Windows 10: Word Cannot Complete The Save Due To A File Permission Error

Dear Community,Ever since 2025 began, I have noticed that my Word 2013 has not been able to save a document unless I rename it. There are other posts out there to check to ensure that Office 2013 has been updated. I have latest version, 15.0.5603.1000. I noticed this behavior around the end of January 2025, beginning of February with the Windows Updates Windows 10 that were applied at that time. If I uninstall those updates, I have no issues. However, the updates will eventually come back, even if you "pause updates" as some p

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Windows 10 update Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error/Invalid MS-DOS function

I have Word 2013. I recently updated to Windows 10. When I open a document created before the update and make changes, then try to save the document, I get the message that Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error. Also, when attempting
to drag and drop a Word doc icon on my desktop into a new folder, I get an Invalid MS-DOS function message. When I try to delete a Word document created before the update, I also get the Invalid MS-DOS function message and am unable to delete the file. Therefore,
merely selecting "Save As" instead of Save, saving my file under a new name and deleting the old one is not an option because I cannot delete old files. Something about the Windows 10 update has screwed up what I can do with my previously created Word documents.


I read a very old article that suggested a similar problem with Windows XP had something to do with the index server but I do not know if that is relevant to this problem and the steps were all based on the old software so I couldn't implement them in my
program.

I tried deleting the Word registry key, which did not do anything.

I have read the previous community posts and other help articles but they all have to do with older versions of Windows or older versions of Word.

In other news, there doesn't seem to be a way to sort community search results by date, which seems like a pretty obvious feature to have, particularly dealing with new versions of Windows.

 

"Word cannot complete the save". files in Content.MSO

Firstly, I have tried googling this but I can only get results for the phrase "Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error" but the error I am getting is simply "Word cannot complete the save." and then it shows a file location at c:\users[user]\appdata\local\microsoft\windows\temporary internet files\content.mso\ and then a random filename...



I have tried removing all of the temporary files in that location but it still happens.

The opened files are on a network location. It has been happening since late december 2017.

Edit: After removing the files from the Content.MSO folder, I tried saving multiple documents. When I received the error (it lists a file) I check that location with dir /a:h *.docx and it shows no files. (This command did show files before I removed them, so I know it should show files if they are there)

 

Windows 10 update Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error/Invalid MS-DOS function

I tried your solution and still get the same error message. I downloaded Windows 10 on my other computer in July. I have tried several ways to use and save my old files with no success.

I created a file on my desktop and have been saving files in that file.

Any suggestions?