Error saving spreadsheet: document cannot be saved

I have the exact same error with an Excel 2011 for Mac spreadsheet that I created on this computer and have only edited on this computer. All of a sudden it started giving me the "This document could not be saved" error, with no further info. Resaving under a new name did not work, but resaving it as an Excel 97-2004 Workbook (.xls) does. I tried saving it back to an Excel 2001 .xlsx doc, but the same error started again. I am not doing anything terribly complex with this sheet, nor is it too massive. Help?

Thanks for that, worked a treat for me too - whew ;-}

😁

This is a different Barry adding what worked for me in case someone else encounters the "could not save" error and finds this thread.

The error, in my experience with it, probably is due to a file corruption rather than a permissions problem. My problem .numbers file had the correct permissions, likewise its enclosing folder. Disk Utility repair permissions did not modify the problem file nor its enclosing folder hierarchy.

After several unsuccessful attempts to save the problem file (due to the error), Numbers finally quit unexpectedly.

After reopening and modifying the problem file's contents, it then saved (and auto-saved) properly.

Lucky Coyote's strategy of copying the problem file's contents to a new file and saving to a new filename probably is a user's best shot at recovering work done in the problem file after the last successful save.

Hope this helps!

I also got this weird "cannot save" error - without any explanation. Saving as xls instead of xlsx did the trick. When I re-opened, it asked about links, and I realized that my problem came from copying a sheet from another file. After breaking the link I had no more problems.