To save to the server, correct the invalid or missing required fields.

Question

_{Tuesday, September 3, 2013 9:02 PM}

We have a SharePoint 2010 document library that has a required field that is from an external data source.  When we open existing Excel documents, a ribbon appears stating "To save to the server, correct the invalid or missing required fields.".  If you go File>Info>Document Information Panel you will see this external data source field with a Red Asterisk and it says "Show Details".  If you click "Show Details" it will show you the "Document Properties - Server" toolbar and you will see this field populated.  It is however read only, and I believe that it is because its an external data source.  It will not let us save any excel documents as it seems that Excel feels this field is empty or incorrect.

The same happens with Microsoft Word documents, in that if you open an existing document and go to the document control panel you will see the external data field with a Red Asterisk and it says "Show Details".  If you click "Show Details" it will show you the "Document Properties - Server" toolbar and you will see this field populated but read only; the difference is with the Word documents we can save and close the documents.  If we upload a new excel document, it behaves just like word documents, so it seems its only applicable to existing excel documents.

Over the past 2 weeks we have upgraded from SharePoint RTM to SharePoint SP2.  This is has never been reported prior to the upgrades so I am assuming, but cannot confirm, if it was caused by the upgrades.

I see there are workarounds online for Word, but nothing for excel. 

Any help for further troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks

Ken

Kenneth Clebak

All replies (5)

_{Friday, September 6, 2013 6:09 AM ✅Answered | 5 votes}

Hi Ken,

According to your description, the error will occur when saving the documents in the library which has an external data column from client application.

The document which cannot be saved may contain invalid XML information or invalid XML properties.

I recommend to remove the invalid XML information before you save the documents:

1. Open the document in corresponding client application.
2. Click File, click Info, click  Check for issues, and then click Inspect Document.
3. In the Document Inspector dialog box, accept the default options, and then click Inspect.
4. In the Document Inspector dialog box, click Remove All, and then click Close.

Best regards.

Thanks

_{Friday, September 6, 2013 12:41 PM}

Victoria:

Thank you for the reply.  Your steps above do solve the problem of allowing you to save the document back to SharePoint.  Two issues though when I did that:

1. It removes all of the server document properties from the file and removes that linkage.  So while these properties are still in SharePoint, you can no longer see them/edit them in the document itself in the document information panel.
2. If you change any of the server document properties for the file in SharePoint (for example assigning a metadata tag to the file), the initial problem presents itself yet again.

Ken

Kenneth Clebak

_{Monday, December 9, 2013 2:34 PM}

Hi,

I faced the same problem and I spent much time search the solution and finally this solution work for me.

Thanks,

Fahad

_{Thursday, February 27, 2014 4:58 PM}

Thanks Victoria. This was an easy fix.

Rodney Langley

_{Tuesday, July 1, 2014 12:02 PM}

@Ken:
I face a similar problem. An Excel document on SharePoint with a workflow and metadata. After editing the document and thus also running the workflow a few times, the workflow will change the server document properties and with that the invalid/missing required fields problem arise.

Letting the document inspector "remove all" as suggested by Victoria above does not solve the problem.
I experience similar issues as you have described above.

Did you ever find a solution to the problem?

/Jørgen