Microsoft Word: watch out for this bug that deletes documents instead of saving them

To better prevent, Microsoft published on its customer support sitea warning about the famous bug currently affecting its flagship word processing software. In particular, we learn that, if the name of your file has an uppercase extension (for example, .DOCX instead of .docx) or if it has a hash mark within it, any attempt to save the file will actually result in its outright suppression. This bug seems to affect all users with version 2409 of Office applications.

A bug that can be worked around

The good news is that this bug is not permanent: it is obviously still possible to find the deleted file directly in the trash. Restore it, then change its name to prevent it from being deleted later. It is also possible to check an option in Microsoft Word to prevent the bug from occurring in the future. To do this, go to “Files”, then “Options”, then “Saving”, and finally check “Do not show Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts”. This setting would prevent the bug from being triggered and files from being deleted after closing Word.

It is also possible to get around the bug by manually saving files via the floppy disk icon or using the CTRL + S shortcut: according to Microsoft, this method avoids any disappointment in this way. Note that for now, Microsoft has still not identified the source of this bug and has therefore not published a fix. Fortunately, there are several methods to get around it, which should limit the damage for the moment while waiting for a lasting solution so that you no longer have to worry about it.