SharePoint documents saving to local machine instead of SharePoint

Question

_{Wednesday, October 2, 2013 5:01 PM}

One user in my system is having an issue with changes made to a SharePoint document are saving to his local machine and not to SharePoint. When he browses to a word document in SharePoint 2010, clicks the link, it opens in the browser. He then selects "Open in Word." Here he makes changes, hits save, and closes the document. The changes are only being saved to a local copy on his machine, not getting propagated to SharePoint. It is not asking him to save it locally to his machine, it appears to just be saving it to a temp file?

If he then goes through the same process, clicking on the doc link, it opens in the browser, not displaying his changes, but then he selects "Open in Word" and sees the local copy with his changes. 

What could be causing this to happen all of the sudden? It worked for him previously.

How can I fix this so that it is not saving to his computer but instead checking the changes in to SharePoint?

All replies (5)

_{Tuesday, January 14, 2014 8:31 PM ✅Answered}

In my case, there was some system hiccup that prevented the item from uploading properly. 

Here's how I took care of it. Look in the the task tray for Microsoft Office Upload Center, open it and look for the document in question. To the right, go to Actions > Discard. Now the user will open the copy from the site and not their cached copy.

If you're having issues with the documents staying locked by that user you have to check this out on CodeProject
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/93965/Force-SharePoint-Document-Unlocked-Checked-In

It has saved the day for me on numerous occasions when SharePoint won't let go of a short-term lock for whatever reason. 

If this has helped you please mark as answer so I can stop being a zer0.

_{Wednesday, October 2, 2013 6:03 PM}

Hello

Pleas let me know the version of Office the user is using if it is nit 2010/2007 then that might be the one of the cause.

Second cause might be user logging in to the machine with a different user account what he/she use for SharePoint log in. Then in this case the documents opened in the thick client(MS Office) would be using the windows credentials which might not have access in the SharePoint.

Let me know if this helps.

Warm Regards

Vikram

_{Wednesday, October 2, 2013 6:42 PM}

User is using Office 2010, as is everyone else in the system. Also, user logs into their computer and uses the same credentials for SharePoint. Again, we are dealing with SharePoint 2010.

Thanks for the prompt reply and not giving a link without explaining why it would help.

A few weeks ago this user opened a document from SharePoint, and when they attempted to save it they received a "Server not available at this time." (it was just a temporary hiccup in connection) This caused SharePoint to lock the document for editing by that user, and it did not release for 3hrs. We were unable to check in the document or discard checkout during this - he could not even check out the document again, as the system would say "Document currently checked out by 'that user.'" I cleared their IE cache, but the problem persisted. We finally worked around the problem by printing the document, signing it manually, and replacing the copy in SharePoint.

Now when he opens other documents (not related to first instance) his changes are being saved to his machine and not getting uploaded to SharePoint. I hope this helps. Thank you again.

_{Tuesday, January 14, 2014 7:09 PM}

I am having the same issue, I do not know why the previous posting was set as an answer as it clearly doesn't solve the problem. 

_{Wednesday, October 1, 2014 1:09 AM}

Hi There,

For those who have yet to found a fix for this, I have tested with one of the user with the following steps and it solved the issue.

Go to the location of the files in Sharepoint.

Under Library Tools - Select Library

Look for "Library Settings" in the Library Toolbar

In General Settings - Select Advanced Settings

Under the section Opening Documents in the Browser - Select either "Use the server default" or "Open in Client Application" (if one of those has been selected, select the other option)

Hit "OK" at the bottom of the sharepoint page and it should be resolved.

If it's not resolved still, try clearing the TEMP files in Windows and repeat the steps. It should solve the issue.

Good luck! :)