Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I often get "Error Saving Document ___. Write Error. The Document Could Not Be Written" when saving a file. It happens often enough that it's almost a showstopper. I've seen it in both Writer and Calc. There's no reason for this to be happening -- it's just a local file on my HD with no special permissions or anything. Once I see the error, I can't figure out any way to save what's in my file other than to copy all the data out of the file into a new file and then save that. Trying to save it to a different place or with a different filename doesn't help. Currently on XP SP2 and OOo 3.0.1, but I've seen it in 2.4.x too.

See that query with your error message as keywords. Haven't found any clear pattern in the few topics I've seen but it may help.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

I had already searched on here and google. I found some people with similar problems, but the solutions didn't apply to me. And many of them were just workarounds to avoid losing your work, not actually solutions.

In the past, there was some issues with security application that could remove the temporary files in the temp folder. You could try to change the /temp folder path in Tools>Options>OOo>Paths and set it in a safe place (like in your documents, in a dedicated directory of course).

Done. I'm still unable to save the "unsaveable" document that I have open, but I'm unclear if this was intended to have an immediate effect or if it's intended to prevent future occurrences.

Changing the temp folder will take effect at next start, especially if a file is still opened I think. Can't you copy and paste the current file to a new one?

Yeah, recovering data was easy, I'm just tired of having to do that. I'll live with the change for a little bit and see if it fixes the problem.

I've encountered exactly same problem as paulslocum. When I open the "MyFile.ods" file with Calc (macros are enabled), I get the messagebox "Error Saving Document ___. Write Error. The Document Could Not Be Written" when trying to save it. This happens only when I open this document for the first time in this session. The document also cannot be saved to another filename. But if I'd closed it without saving any changes and re-opened it again -- then I can save any changes and "Save As" also works. The workaround can be made either by re-starting the Calc and re-opening of a document or simply by reloading it (File>Reload). I've observed this problem on several different computers with oOo3.0.1 and Win XP Pro SP2 and SP3. I'd tried to search the forum and found no solution...
So would You be so kind to answer my questions:
1. Is there solution for this problem? Some patch or fix in the latest version of oOo?
2. What is the reason for such behavior of Calc? (I've already tried to change "TEMP" folder in oOo setup and the problem persists). Maybe the reason in file .~lock.MyFile.ods#?

Try upgrading to 3.1.1.

I am using Calc. and can close and reopen the file a number of times, but at some point when saving I get the error

Error saving document
General Error
General input/output error

For a time I was able to work around this by renaming the file which would work for a while. At times the file was Recovered by OO.

I'm using OO 3.1.1. build 9420 and Windows 7 Home Premuim, a new computer, bags of RAM.

N.B. I had the same problem on my old computer running XP Pro. OO was downloaded separately for both computers.

Hi, Does anybody have a solution to this (common?) problem? I too need help with a problem on openoffice 3.1. When I try to save a calc or writer document, I sometimes get this error message: "Error saving the document ...Write Error. The file could not be written" Please help me to avoid this problem.

I've upgraded to oOo3.1.1 and the problem persists. Even more, now I not always can save my work after the first reload of document. Sometimes there is a need in two or more reloads.
But the document in this version opens more quickly - maybe problem resolves itself after specific period of time?
Can anybody tell me if the arise of this problem depends from a document content, system conditions or something else? I've tried to find but still not found such corelation...

I have the same problem as AV-73. Exact same error message. Today (Feb 6th, 2010) was the first time I had experienced the problem. I had the spreadsheets open for several days (probably a week) that I had not attempted to save until today, but couldn't (Error Saving Document XXXXXX. Write Error. XXXXX could not be written). I had done a lot of work with formulas on several different 17 different sheets, so I can't pinpoint anything that I did to the specific spreadsheet. Another thing, I had opened a different spreadsheet earlier in the day and was able to close and save it immediately before I had the problem with the other.

I was able to make a new spreadsheet and copied each sheet into the new spreadsheet and was able to save that file. Everything appears to be OK in the new spreadsheet, but I won't be able to tell until I really dive into working with the spreadsheet again. When I rebooted, Windows restored the original spreadsheet but I lost a lot of the changes, but not all. So I'm not sure when it stopped doing the autosave/backup.

I hope that this is an isolated incident for me, but if not, it is a problem that I need to resolve and am really curious for a solution.

I have the same error in one of my Calc file.
It looked like the problem is link with "data array name definition" (sorry for the translation, my version is a french one).
In fact, I have a data array name "Distance" which point to a sheet and wich cannot be deleted.

Have you got some "data array name definition" (menu data first item) in your files ?

Just more precisions

The initial problem only occured when I opened the files from a shortcut on my desktop.
If I launch openoffice and after open the files with the "files", "open file" command in the menu, it worked well.
and after that, the database data name is ok and pointed on the right sheet and the right array

Just one's more...

I can save the files after the second openning. (Sequence: open file=> cannot save without error, close the file with ignore command, open the same file and now saving can be done).

I have had the same experience on both Windows and MacOS. I have seen the "Error in writing file" error, and also this:

Error saving the document xxxx:
General Error.
General Input/Output Error.

From what I can see, if you ever get either of these errors, they are "stuck" -- it's like an error flag has been set for this document, and no further I/O will be successful. In Writer, I've found I can export the document, or copy and paste. The original file is still open and locked, because you can't overwrite it from within Writer. I think that's why quitting OOo and restarting works -- the error flag is cleared, and then the document can be edited as before.

I use a laptop, and I wonder if it has something to do with putting the laptop to sleep -- I have most often seen this problem after a sleep/resume cycle.

I have seen this error off and on in both writer and calc on both desktops and laptops for several releases. Since updating to 3.2 if I try to save a couple of sheets containing charts as a pdf it seems to immediately activate this. Since updating that is the only thing I have seen to cause it.

I have had this problem a lot with spreadsheets, and as a fix I had been copying the contents of an un-savable spreadsheet and pasting into a new blank document. But here's something I do now that keeps the error from happening.

If I select some cells, copy the data to the clipboard, select other cells, and paste the data into them, everything is fine. But if I try to save the document **while cells are still selected**, that is when the problem occurs - not being able to write to disk. I now carefully de-select any selected cells on the spreadsheet before I save any new work, and it saves without any problem.

The program also is set to save auto-recovery data at selectable intervals by default. I turned this off because I reasoned that an attempt to save might happen just at the wrong time, while I have some cells selected. This would probably create the conditions for the 'error saving' problem.

Have not had this error now for a few weeks.