{"id":10496,"date":"2019-07-27T09:18:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T03:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=10496"},"modified":"2023-08-08T20:03:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T14:33:13","slug":"how-to-change-the-office-365-2016-default-save-folder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-change-the-office-365-2016-default-save-folder\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Change the Office 365\/2016 Default Save Folder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Office programs save your files to OneDrive by default since the February 2019 Office 365 update. Microsoft suggests that the users store files in OneDrive to protect against device loss or damage and to provide anywhere access to files.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/office-default-save-folder-1.png\" alt=\"office documents default save location\" width=\"461\" height=\"321\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Quoting Microsoft:<\/p>\n<p><em>Today we are announcing a new capability that makes it easier for you to create and save your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document directly to the cloud. When you go to save an Office 365 document using Ctrl+S (Windows), Cmd+S (macOS), or the Save button, the new dialog box will default to OneDrive or SharePoint Online. And if you forget to save a new document before exiting, you will also see this updated save experience.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In case you want to change the default save location in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., there are multiple ways to do it.\u00a0Instructions below apply to Office 2016 standard installation as well as Office 365.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Change the Office 365 or Office 2016 Default Save Folder from OneDrive<\/h2>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t prefer saving your Office documents to the OneDrive cloud, you can use the <kbd>F12<\/kbd> button on your keyboard (instead of using <kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>S<\/kbd> or clicking the Save button) to launch the classic Save As dialog box where you can choose the destination folder path to save the file. The classic Save As dialog box defaults to the <strong>Documents<\/strong> library by default.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/office-default-save-folder-4.png\" alt=\"office documents default save location\" width=\"701\" height=\"365\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What if I use the Save button in the toolbar?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To change the default save folder when you press <kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>S<\/kbd>, <kbd>F12,<\/kbd> or when clicking the Save button in the Office toolbar, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<p>Launch an Office app such as Word. It opens a blank document by default. Now, press the <kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd> + <kbd>S<\/kbd> button to bring the Save dialog that looks like below.\u00a0Click on the chevron to show the list of more locations.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10498\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/office-default-save-folder-2.png\" alt=\"office documents default save location\" width=\"700\" height=\"507\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Right-click on Documents and click <strong>Set As Default Location<\/strong>. The choice will be saved to the registry.<\/p>\n<p>In case you want to choose a different folder path not available in the above listing, then click on the File menu, and select Options.<\/p>\n<p>In the Word Options, select the Save tab. Enable <strong>Save to Computer by default<\/strong>, and set the default local file location.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/office-default-save-folder-3.png\" alt=\"office documents default save location\" width=\"700\" height=\"368\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The above applies to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2016.<\/p>\n<h3>Registry settings<\/h3>\n<p>The following are the registry locations where the default file save path is stored:<\/p>\n<pre><strong>Word 2016\/365:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nKey Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Word\\Options\r\nValue Name: DOC-PATH\r\nType: REG_EXPAND_SZ\r\nData: &lt;Path&gt;\r\n\r\n<strong>Excel 2016\/365:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nKey Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Excel\\Options\r\nValue Name: DefaultPath\r\nType: REG_EXPAND_SZ\r\nData: &lt;Path&gt;\r\n\r\n<strong>PowerPoint 2016\/365:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nKey Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\PowerPoint\\RecentFolderList\r\nValue Name: Default\r\nType: REG_EXPAND_SZ\r\nData: &lt;Path&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>Note that if the registry value <code>PreferCloudSaveLocations<\/code> is set to <code>1<\/code>, then the default save location is ignored and OneDrive becomes the default save location. The <code>PreferCloudSaveLocations<\/code> value exists in the following registry key:<\/p>\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Common\\General<\/pre>\n<p>Note that the above registry setting <code>PreferCloudSaveLocations<\/code> is common for all the Office apps. That means, if you change the default to OneDrive in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Office apps use that setting.