Ive been working daily on the same 100-page document for several months. I had no problems with the document under Word 2003. However, under Word 2010 the file grows in size over time, and saving the file takes longer and longer to the point where there are significant timeouts (Word is not responding) whenever an automatic save occurs. 

I don't want to diable automatic saves because Word does crash for me on rare occasions, generally if I do something "too fast".

Ive found a workaround for the problem, and every three weeks or so after the automatic saves have become painfully long I copy the document to the clipboard (except for the last paragraph mark) and then I open a new document based on the relevant template and I paste the clipboard contents into the new document. I rename the old version of the document and the new version becomes the working version. This reduces the file size (currently around 1.4 MB) by about 150 KB and the problem goes away for another three weeks.

Certain aspects of my situation are unusual, and these may or may not be relevant to the problem:

1. At the end of each day I use (via a macro) the Review, Compare feature of Word to compare the document with the previous days version to allow me to reread any changes I made to it.
2. I use various other macros for intelligent page-turning, resizing windows, smart Find, etc.
3. I maintain the document as a DOC file (Word 97-2003 Compatibility Mode) because I need to share the document with an organization that requires this format.
4. The document flips back and forth a few times between being a one-column and two-column document.
5. The document has a table of contents on the last page.
6. The headings in the document have embedded section and subsection numbers.
7. The document has numerous embedded SEQ and cross-reference fields.
8. The document has embedded EMF pictures that were generated by a non-Microsoft application.

The long times to save the file and the temporary solution Ive found to the problem suggest that some "junk" is accumulating in the last paragraph mark. This junk doesn't cause any operational errors, but it slows things down to the point where the auto-save times out and I temporarily get the distracting "not responding" message. It would be nice if Word could automatically eliminate the junk in the last paragraph mark so that I wouldnt have to do it manually.

Do you have any suggestions for how I might eliminate the problem?

I'd be pleased to send a copy of the slow-saving file to a Microsoft Word programmer for diagnosis of the problem.

I have up-to-date Windows 7 professional (64 bit) and Word 2010 14.0.6129.5000 (32 bit).

Thanks for your help,

Don Macnaughton

Hi Don,

This is a quick note to let you know that I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue.

oh-oh! Me to!

I've noticed the same issue. My document(s) is a lot simpler. 

I've just been gritting my teeth and bearing it.

Hello Rohn007,

It would be helpful to me and perhaps to Microsoft if you could answer the following questions:

1. I suspect that the problem is due to the comparisons that I make every day (using Review, Compare).  Do you regularly use Review, Compare on your document(s) that have the problem?
2. If you use Review, Compare, do you do it with a macro (like I do) or do you do it manually?
3. Is there anything unusual about your document(s) that might give us a clue as to the cause of the problem?
4. Are you able to temporarily solve the problem by copying the text (except for the last paragraph mark) of a document into a new document, as I describe in my April 29 post above?

Thanks for your help,

Don Macnaughton

Have you tried turning off AutoRecovery and seeing if that is the culprit? I'm only suggesting it as a test.

If you determine that it is causing at least some of the issue, and want to turn it off, then you still should have some protection by getting into the habit of saving the file yourself; every time you pause to think, click Ctrl-S.

I honestly don't mean this as a sales pitch either but if AutoRecovery is part of the issue and you want to turn it off and still have more protection for files you are working on, you can go to my website and try the zAPPs-GotUrBack app. It's free to try.

Hope this helps

Hello Rohn007,

Thank you for the helpful information.

Is your problem document a "doc" documment (i.e., Word 97-2003 compatability mode) or a Word 2007 document (docx) or a Word 2010 document (also docx)?  My problem document and and another 2.8 MB document (that is also open and actively edited every day) and that doesn't exhibit the problem are both "doc" documents.

Does your problem document have sections that have two side-by-side columns?  (Mine does.)

Don Macnaughton

Have you tried turning off AutoRecovery and seeing if that is the culprit? I'm only suggesting it as a test.

If you determine that it is causing at least some of the issue, and want to turn it off, then you still should have some protection by getting into the habit of saving the file yourself; every time you pause to think, click Ctrl-S.

I honestly don't mean this as a sales pitch either but if AutoRecovery is part of the issue and you want to turn it off and still have more protection for files you are working on, you can go to my website and try the zAPPs-GotUrBack app. It's free to try.

Hello Rich,

Thank you for the excellent suggestions.  I'm scared stiff to turn off AutoRecover because I do crash Word from time to time.  (If I type "too fast", I suspect that my keyboard sends a garbled key sequence to the computer.)  And I hate to lose work because some ideas (like the lost chord) seem to be irretrievable.  So I would prefer to live with the problem rather than turning off AutoRecover, even in a test. 

Also, since the problem only happens with autosaves for one of my seven always-open documents, there is presumably something unique about that document that causes the problem. I would like to figure out what that is because then I might be able to turn off that feature.

Does your GotUrBack app do it's own autosaves in Word every so many minutes?  If so, are these autosaves somehow independent of the Word AutoRecover function?

Don Macnaughton

The GotUrBack software I mentioned does not function based on a timed saved. It works when you save. Before overwriting your current file it stores the previous saved file and optionally, the one before that. So when that OMG moment occurs and you save over something you didn't mean to, you can go back one or two levels and get the file. It costs US$10.

Regarding AutoRecovery you shouldn't have the timed saves set for anything less than 10 minutes because it causes issues. Also I hope you recognize that these recovery files are notoriously unreliable, and they are temporary.

