You receive an error message when you save a file after the network connection is lost in Excel (291204)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 2002
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
This article was previously published under Q291204
For a Microsoft Excel 2000 version of this article, see 230164.

Important This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you try to save your workbook, you receive the following error message
Microsoft Excel cannot access the file 'Network path'. You may receive this error message for the following reasons:
  • The file name or path does not exist.
  • The file that you are trying to open is being used by another program. Close the document in the other program, and try again.
  • The name of the workbook that you are trying to save is the same as the name of another document that is read-only. Try saving the workbook with a different name.
where Network path is the network location where you are trying to save your file.

When you try to save your file to another location, you receive the following error message:
Document not saved

CAUSE

This problem may occur if all the following conditions are true:
  • You are saving your file to a network drive.
  • The connection to the network drive has been lost
  • Your workbook contains any of the following items:
    • PivotTables
    • Visual Basic for Applications modules
    • Embedded objects (such as clip art)

WORKAROUND

To prevent this problem from occurring, you can add the NetworkResiliency and PivotTableNetworkResiliency subkeys to the registry. To do this, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
  3. In the left pane, expand the following items in the order that they appear. Note the path for your specific version of Microsoft Excel.

    Excel 2002:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Software
    Microsoft
    Office
    10.0
    Excel

    Excel 2003:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Software
    Microsoft
    Office
    11.0
    Excel

  4. In the left pane, click the Options folder.
  5. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
  6. Type NetworkResiliency, and then press ENTER.
  7. Double-click the NetworkResiliency icon.
  8. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
  9. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
  10. Type PivotTableNetworkResiliency, and then press ENTER.
  11. Double-click the PivotTableNetworkResiliency icon.
  12. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
These changes take effect the next time that you start Excel. For both registry keys, setting the key to 0 turns the setting off and 1 turns the setting on. The only difference between the two registry keys is that the default value when the registry keys are not present are On for VBA and OLE, and Off for PivotTable Cache.

MORE INFORMATION

This functionality was introduced in Excel 2000 as a single registry key.

For additional information on resolving this issue in Excel 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

230164 You may receive an error message when you try to save files in Excel 2000


Starting with Excel 2002, the network resiliency feature is subdivided into two categories, to permit better control and to additionally make sure that you can recover from the loss of network connectivity. The two subdivisions are:
  • Resiliency for VBA objects and OLE objects.
  • Resiliency for Microsoft PivotTable caches.
By default, the resiliency for VBA and OLE is set to On and the resiliency for PivotTable caches is set to Off. The PivotTable cache is off because you can save a pivot table even when the cache is unavailable. A PivotTable does not produce the threat of causing a file not to save when network connectivity is lost.

The network resiliency settings have no user interface. They are controlled by Registry entries, and are configurable only by manually editing the Registry or by policy.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/4/2004
Keywords:kbnetwork kbsavefile kberrmsg kbpending kbprb KB291204
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