Self-changing of MS Word file names to temporary ~WRD ones on my Mac mini running macOS Sequoia.

I have not had the time to follow through all responses. But I created a temporary solution. If your symptoms match mine (see this post below and my last post), read this or go directly to the bottom to see the solution.

First, I have a screen cast in case the issue is still not clear:

Screen cast: https://www.loom.com/share/53f0e27f3fda4daa9446a370c16c80cb?sid=331d0033-478f-46b7-b35a-37f950c82589

More background on my case:

• Didn't make any changes to Word settings since the last install years ago.
• Only relevant changes recently were macOS updates and MS App updates
• For Sequoia (I have 15.1.1), there are many improved security permissions and other apps have been requesting Access Permissions in recent weeks. However, Word has not asked/promoted for additional permissions in my case.

My attempts for a solution:

• This time, I tested first whether the issue occurs on the local drive or other drives (external, network or cloud drives).
• I found that, for my case, it is isolated to external and network drives only. It works fine on local drives.
• This points to the fact that Word needs access permissions for the external drive/network drives - even though Word has not asked for it explicitly.
• Now, checking permissions
  • Test 1 (Failed): Using "Get Info" on Finder and Terminal "ls -al /Volumes/MyDrive" command)
    • Terminal shows the "./Volumes/MyDrive/.TemporaryItems/folders.501" folder (where temporary Word files are stored having "_unknown:_unknown" owners and low level access permissions. I am not sure if this is normal. No action taken as I do not want to change this without knowing first. I will investigate further.
    • "Get Info" - shows nothing out of the ordinary. I reset to the same (Read-Write for the user and staff).
    • Open Word, try to save: issue is not resolved.
    • Close Word App
  • Test 2 (Failed): Check macOS Settings for "Privacy and Security > File & Folders".
    • Word is listed (for me) here.
    • "External Drives" access turned ON - no other drives/folders are listed.
    • I turn OFF and then turn it back ON.
    • Open Word, try to save: issue is not resolved.
    • Close Word App
  • Test 3 (Succeeded): Check macOS Settings for "Privacy and Security > Full Disk Access".
    • Word is NOT listed (for me) under this setting (I prefer this since the fewer apps have Full Disk Access the better for security).
    • I add Word and give it Full Disk Access anyway.
    • Open Word, try to save: issue is resolved.

To summarize - Word needs proper access permissions for non-local drives and it is not prompting the user for granting those permissions. Once Full Access is manually granted, it works. It is obvious that Word should request necessary permissions so the user does not have to do this, which open the possibility for misconfiguration. It is a Microsoft and Word problem - not Mac.

This resolution is not permanent since I do not want to give Word "Full Disk Access" if it is not necessary. Word should request the right permissions - not one chosen by the end users.

The Temporary Solution -

WARNING: this solution gives the Word app a high level of file access that I am not certain is necessary and makes me uneasy and hence, this solution in my mind, is a temporary one. So, I recommend that you continue your research and reaching out to MS Support and get a permanent solution.

Does your symptom match mine?

• Word documents on external and network drives do not save as expected.
• When saved, the title/name of the document shown in the title bar of the open Word window (not in Finder) - changes from its original name to a temporary file name (like .~WRDXXXX) - see screen cast above.
• Any additional changes made during the time when the temporary file name is shown in the title-bar are not saved to the original document - so all changes after this may be lost.
• At this point, if I try to close the Word App, it shows a prompt saying the file (.~WRDXXXX) was not saved and asks to save it again and opens the folder window.
• If I cancel, all changes made are lost. If I save to a new file or write over the original file, changes are saved to the selected file.
• Repeats if I make more changes.

Steps to Solution:

If your symptoms are similar/same, especially the first few bullets above, try the temporary solution below.

• Quit the Word App
• Open macOS System Preferences
• Click "Security & Privacy"
• Click "Full Disk Access" from the list of preference items on the right side.
• Click the plus (+) icon at the bottom of the System Preference window
• Navigate to "Applications > Microsoft Word" select it and click "Open" to add it to this list
• Make sure the checkbox is turned ON
• Now open Word again and try saving your changes.
• In my case, the issue is not repeated and document content is saved.

Hope this is helpful for some.

Thanks.

Just noticed you're trying to write the new file to an external drive. In which case, the problem may be that drive's permissions.

Highlight the external (or just right click on it) and do a Get Info. Go to the bottom right of the Get Info palette and turn off the lock. Enter your admin password to complete the action. Now, turn on the check box to Ignore Permissions. Turn the lock back on and try writing a file to the external.

