how to use autosave in excel 2016

[davidmyers]

Hi,
Can anyone tell me how to use autosave with excel 2016. I have an excel file on my pc, and would like to autosave any changes back to the local file system where it lives (not the cloud, or onedrive) every 3 minutes.
I need to distribute this file to several people, can I set it up so it will autosave on their pc's?

Any help appreciated.
David

 

[DRSteele]

I reviewed the Help information on Microsoft's website. It was all there, everything one needs to know about Autosave. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-is-AutoSave-6d6bd723-ebfd-4e40-b5f6-ae6e8088f7a5

 

[davidmyers]

Hi DRSteele, Thanks for this, what bothers me is where they say:

"[FONT=&quot]AutoSave is enabled when a file is stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online[/FONT]"

So how do I enable AutoSave to save to the local file system on my laptop?

 

[DRSteele]

Obviously you cannot "...enable AutoSave to save to the local file system."

Someone (aside from me) might be able to write a bit of VBA code to save the file every 3 minutes, but Autosave is clearly reserved for cloud-computing.
​

 

[davidmyers]

Hi,
Don't understand why

Obviously you cannot

autosave to a local file system. Excel is working on my pc, so want to autosave to my pc - not the cloud - why do I need an internet connection?.

 

[DRSteele]

Look, Autosave only works with files stored on the cloud.

 

[davidmyers]

thanks for the explanation

 

[DRSteele]

You're welcome.

It strikes me too that Autosave might be a nice feature for local file systems. If you feel strongly enough, make your opinion known; go here, sign up for an account, and write a suggestion.
https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/...op-application/filters/top?category_id=143394

An Autosave discussion has already been initiated about a different topic that is annoying many users - you can vote for the idea and write an opinion, if you like.
https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/...ion/suggestions/31049020-options-for-autosave
Even Bill Jelen is infuriated by Autosave, as he demonstrates in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwwCI7sbBPA&t=1s

 

[davidmyers]

Thanks for letting me know your views on this, thought I was missing something.
I guess it's a policy decision to tie people to onedrive.
I'll look into your earlier suggestion to add some code to Autosave.

David

 

[davidmyers]

Here's a couple of links that may be of interest to people that want to autosave to local disk.

https://powerspreadsheets.com/vba-save-workbook/

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22772898/how-to-have-vba-execute-every-10-minutes