Table of Contents
While saving the Excel workbook, you can encounter the “Errors were detected while saving the Excel file” error. This error can prevent you from saving the Excel worksheet. It can occur due to several reasons. This article will discuss some effective and easy ways to troubleshoot this Excel file saving error.
What Causes the “Errors were detected while saving Excel File” Error?
It is an unexpected error and can occur due to different reasons. Some possible reasons are:
- Incorrect file-sharing properties
- Issue with the pivot table in the Excel file
- Excel workbook is corrupted
- Large-sized Excel file
- Insufficient disk space
- Incompatible and faulty add-ins
- Objects, functions, and other syntaxes in VBA code are damaged
Ways to Fix “Errors were detected while saving Excel File” Error
Here are some ways you can try to fix this file saving error in Excel.
1. Run Disk Clean Up Tool
This error can occur if your system does not have enough disk space to save your Excel file. You can run the Disk Cleanup tool on your system to remove unnecessary files and free up some disk space.
Steps to use the Disk Clean Up tool to delete temporary files:
- Type disk clean up in the Taskbar search field and press the Enter key.
- In “Disk Cleanup : Drive selection” dialog box, choose the drive you need to clean up. Click OK.
- In the Disk Cleanup window, under the Files to delete option, select the file types you want to delete.
- Click OK.
2. Check and Modify File Permissions
Sometimes, insufficient file permissions can cause the “Errors were detected while saving Excel” error. Ensure you have the permissions required to make changes to the folder in which your workbook is saved. Follow the below steps to check and provide the required permissions (read, write, and create) to the folder:
- Go to the file explorer and then find the required folder (where the Excel file is located).
- Right-click on the folder and then select Properties.
- Click the Security option and click Advanced.
- In the Advanced Settings, click on Change Permissions.
- Select the Administrators option and then select Edit.
- From the Applies to dropdown, select This Folder, Subfolder, and Files.
- Click on the field Full Control and then select Apply.
- Click OK.
3. Review Pivot Tables in Excel Sheet
You may fail to save the Excel sheet if there is an issue with the Pivot table (if used) in the file. Make sure all the formulas used in the Pivot tables are correct. To check the Pivot tables in the Excel sheet, follow the below steps:
- Open the desired Excel file.
- Go to Power Pivot and then click Manage.
- Review all the tabs, formulas used in a pivot table, and other errors in the Power Pivot window.
- Do the required changes and then save the file.
4. Check and Uninstall Faulty Add-ins
Sometimes, the saving error in Excel can occur due to conflicting or faulty add-ins. You can run Excel in safe mode to check whether the add-ins are causing this error and then disable the faulty add-ins. Here are the steps to do so:
- Type excel /safe in the Run window and click OK.
- If in safe mode you’re able to save the desired file, it means the add-ins are the cause of this error. You can disable the Excel add-ins.
- In the Excel file, navigate to the File > Options.
- In Excel Options, select Add-ins.
- Below the Manage option, click Excel Add-ins and then select Go.
- Unselect the add-ins under the Add-ins available option in the Add-ins window and then select OK.
5. Repair your Excel File
The “Errors were detected while saving Excel file” error can also occur due to corruption in the Excel file. You can repair the corrupt Excel file using the Open and Repair tool. It is an in-built tool in Excel that helps repair corrupt Excel file. To use this tool, follow the steps below:
- In Excel, click File.
- Click Open and then click Browse to select the Excel file.
- In the Open dialog box, click the Excel workbook (in which you are facing the error).
- Click the arrow next to the Open option and select Open and Repair.
- Click Repair to recover as much data as possible.
- The Excel prompts a message after the repair process is complete. Click Close.
If the above tool fails to fix the “Errors were detected while saving Excel file” error, try using Stellar Repair for Excel. It is an advanced Excel repair tool that repairs corrupt Excel files and recovers all the data from the files in just a few clicks. The tool can even repair severely damaged Excel files. The tool is compatible with all the MS Excel versions. You can download it on a Windows 11/10/7/Vista/XP/NT system.
Conclusion
In this post, we have discussed the possible causes behind the “Errors were detected while saving Excel file” error. You can follow the solutions mentioned in the post to fix this error. If the error occurs due to corruption in Excel file, you can try using Excel’s built-in ‘Open and Repair’ tool to repair the corrupted Excel file. If it doesn’t work for you, use Stellar Repair for Excel for repairing the damaged/corrupted Excel workbook. It can recover complete data from the corrupted .xls/.xlsx file. You can check this user-friendly tool’s functionality by downloading its free demo version.