I'm mostly wondering if the error message has nothing to do with the problem. An old one was if you removed fonts installed by macOS (when you could do that), this issue could crop up:

Apple’s Grapher application also requires Times. Like Monaco’s GamutWorks, it must specifically be Times. In addition, Grapher also requires Symbol. Without Times, Grapher will not launch, instead giving you a message that there was a problem with the application. If you have Times open but not Symbol, Grapher will launch but then erroneously tell you there is a font conflict, when in reality it’s just that Symbol is missing.

RobertBurnsOB wrote:

It's possible that I caused this in changing some setting in combatting another nuisance, i.e., files opening with large swaths of unneeded space.

You actually diagnosed this in your original post, and I think your wording above indicates that you did indeed change that setting, pointing the temporary storage location to an external drive which may or may not be still connected to your Mac. I think Microsoft should be able to handle such an error gracefully but based on what I have seen of Windows, in a way I am not surprised that they do not handle it well. So what you did is actually reasonable and should not have caused this but I think Microsoft Word does not handle this gracefully.

I have very old .doc files and recent .docx files, I have never modified that setting (I was not even aware of it until reading these posts) and am unable to recreate this issue, and I have tried on 4 personal Macs (running Big Sur through Sequoia) and 1 work Mac (Sonoma). We have thousands of people using Word on Macs at work and I have never heard of this happening there (I track bug reports there on our Slack channel dedicated to that).

Based on what I have seen, this is due to faulty MS-Word handling of a misconfiguration in the settings for MS-Word, not something to blame on Apple nor on the user (e.g. you, you should be able to change that setting). As someone else pointed out, this glitch could corrupt the Microsoft software (it shouldn't) and thus require a reinstall.

Did you not understand the concept of a temporary file created by Word?

Apple did nothing here. Say it with me - NOTHING.

Word creates a temporary file for every file you currently have open. You're not supposed to see them, which is why they begin with a period.

Stop looking in the Temporary folder. There's nothing there that's meant for the user.

It's not illegal, and it absolutely is supposed to happen.

I'll explain it again.

WORD is creating these temporary files. It does this for every file you have open. Apple has nothing to do with the creation of these files. NOTHING.

Do you understand now?

I am having the same issue and unfortunately RobertBurnsOB's last response did not resolve my issue.

Since there seems to be some comprehension and trust related issues about the description of the problem in some comments above by responders, I will describe the issue again and what resolved my issue (based on ).

I am a senior software architect and have comprehensive understanding of common Office software architecture for Mac and PC and temporary files. Please refrain from re-iterating the "basics" on how the save, auto-save and auto-recovery temporary files work since it dilutes the core issue and possible resolution.

Issue Description

• Open a MS Word file with a specific name - i.e. "Example File.docx". It shows the full file name in the title bar of MS Word
• Make changes and then save by standard methods such as the save button or CMD+S.
• On the title-bar, the file name auto-changes from "Example File.docx" to ".~WRDXXXX" - "x" representing numbers.
• Close the file/Word window (prompts to same the file with the temporary name)
• Re-open "Example File.docx". No changes made are retained in this original file

This typically means, Word lost the connection to the original file, so it is using the temporary file instead as a recovery method.

Steps Tested with NO Resolution:

1. Updated Office / Word
2. Reset "Word > Preferences > File Locations" settings
3. Manually created a temporary folder on the local disk and point the AutoSaveLocation to that path

I have seen numerous postings of this same issue online for Mac-Office users. If anyone has successful steps for resolution, please post them here. It would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

I know you don't want to hear it, but I have to say it, anyway: Word creates these temporary files, and the user does not and should have to interact with them. It is by trying to change this location (why, oh why did you think you needed access to these files?) that you wreaked havoc.

If you can, undo that change.

This path:

/Volumes/T7/.Temporaryltems/folders.502/Temporaryltems/NSIRD_Word_cql22y

that appears in your first post is hidden (due to the dot in the folder name), and with good reason: the user should never go there, or even need to know that it exists.

RobertBurnsOB wrote:

My recollection is that this (or enough of it) happened with all Word files included .docx ones. Again, enough of this problem occurred 2 years ago before M$ made subscription necessary to functionality and probably 2-3 OS's prior.

Microsoft has always used that temp file naming convention back to I think when they first made the auto-recovery system. It is Word that is creating these files. It has nothing to do with Sequoia or any other version of macOS.

If Microsoft can’t make it work on a “remote” drive, don’t do that.

As I noted before, there is no need to know where they exist because you won’t find one if Auto-recovery doesn’t find it.

That’s how Word keeps backup copies of open files in case of a crash. I don’t know why you would ever see them unless Word crashed while editing a file and the auto-recovery failed for some reason.