Finally I am getting the sense from both of you, Don and Rohn, that you leave these files open all the time. If true I guess you are also inferring that you leave your machine running constantly? If that's the case IMHO you are self-inflicting wounds onto yourself. :-)

If you are concerned about software performance, close files and quit apps when they are not in use and log out of your system daily. Restart your system weekly. On very large files when you first open them, before you start typing or scrolling, you have to let Word finish its initial scan of the document. Watch the pagination icon in the lower left corner of the active window. When its done, you can start working again.

The specific things I observed regarding AutoRecovery processing is a general unresponsiveness of the application as the file became larger. At times if the user waited long enough, Word would return and allow editing once again but then only to go into another save process and the wait began once again. Keeping the save time at 10 minutes or longer or turning it off altogether helped.

Sleep/hibernation may keep some functions from running but I don't believe it stops all. Installed apps that are setup to automatically check for updates could override it. When updates come in, how is memory effected? That question is rhetorical and I don't have an answer, but it concerns me.

The editing files issue when Word hasn't finished pagination that I have seen are complete lock-ups, or probably more accurately stated, appearance of a complete lock-up because the user(s) refused to wait any longer and they Ctrl-Alt-Delete out of the session. I'd speculate if in fact it is a complete lock-up that it has something to do with Word losing/confusing an interrupt. It's running the pagination process when all of a sudden a keyboard interrupt occurs and then a new re-pagination process has to begin but it hadn't finished the first. Again... just my speculation, and I could be wrong.

Check locations where files are stored

                Word has three locations: document location, temporary file location, and auto-recover file location.

there can be several issues:

a) the program is configured to write files to a location that does not exist.

b) the location can be mucked up with files, like a temporary folder with 50K temp files

c) the location can have disk corruption or be on a fragmented volume

d) the location can be on a LAN drive somewhere, when it normally is on the local PC.

So in other words, look at where MS Word is configured to store these various files.

Check locations where files are stored

                Word has three locations: document location, temporary file location, and auto-recover file location.

Dear Rohit_1998,

Thank you.  I know the document location for the problematic Word file and I found the auto-recover file location for files (which I see contains some junk files).  How do I find the "temporary" file location?  I'm using Word version 14 (i.e., Word 2010).

After I've found all the locations I'll clean things up and report back.

Don Macnaughton

Hi Don,

You can delete the contents of the following folders:

temp, %temp%, prefetch, recent.

The Temporary Internet files folder is included in the %temp% folder.

To open these files; hit "widows + r" button on the keyboard and type the name of these folders.

Hi Don,

You can delete the contents of the following folders:

temp, %temp%, prefetch, recent.

The Temporary Internet files folder is included in the %temp% folder.

To open these files; hit "widows + r" button on the keyboard and type the name of these folders.

Thanks.

On June 9 the document again started to time out on autosaves.  So I deleted all the deletable files on the above list and began a new version of the document by opening a new document based on the relevant template and then copying all but the last paragraph mark into the new document and then using that as the working document.  I also confirmed that none of issues (a), (c), and (d) in Rohit_1988's message of May 25 was relevant. (I checked issue (c) with CHKDSK.  The drive is automatically defragmented by Windows 7.)

I think I deleted around 4000 files, which isn't a huge number, and which I susepct won't solve the problem.  But we'll have to wait and see.  Since it currently takes between 12 and 17 days for the document to start timing out, I'll report back here on what has transpired in 20 or so days.

Don Macnaughton

Hi,

Your question falls into the paid support category which requires a more in-depth level of support.  Please visit the below link to see the various paid support options that are available to better meet your needs.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;en-us;offerprophone

Thanks!

Hi,

Your question falls into the paid support category which requires a more in-depth level of support.  Please visit the below link to see the various paid support options that are available to better meet your needs.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;en-us;offerprophone

Thanks!

Dear Moderator,

Thank you for your comment.  Wouldn't it be best for me to wait for the 20 days I disuss in my message prior to your message to see whether Rohit's suggestions solve the problem?  Rohit, who may be a Microsoft employee, seemed fairly confident in his suggestions (although I'm somewhat skeptical).

Also, could you explain why my question falls in the paid support category?  (In my country, Canada, one hour of paid support costs US$259.)

Isn't it possible that my problem is due to a bug in Word that occurs slowly due to the daily compares that I do of the document with the previous day's version?  (The problem occurs with no other documents of mine, and the problem document is the only document that participates in a daily compare.)  Should I be paying $259 or more to help Microsoft diagnose what may be a bug?

Don Macnaughton

I've carefully followed Rohit_1988's suggestions as I noted in my first June 11 post.  Then I copied the entire document execpt for the last paragraph mark into a new document.  As before, the problem went away.  However, the problem returned after 18 days, which is typical behavior.  Thus, unfortunately, Rohit_1988's suggestions don't solve the problem.

Thus I've removed the "Proposed as answer" status from Rohit's answer above.

As I've noted before, I'll be pleased to provide a copy of the document experiencing the problem to a Microsoft engineer if he or she would like to look inside the last paragraph mark to study the "junk" that would appear to be accumulating there that causes the automatic saves to take so long, which causes Word to go into the distracting "not responding" state.

Moderator suggested in his June 11 post that my "question falls into the paid support category".  I guess that means that not enough people experience the problem to warrant giving it an engineer's attention.  Of course, that's a reasonable business decision because MS can't chase after problems that are only experienced by a few users.  Sigh.  Perhaps I'll just live with the problem.

Don Macnaughton