Can't open word or excel documents on mapped network drive using Office 2013

Question

_{Friday, December 26, 2014 5:29 PM | 2 votes}

Hi,

If I try to open a word document using a mapped drive e.g "Z", Word goes to the select template page. No error message is displayed. No MS Office event is created when the file fails to open. 

I can open the file locally from the desktop.

I can open the file using the network address e.g. \MYBOOKLIVE.

\MYBOOKLIVE is a trusted location in Word 2013 and "Allowed Trusted Locations on my network is checked".

How do I open the file using the mapped drive?

Allan.

All replies (26)

_{Monday, December 29, 2014 6:07 AM | 1 vote}

Have you ever tried to delete and remap the drive? If not yet, I would suggest you to do so.

How many users are having the same issues? Why asking this is that sometimes a corrupted user profile will also cause this issue. So you probably want to check this with a new user profile..

Ashish

_{Tuesday, December 30, 2014 2:44 AM}

I tried to disconnecting and reconnecting the drive. It does not help.

There is only a single user on the computer. I'll try a new user profile.

_{Tuesday, December 30, 2014 11:50 AM}

Hello Allan,

Although  \MYBOOKLIVE is a trusted location, is Z: so as well? Office tends to be overcareful ...

Best regards George

_{Tuesday, January 6, 2015 5:41 AM}

I am also having this issue. When I try to make my mapped drive, in my case it is the S: drive, the trust center does not allow me to make that drive trusted. I also tried to make a specific folder on that drive trusted with the same denial. When I copy a specific document to a local drive, like the desktop, then I can open the document. Another computer on the network running the same Windows 8.1 OS and same version of Microsoft Office products does not have this issue. On that computer, I can save and open documents directly from the mapped network folder.

_{Tuesday, January 13, 2015 4:02 PM}

I'll give that a try George.

Thanks for the tip.

Allan.

_{Monday, January 19, 2015 7:01 PM}

I can't trust Z: in Excel. It always changes the drive letter back to the network address.

As I have spent too much time on this, I've just given up trying to resolve it. The easiest remedy is to create a shortcut on the desktop using the network address and then open the documents that way. That works just fine.

_{Thursday, December 3, 2015 6:07 PM | 1 vote}

Anyone found a solution ?

I have the same problem.

In my case, a third party application generates the XLS directly in the mapped drive and opens it immeditely after. Of course I get the error.

Thanks in advance

_{Friday, January 1, 2016 9:10 PM}

Same problem here. The problem occurred after swapping hard drives and using Windows Drive Image Backup to populate the new C: drive.

_{Monday, April 4, 2016 10:53 AM}

I am also having this issue with one user on one specific machine.
Initially I tried un-installing and re-installing Office and this seemed to work.
However, when Microsoft Updates were installed the issue occurred again.
This led me to believe it might be a Microsoft Update but because I re-installed the application the updates all installed at the same time so it's difficult to see which one it might be.

Has anyone else found a potential solution to this yet?

_{Monday, April 4, 2016 3:06 PM | 3 votes}

I have resolved the issue for the user:

1. Uninstalled Office Standard 2013
2. Removed:- 

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office

3. Reinstalled Office Standard 2013
4. Installed all updates

_{Tuesday, August 23, 2016 7:46 PM | 1 vote}

I have resolved the issue for the user:

1. Uninstalled Office Standard 2013
2. Removed:- 

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office

3. Reinstalled Office Standard 2013
4. Installed all updates

This worked for me. Thank you!

_{Wednesday, January 25, 2017 11:24 AM}

After swapping hard drives with an image I am facing the same problem.

I can open all local files, but none of Excel and Word files on a network drive.

I have tried to uninstall Office 2013 Home & Business with the removal fix tool, and I installed it again, but no luck.

Tried playing with DDL ckecks and hardware acceleration checks in the options, but no improvement.

Tried unmapping and mapping again the remote folder.

Has any solution been found for this issue?

Thank you very much!

_{Monday, November 13, 2017 4:21 PM | 2 votes}

I have resolved the issue for the user:

1. Uninstalled Office Standard 2013
2. Removed:- 

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office

3. Reinstalled Office Standard 2013
4. Installed all updates

I was able to resolve the issue by just deleting the folders in step 2 and also the word and excel folders in roaming. I did not uninstall/reinstall office. Thank you!

_{Sunday, December 3, 2017 8:00 AM}

I got the same issue after upgrading a hdd to a cloned ssd, and trying to open Excel/Word files located on a networked drive. Excel/Word would just go back to the select a template page. What preferences and/or settings do you lose by deleting these folders in Step 2?

_{Wednesday, December 6, 2017 7:54 AM | 6 votes}

Just only Removed:- 

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\

_{Friday, February 9, 2018 4:25 PM}

I did not reinstall Office... Just removed the following two folders:

- C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\

Seems to work!.... Thanks

_{Sunday, May 13, 2018 7:43 AM}

You guys are GENIUS! I just spent from 9pm to 3:30am dealing with the same issue with Windows Office Costumer Support, at the end I was desperate and found your solution. I was still chatting with MS support and ask tem to follow the instructions.... they refused. Then I just did it myself...... IT WORKS!  They made me uninstall ms office and I lost my Outlook settings (signatures, accounts, calendars, etc). Seriously, today's generation working for Microsoft is mindless and cannot see beyond the flow chart they put in front of their noses; what a shame.

_{Sunday, May 13, 2018 7:44 AM}

I have resolved the issue for the user:

1. Uninstalled Office Standard 2013
2. Removed:- 

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office

3. Reinstalled Office Standard 2013
4. Installed all updates

GENIUS! Tons of good karma are on your way.

_{Monday, August 13, 2018 2:46 PM}

Thanks, worked for me the second time. 

_{Monday, September 17, 2018 2:04 PM}

Just only Removed:- 

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\

Yes, that's all I had to do here and it worked perfectly.

_{Thursday, November 1, 2018 8:42 AM | 1 vote}

I did not reinstall Office... Just removed the following two folders:

- C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\

Seems to work!.... Thanks

I had the exact same issue.

For me deleting C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office only already solved the issue.

Wel, actually I just RENAMED the folder. By doing this I am able to retain all info in case this would not be the solution.

I renamed  C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office

to C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office1

Before renaming I closed all Office applications.

Directly after renaming the issue was solved.

_{Tuesday, December 4, 2018 1:47 PM}

I dont remove it, i just renamed the folder and it works.

- C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\

to

- C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office1

• C:\Users\User Folder%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office1\

_{Friday, March 1, 2019 5:34 PM}

Hello, I ran into a similar problem where my excel files on mapped/network drives opened up blank but did not have the same problem on local folders. 

I was able to narrow the culprit down to the .FSF files in my office AppData local folder (shown below). So to fix it, I simply deleted all .FSF files in the below folder.

C:\Users\UserFolder%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache\LocalCacheFileEditManager\

_{Wednesday, April 24, 2019 2:41 PM}

Same problem here. Worked with this solution! Thanks a lot. I Had 2 days dealing with this problem!!!

_{Thursday, September 12, 2019 9:37 AM}

Great find Obi  -thank you for posting.  Pretty sure this has saved me a lot of time and trouble.

_{Monday, September 16, 2019 6:19 PM}

I did less on an RDS Host.
I went straight to the user's AppData folder. 

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft.

I renamed Office to Office.old.

Logged the user in again and all worked.

I hope this does not continue to happen with users. (UGH)