seconds prompt me to save, even if I have not made any changes. Perhaps this relates to a document's auto-save properties?
Charles Kenyon 159.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-12-16T15:41:53.44+00:00

Perhaps this relates to a document's auto-save properties?

This would have nothing to do with autosave. It may take Word a bit of time, especially with longer documents, to update fields in the document. With a copy of your problem document, try selecting all (Ctrl+A) followed by Ctrl+F11. This locks all fields in the body of the document. Save that copy under a different name. When you reopen it, do you have the same problem?

8 answers

Your answer

James Deutsch 0 Reputation points

2025-12-16T03:49:31.3+00:00

Yes, this has been extremely annoying for several months and nothing I have tried has fixed the problem. However, the problem suddenly did go away for two days, following a recent MS-Windows update (December 11). But that also led to four instances of the "Critical Process Died" stop code. When I undid the update (which stopped the "Critical Process" code), the "save" problem returned. One thing I have noticed is that if I keep a Word document open for less than 30 seconds, I am not asked to save before closing. Only documents that are open for more than 30 seconds prompt me to save, even if I have not made any changes. Perhaps this relates to a document's auto-save properties?
Charles Kenyon 159.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-12-16T15:41:53.44+00:00

Perhaps this relates to a document's auto-save properties?

This would have nothing to do with autosave. It may take Word a bit of time, especially with longer documents, to update fields in the document. With a copy of your problem document, try selecting all (Ctrl+A) followed by Ctrl+F11. This locks all fields in the body of the document. Save that copy under a different name. When you reopen it, do you have the same problem?

Answer 1

Jeanie H 7,850 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

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

User's image

When file saved on computer

User's image

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! 

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-07T15:08:43.1233333+00:00

Thanks. I just submitted my report here in https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/.

Hopefully this issue is resolved.

Regarding your detailed response; Thanks, yes I know that autosave will solve this issue.

But, I do not want autosave to be enabled. This is the major issue. I 100% do not want auto save to be enabled, in other words, I only want to save my word document when I want to save it. I have multiple word documents open in my computer and edit them simultaneuously. Because of this error, In this case, I am not knowing in which document I intentionally did a change, and did not make a change.

This is the real issue and it is really frustrating.

I hope you understand.
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-08T04:35:16.85+00:00

Dear @AB,

Thank you for taking the time to get back to me. I’ve checked and can confirm that the issue still occurs even when no changes are made. Specifically, I left the Word file as-is, made no edits, and simply opened it, and the issue appeared.

I also hope this can be resolved soon, because having to open that many files can genuinely cause confusion and affect our working experience.

Please help me consider accepting answer, this helps other users find the way through search and also increases the priority of this issue in the system. Instead of creating multiple new posts about the same problem, I recommend keeping the discussion in a single thread so information isn’t scattered and the support team can provide consistent, timely updates.

Thank you for your cooperation. If anything is unclear, please let me know!
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-09T23:30:33.3966667+00:00

Dear @AB,

If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to reach out to me.

If you have questions about a different topic, please help me post a new topic in the community. We are always here and ready to support you!
AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-10T03:29:17.2566667+00:00

Thank you. Yes, still the issue occurs. Hopefully this issue is resolved soon.
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-10T05:49:00.7633333+00:00

Dear @AB,

I will continue to monitor this issue closely. Thank you so much, and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to assist you.
William Church 5 Reputation points

2025-11-18T17:02:28.35+00:00

This is major problem. It needs to be resolved as soon as possible.
AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-18T17:05:28.79+00:00

Are you experiencing this issue as well?

Thanks
Charles Kenyon 159.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-11-20T19:40:34.6066667+00:00

@William Church

This is a user-to-user support forum. The people who can fix this do not read anything posted in this forum. To get something to them, use the feedback mechanisms. Here is more on that:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/giving-feedback-on-microsoft-word-or-other/8df81a9b-84aa-46ef-bf88-24fb7fec96ba

Answer 2

Charles Kenyon 159.5K Volunteer Moderator

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:

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.
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.

AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-07T16:23:52.0566667+00:00

Thanks but, I am not finding a solution.

This is not an issue with my computer.

I already posted in my first comment about the normal.dotm file and I have worked with it in all possible ways. Working and renaming the normal.dotm is not a solution. I am also aware when we google about this issue, google says to work with the normal.dotm file. Again, this is not a solution.

Using extension is also not the issue. I have been using word extensions all the time with these current extensions. Never had an issue before. These extensions cannot be eliminated. I am also aware how all the extensions work.

Again, this is a new issue happening for the past 1 month or 2. Before that we never had this issue.

Again, this issue is not just with me, mutiple people have been reporting this issue over the previous month. Many people are having this issue. So this ultimately proves that, this is not an issue with my computer alone.

Again, this also proves and concludes that it is upto Microsoft to fix the issue. This is not an issue with my computer. or any person's computer. I also repeat that is happening on many of my devices. This again proves that this is not an issue with just one of my computer.

None of us can do anything.
AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-07T16:26:09.91+00:00

Thanks but, I am not finding a solution. I have been working in a detailed way to fix this issue. I already tried all possible ways.

This is not an issue with my computer. I already posted in my first comment about the normal.dotm file and I have worked with it in all possible ways. Working and renaming the normal.dotm is not a solution. I tried this steps 10-20 times but it does not work. I am also aware when we google about this issue, google says to work with the normal.dotm file. Again, this is not a solution for this issue.

Using extension is also not the issue. I have been using word extensions all the time with these current extensions. Never had an issue before. These extensions cannot be eliminated. I am also aware how all the extensions work.

Again, this is a new issue happening for the past 1 month or 2. Before that we never had this issue.

Again, this issue is not just with me, mutiple people have been reporting this issue over the previous month. Many people are having this issue. So this ultimately proves that, this is not an issue with my computer alone.

Again, this also proves and concludes that it is upto Microsoft to fix the issue. This is not an issue with my computer. or any person's computer. I also repeat that is happening on many of my devices. This again proves that this is not an issue with just one of my computer.

None of us can do anything.
أحمد صلاح عبدالرحيم عثمان 6 Reputation points

2025-11-08T20:34:52.8033333+00:00
Background Updates or Metadata Changes

Word may update hidden properties like:

Last opened timestamp.

Auto-recovery data.

Document compatibility info.

These updates trigger the “Save changes?” prompt even if the content looks unchanged.
Charles Kenyon 159.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-11-20T19:43:54.2233333+00:00

By "extensions" I suspect you mean what I am calling Add-Ins. Try disabling them, as a diagnostic step. Follow the links that I gave you. Sometimes a change in Word changes how one of these interacts with Word. Again, if the problem is not there in safe mode that means that it is either in the normal.dotm or in an Add-In, period.

Answer 3

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.

AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-14T04:38:19.63+00:00

Just checked by opening the document in safe mode. I can confirm that this issue is happening in safe mode as well.

It is happening the exact same way it used to happen in regular mode.

Thanks.
Charles Kenyon 159.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-11-20T19:44:47.6933333+00:00

OK, just read this. Your original post said that it went away in safe mode.

Answer 4

William Church 5

This behavior has been reported to Microsoft as a bug. Waiting on a fix, which Co-Pilot says is coming in December.

AB 55 Reputation points

2025-11-20T19:58:36.5366667+00:00

Ohh really? Could you please post a link or a place where we can see that this bug will be fixed later in december? I mean the same copilot which you saw? Like a screenshot should also help others.

Thanks for sharing the information which you knew to others. It really help a lot.

Answer 5

William Church 5

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]

William Church 5 Reputation points

2025-11-20T20:51:29.3366667+00:00

It appears that Copilot has changed its tune on the fix release date.

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

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