What Exactly Is ‘A File Error Has Occurred in Word’ Issue and How to Fix It?

  author
Written By Kumar Raj
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On December 27th, 2018
Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

Hi, experts! I am not able to open up and save an MS Word document on my computer. Continuously, I am getting an error message attached ‘A file error has occurred in Word 2016’. I have tried to save word documents from a sampling of folders, old and new both and received the same error. I am not getting this error message with Excel documents but with all Word documents, not just one or two. I have done everything I could including re-saving the docs with a different name and reinstalling Office 2016. Now, I am tapped for ideas at this point. Is it even possible to fix Microsoft Word 2013 a file error has occurred problem and if so, then how?”

MS Word is an eminent document processing application of Office suite designed by Microsoft. It is utilized by users for editing, formatting, saving, printing, and creating the documents. Today, it becomes an important tool for all businesses and used for creating official documents, legal replicas etc. A Word file can be accessed simply from both Windows and Mac platforms.

Sometimes when users try to edit, access or save MS Word documents, it prompts various error messages. A file error has occurred in word 2013 is one such Word file error that usually falls out when users attempt to save the changes in Word file. This error might occur in different wordings, such as:

  • Can’t Save Edited Document (Microsoft Word)
  • A file error occurred while saving the Word document
  • Word cannot save a file: A document error has occurred
  • You do not have permission to save the file in this location
  • .docx can not be saved from Word

After getting this error prompt, users search the fixing techniques for the same and get nothing. Hence, considering the requirements of MS Word users, we are here with this blog. Here, we are going to disclose some simple techniques to fix this error quickly and seamlessly.

Reasons Behind A File Error has Occurred in Microsoft Word Issue

There come many times when after doing some changes in a Word file, when users attempt to save the file, it throws an error that says Word is unable to save the document. Well, this issue mostly happens:

  • If the file is in Network Server and opened in different computers at a time
  • If there is space in the document name
  • If the DOC or DOCX file is password protected
  • If the file is under a shared network folder
  • If Word file is infected, damaged, or corrupted
  • If ‘Always Create Backup Copy’ option is enabled

Different Techniques to Fix ‘A file Error Has Occurred in Word’ Error

Below are some solutions to fix the above mentioned Word file error that prevents users from saving their Word files:

Technique 1. Delete “Normal” Files

  • First of all, open Control Panel and click on File Explorer Options
  • Select the View tab and under Advanced Settings, enable Show hidden files, folders, and drivers option
  • Click Apply
  • After this, open Windows Explorer and navigate to the following location:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
  • Now, from Templates folder, delete all the data files that contain “Normal” character in the file name. For example, ~$Normal.dot.

Important: Do not delete the Templates folder accidentally.

Technique 2. Save all the done changes in an encrypted Word file with a new name in a new location.

Technique 3. Copy the document that is on a shared network to a different location on the hard disk before attempting to make any changes in the file.

Technique 4. Make sure there is no any space in the file name before trying to open or edit an MS Word document.

Technique 5. Disable ‘Always create a backup copy’ option while editing an MS Word file. After editing the file, enable this option.

One Last Option

SysTools DOCX Repair Tool is one of the most reliable and efficient ways to resolve a file error has occurred in Word issue. It allows to recover and restore data from corrupt DOCX file with multiple pages and recover multiple DOCX files in a single attempt with File and Folder mode. It helps to recover and preview DOCX files as Rich and Plain Text. It has the capability that it fixes the damaged DOCX files even without making any changes in the complete formatting of fonts and layouts. In addition, it supports the recovery of DOCX files with Macro and Restricted Editing. It is an advanced tool that auto-detects DOCX files stored in Drive and subfolders to repair and provides Print, Copy, and Search DOCX options after performing recovery. It supports to recover the DOCX files of MS Office 2019/ 2016/ 2013/ 2010/ 2007 and MS Office installation is not required to recover DOCX files.

Final Verdict

How to fix a file error has occurred in Word issue is such a common internet query searched by several computer users. Well, this is a good question so we thought we’d answer this with some actually working methods. This article comprises complete information about the error message and some manual methods to fix Microsoft Word 2013 a file error has occurred problem. However, if manual techniques are not-working for users or if they are finding them tricky and time-consuming then, an automated solution is also provided. The software is completely safe to run and provides accurate results without resulting any kind of data loss.

  author

By Kumar Raj

A versatile writer with the vast knowledge of technology helps to reduce the gap between a user and technology. Provides easy and reliable ways to resolve multiple technical issues, which users encounter in their day-to-day life.