Slow "Save As" in Microsoft Office Applicaitons

It seems we've been having a problem a lot lately with slow saves when choosing "Save As" in Microsoft Word and Excel.

This post is mainly a place to keep track of some of the ideas I've come across. There is a Microsoft KB article for example

If the slowness comes when choosing a different drive it is likely the matter of a having a disconnected network drive that needs to be removed.

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I have done some research on this and from my understanding Office Applications are slow saving in a WAN environment because Office is using CIFS protocol during the Save As process.  Because CIFS is very chatty on a LAN it is a non issue but when latency is introduced it can cause very slow save times.  Microsofts fix for this is to use Distributed File System and Replication. (KB313937).

A good workaround for this is to use a FileCopy macro.  For my situation I had users save to a local storage near my Metaframe servers then use a File Copy macro I created.  I assigned the Macro to a toolbar button.  It reduced user time by several minutes.

David Jenkins (not verified) | Jan 18th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

I disconnected my drive that corresponded to my SD memory card slot on my PC. Word's "save as" works as normal now. Kinda sucks tho that I'll have to use that after each time I use that drive!

Anonymous (not verified) | Jan 25th, 2007 at 11:11 am

Have to agree with the previous comment that unobtainable network places definitely produce a hang in the system as does mapped network drives that are no longer obtainable. Delete the connections and the save as functions normally.

Anonymous (not verified) | Jan 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Thank you so much!!! Disconnecting a network link that was discontinued fixed this for me too!

BIG help - You are my hero!

Anonymous (not verified) | May 4th, 2007 at 11:24 am

This happened to me when a shared network drive died. I fixed the problem by simply removing the connection to this drive. Go to My Computer/Network Places and click "Extras" pull-down menu (sorry, using German version of Windows and dont remember English headings) and then "disconnect network drive" or whatever the real english heading is. I deleted the "broken" connection to the shared drive and this resolved the problem. Apparently, when doing a "Save As" or "Look Into" etc, Windows searches for the broken drive for a while (which causes a hang) and then after 40 seconds or so gives up.

Anonymous (not verified) | Dec 28th, 2006 at 8:59 am

I was searching for an answer to problem my new PC was having when saving files in Word. Our IT people reconfigured how I sign in to one of our network drives. It's normally disconnected. Reconnecting to that network drive solved the slowness problem.

George (not verified) | Mar 22nd, 2007 at 2:13 pm

my file save as in excel and word is very very slow when I am online..BUT...when I am not online there is no lag at all? does anyone have any ideas?

Tory.

tory (not verified) | Nov 17th, 2006 at 3:22 am

I did Start/My Computer and looked at my network drives. There were two things listed that started with "memory_card on hp...". I think they are related to my HP printer -- a profoundly irritating piece of equipment. They both said they were disconnected but I went to Tools/Disconnect Network Drive and disconnected them again. Now my Word files save at a normal speed again. THANK YOU!!!

Appreciative (not verified) | Jun 13th, 2007 at 11:31 am

Yes I can confirm deleting a non-exitent drive mapping has cured my problem. Previously when trying to navigate directories on local or network drives it was taking 10 minutes (yes 10 minutes!) per directory level. This was hapenning in all MS office applications when trying to open, save or attach files. Having just deleted a non-existent drive mapping it now refreshes the directory structure instantaneously. Thanks! I'll now tell my IT department who have failed to fix this for me and were suggesting they needed to re-build the PC!

Anonymous (not verified) | Sep 12th, 2007 at 8:54 am

Yes ..disconnecting two decomissioned network drives solved the issue.

Anonymous (not verified) | Jul 30th, 2007 at 8:27 am

It worked for me. This little nugget of info folved my exact problem. Thanks!

Anonymous (not verified) | Aug 17th, 2007 at 10:35 am

I disconnected drives that did not work - for whatever reason it was, and this also solve my problem. I did not find this blog until I had several months of frustration not being able to figure it out. I found this blog to post my results and WHHOOOO - everyone found the answer.

Anonymous (not verified) | Nov 20th, 2007 at 9:49 am

Many thanks for this information. It was driving me nuts.

mike reynolds (not verified) | Oct 21st, 2007 at 10:02 am

This worked for me also.

Thanks

Dean Mees (not verified) | Oct 10th, 2007 at 5:05 am

Solved the problem. Drag is that I have network drives from home and from work. I wanted to keep them connected so they are ready for either location.

Anonymous (not verified) | Aug 30th, 2007 at 10:47 am

I have a total of two batch files, homenet and worknet. Each one uses an argument, on or off, to dictate whether to map or unmap those particular drives. A bit of a hassle, but it works.

Fatboy (not verified) | Oct 22nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm

Just keeping the posting up to day for the new year. this solution of a drive not being connected worked for me too. thanks!

francisco (not verified) | Jan 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 am

If I disable my wireless connection all save as functions are normal. When the wireless connection is enabled then the save as function is extremely slooooow. This occurs with or without firewall protection. Any suggestions?

GTINLA (not verified) | Mar 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am

Turn Auto correct off. (Careful other features are turned off)

LC (not verified) | Mar 12th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

I emailed my IT 'holery than thow' administrator about this problem. The new problem is that he does not answer emails!!!!!!!!!! I disconnected the poorly mapped drive he put on my computer and all is great now.

George (not verified) | Feb 1st, 2008 at 10:06 am

I've deleted the network drive and everything works normal. You've helped me save a lot of time here. Thank you much again.

Anonymous (not verified) | Feb 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm

I was facing real slow down problem on network computers especially when I do File-Save As in Word, Excel, etc. I found this link from google and it fixed my problem right away. I just had to go to my computer and remove disconnected network drive because recently I had renamed some of computer names on the network so some of the client workstations were still looking for old disconnected computer names. Thanks guys.

Will Patel (not verified) | Feb 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

I disconnected everything in my network places and have no mapped drives, but any time an application tries to pop open a file window to eith open, save, or whatever, it is always very slow.

Anonymous (not verified) | Mar 6th, 2008 at 10:15 am

I had this problem once before. I was using a wireless router and installed office 2003. I was advised that the problem was connected to a network setup.

I forgot about the problem and tried the router again. The problem is back and I forgot he fix.

If anyone can assist, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

travelersway (not verified) | Jun 10th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

I am at a loss - I have tried everything! Removed mapped drives, printers, registry hacks nothing is working.

Think I might ask Bill himself...

Chris (not verified) | Jun 19th, 2008 at 3:05 am

Could this problem be related to fast indexing on the hard drive being enabled? Just a shot in the dark.

Thank you for the other tips.

Regards,

Keith

Keith at Quantum Leap Technologies (not verified) | Jun 20th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

Could this problem be related to the fast indexing feature. I can't remember off the top of my head where the setting is. I believe if you right click on your "C" drive under my computer it is in the properties some where.

Just a shot in the dark.

Regards,

Keith

Keith at Quantum Leap Technologies (not verified) | Jun 20th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

I write word document diary at work and suddenly I had this problem saving a document takes a long time. I tried to save as local disk.. Save as rtf and back to doc... Removed disk mappings... No Help. But then I realized that it could be hyperlink causing this, I use hyperlinking to another documents and pictures and sometimes to the network resources, and it was one hyperlink to a network resource which was not working. I removed it and now saving is fast again.

PH

PH (not verified) | Jul 2nd, 2008 at 4:58 am

I clicked on My computer tools and disconnect network drive. I then selected all the disconnected Network drive and it removed few network drive but it improved the performance.

thanks for the tips.

Anonymous (not verified) | Jul 7th, 2008 at 11:49 pm

Ureka!! Yes, disconnecting network drives no longer in use does the trick. Thank you, and I was about to reinstall everything.

Thanks!

DC (not verified) | Aug 11th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

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