<\/p>\n<h4>Change the default folder paths via Command-line<\/h4>\n<p>To set the <strong>Documents<\/strong> folder as the default save path in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2016, here are the commands to use:<\/p>\n<pre>reg add \"HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Word\\Options\" \/v \"DOC-PATH\" \/t REG_EXPAND_SZ \/d \"%userprofile%\\Documents\" \/f\r\nreg add \"HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Excel\\Options\" \/v \"DefaultPath\" \/t REG_EXPAND_SZ \/d \"%userprofile%\\Documents\" \/f\r\nreg add \"HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\PowerPoint\" \/v \"RecentFolderList\" \/t REG_EXPAND_SZ \/d \"%userprofile%\\Documents\" \/f\r\nreg add \"HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Common\\General\" \/v \"PreferCloudSaveLocations\"\u00a0 \/t REG_DWORD \/d 0 \/f<\/pre>\n<p>To revert back to OneDrive cloud as the default save location for all Office 2016\/265 apps, run this command-line:<\/p>\n<pre>reg add \"HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Office\\16.0\\Common\\General\" \/v \"PreferCloudSaveLocations\"\u00a0 \/t REG_DWORD \/d 1 \/f<\/pre>\n<p>If you need to switch between the two settings &#8212; i.e., Save to OneDrive by default when you&#8217;re at the office, and save to local documents folder when at home, you can create two Windows batch files (.bat) to toggle between the two settings quickly!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Office programs save your files to OneDrive by default since the February 2019 Office 365 update. Microsoft suggests that the users store files in OneDrive to protect against device loss or damage and to provide anywhere access to files. Quoting Microsoft: Today we are announcing a new capability that makes it easier for you to &#8230; <a title=\"How to Change the Office 365\/2016 Default Save Folder\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-change-the-office-365-2016-default-save-folder\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to Change the Office 365\/2016 Default Save Folder\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-10496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-office","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10006,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/word-excel-missing-desktop-new-menu-office\/","url_meta":{"origin":10496,"position":0},"title":"Desktop New Menu Missing Word Document or Excel Worksheet","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The New menu that appears when you right-click on your Desktop has options or templates to create documents of a particular type quickly. For example, after you install Microsoft Office, the New menu shows Microsoft Word Document, Microsoft Excel Worksheet, Microsoft Access Database, and entries for other Office products installed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Office&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Office","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/office\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Microsoft Office featured image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ms-office-featured.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ms-office-featured.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ms-office-featured.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ms-office-featured.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1595,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/error-folder-cant-be-moved-here-documents-pictures-onedrive\/","url_meta":{"origin":10496,"position":1},"title":"Error &#8220;The folder can&#8217;t be moved here&#8221; Moving Documents\/Pictures, Caused by OneDrive","author":"Ramesh","date":"February 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've OneDrive options set to save documents and pictures in OneDrive, instead of This PC, the shell folders Documents, Pictures, and its three sub-folders Saved Pictures, Camera Roll, and Screenshots, are redirected to the OneDrive folder. With this setting on, the user can't use the Location tab in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"onedrive manage folders","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/onedrive-manage-backup.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/onedrive-manage-backup.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/onedrive-manage-backup.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/onedrive-manage-backup.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9771,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/word-could-not-create-the-work-file-temp-folder-outlook\/","url_meta":{"origin":10496,"position":2},"title":"Fix: Word could not create the work file when Opening Word Documents","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When you try to open or save a document in Microsoft Word, you receive the following error message: Word could not create the work file. 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The error message can also appear when you preview a .docx or .xlsx file using the File Explorer preview pane.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"office 365 check bitness and version","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/office-365-bitness-check.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/office-365-bitness-check.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/office-365-bitness-check.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25632,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/custom-install-uninstall-office-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":10496,"position":3},"title":"How to Custom Install\/Uninstall Individual Office 2016\/2019\/365 Apps","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The traditional MSI (Microsoft Installer) based installation allowed you to install or uninstall individual office products (e.g., Word, Excel, or PowerPoint). 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