Your changes could not be saved to... Temporary document named... Excel on 10.4.7 with SMB

[Schwie]

Folks,

I've searched the web high and low, yet I'm not finding a solution for
my setup to the following issue (why can't people respond back to a
discussion group when they've found a fix? I vow I'll respond when the
issue goes away.).

Several of us in the office have been connecting to a Windows 2000
Server for access to Excel files over SMB. This setup has worked fine
for 5 years, until last week. After updating to the latest Microsoft
Office updates and when using Excel, we get the following error message
when trying to save any Excel file that does not have password
protection:

"Your changes could not be saved to 'xxxxx.xls', but were saved to a
temporary document named 'BC6ED110'. Close the existing document, then
open the temporary document and save it under a new name."

Googling the issue reveals this hotfix from Microsoft, but it appears
to apply if you have "Services for Macintosh" enabled on a Win2000,
which we DO NOT have enabled on the volume we are accessing:

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833613/>

Help! Is there something else we can try. Unfortunately, our
productivity is getting blown out of the water right now.

One side note... Using NeoOfficeJ and its spreadsheet application, I
DO NOT see this issue occur. This would appear to indicate that we
have full read/write access to the SMB server and Excel must somehow be
the source of the issue.

Brad

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi Schwie,

The symptoms seem to point to two possible causes. One is that
permissions are not correct on the server.

The other (I think more likely) is that Apple's less than complete
implementation of the SMB standard could be causing the problem.

There's an easy way to find out. Head to http://www.thursyby.com? and
download a copy of DAVE. You get fully functional a free trial period.

Install DAVE on one of the problematic machines. If the Excel problem
goes away then you know that MacOS is at fault. Solution: Buy copies of
DAVE for the problem computers.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[FRANCISCO PEREZ-LANDAETA]

JIM

Hi Schwie,

The symptoms seem to point to two possible causes. One is that
permissions are not correct on the server.

The other (I think more likely) is that Apple's less than complete
implementation of the SMB standard could be causing the problem.

There's an easy way to find out. Head to http://www.thursyby.com? and
download a copy of DAVE. You get fully functional a free trial period.

Install DAVE on one of the problematic machines. If the Excel problem
goes away then you know that MacOS is at fault. Solution: Buy copies of
DAVE for the problem computers.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[Schwie]

Jim,

I appreciate receiving a response to my post, but it appears you didn't
read my entire original post, as the questions you raised in your
response could easily have been answered by yourself had you taken the
time to read the complete inquiry. Nevertheless, I'll humor you with a
response.

The issue I experienced in my original post cannot be a result of
permissions on the SMB share, because I wouldn't have been able to open
AND save a file to the same SMB share using NeoOffice (see the end of
my original post).

Your claim of Apple's half-baked SMB implementation is also refuted by
the same point from above -- Why would NeoOffice (the free
OpenOffice.org alternative) be able to accomplish the same task without
a hiccup running on Mac OS X? I hardly doubt the OpenOffice group
re-packaged an entire SMB implementation within NeoOffice to
potentially circumvent this issue.

To me, it appears to be something awry in Office 2004 or else a
corrupted preference file created by Office.

Brad

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi Schwie,

As you point out, there are several different applications involved.
Each one behaves differently, as you say.

Sorry I couldn't convince you to try DAVE. It might solve your problem.
Maybe it won't but I think the likelihood is pretty good. You won't find
out unless you try it.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP