Microsoft Word bug: The word processor will delete your files if you do this

Microsoft has confirmed a bug in Phrase for Microsoft 365 that deletes information in case you attempt to save them.

In keeping with BleepingComputer, the Phrase for Microsoft 365 help workforce mentioned there’s a recognized subject in model 2409 the place a file “is deleted after save if the title accommodates a capitalized file extension (.DOCX, .RTF) or #.” Microsoft additionally defined that “the problem happens after making an edit to the file and saving when prompted after attempting to shut Phrase.”

Fortuitously, the bug is restricted to model 2409, happens with capitalized file extension names, and occurs while you’re prompted to save lots of upon closing Phrase (not while you manually save).

In order that narrows down the problem fairly a bit. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless fairly dangerous for the unfortunate customers whose information are deleted once they’re attempting to do the precise reverse. A number of customers on Reddit and Microsoft boards reported this taking place to them.

Only a few weeks in the past, one other Microsoft 365 bug occurred that triggered outages and points with Outlook, PowerPoint, Phrase, Excel, and others. And in July a large outage from CrowdStrike, which gives antivirus software program to Microsoft, took down hundreds of thousands of Home windows gadgets and triggered world disruption for a couple of days.

Microsoft is at the moment investigating the problem. However till there is a repair, a couple of completely different workarounds are really helpful. First, in case your file was deleted, it might have gone to the recycle bin, so it’s best to attempt to discover it there. To mitigate any future issues, manually save paperwork earlier than closing to keep away from triggering the save immediate, which is when information could also be deleted. “Our present assessments present the problem happens after saving when prompted on clicking X to shut Phrase. It doesn’t at the moment reproduce when manually saving earlier than shut,” mentioned Microsoft.

It’s also possible to disable the Backstage possibility to forestall presumably triggering the bug. Do that by going to File > Choices > Save then “Don’t present the Backstage when opening or saving information with keyboard shortcuts.”

Final however not least, you can too revert again to an older model of Microsoft 365 till the bug is mounted.