Why can't Word autosave a file to local storage?
When attempting to turn on autosave for a document in Microsoft Word, a dialog box opens, saying the following:
And it then provides options for me to upload the document to my Business or Personal Onedrive folders.
For schoolwork, I primarily use Onedrive, meaning I can use autosave, but I'm just curious as to why Microsoft doesn't allow users to have their documents automatically saved in the same manner when editing a file on your computer's local storage?
21 Answer
AutoSave is a feature as you have noticed only available for files saved online as stated here:
AutoSave is enabled when working on a file that is saved to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online. If the file is saved to another location (or if it hasn't been saved at all, yet), then AutoSave is disabled. This will happen if your file is on a SharePoint on premises site, a file server, some other cloud storage service, or saved to a local path like C:.
For local storage, AutoRecover can be considered close to accomplishing the same function as AutoSave. From the same page:
If you're not a subscriber, don't worry. There's still AutoRecover. AutoRecover helps protect files in case of a crash. If you reopen the file after a crash, a version of the file with your latest changes appears in a Document Recovery pane.
You will need to enable it, set the recover time as low as possible (1 minute), and set "Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving".
why Microsoft doesn't allow users to have their documents automatically saved in the same manner when editing a file on your computer's local storage?
This part is mainly assumption as I have not found the reasons invoked by Microsoft. It could be that they want to promote their online services and that is why they offer a feature that differentiate between local and online saving.
It could simply be that in case of a crash (see above), if an online file is not saved automatically, it could be lost while the local version can be restored (in part) thanks to AutoRecover. (I am not taking into considerations versioning of online files).
3
