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Question
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naming or permissions error on the destination volume

Allen Smith_4034 asked on
We have students using Microsoft Office 2011 (specifically Word in this case), when they save a file to the Windows file server the initial save is okay.  On any subsequent attempt to save they get the message - "Word cannot save this document due to a naming or permissions error on the destination volume".  While watching the students document folder I see the original file name change to Word Work File L_5.tmp (number changes).  The only solution at the present is to have them do a save-as, add and increment a number on the end of the file name.  Found one hopeful solution that spoke of .TemporaryItems folder, (see below), but this dealt with Office 2004.  I tried it nevertheless but to no avail.  Any ideas?

The fault occurs unless a folder called .TemporaryItems has been created at the root level of any mounted volume containing the saved file; so if the user's home directory is contained in an AFP share called Homes, then there has to be a directory called .TemporaryItems in theHomes folder on the server. If the home directory is on another local volume called UserData, there has to be a directory called.TemporaryItems at the root of that volume. 

 

Since .TemporaryItems is a dot file, it will not be visible in the Finder. When the application is able to create this .TemporaryItems directory, it is world writable and sticky. For improved security, as long as all users are in a common group like "staff," then the folder can be restricted to writing by the group instead.

$ cd /path/to/volume/or/sharepoint

$ sudo mkdir .TemporaryItems

$ chgrp staff .TemporaryItems

$ chmod 1770 .TemporaryItems

This seems to fix the problem, not just for Word, but PowerPoint and the other Office apps.

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Cody C. replied on
  1. What version of Office for Mac 2011 are you running? (PowerPoint > About PowerPoint)
  2. What version of OS X are you running? ( About This Mac
Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, we should tell them to plan to be surprised.
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Allen Smith_4034 replied on

Office version is 14.1.0 (110310)  

OS X version is 10.6.8

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DANDAVR replied on
I have the same problem: I open a document that's in a shared folder on a Mac server.  When I make some changes and then attempt to save, I get the "naming or permission error" message; the document is given a temporary name in Word and the original file is deleted.  But then I can use Save As... to save it again, under its original name.

I tried the exact solution described here (and seen elsewhere on the web), and it didn't work.  Also, it seems beyond comprehension that it should be necessary to muck around with the permissions of invisible folders just to make MS Word work on a network share.

I'm using Word for Mac 14.1.1 on Mac OS 10.6.8.  The shared folder holding my documents is on a server running Mac OS 10.7.1.
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John McGhie replied on

OK you guys...  A quick refresher on how Word file saves work may be in order here.

Word does not "save" files, it always "writes" them.  It's a sequence of four file operations that occur in quick succession:  Write,Re-name, Re-name, Delete.

The logged-in user must have permissions sufficient to read/write/re-name/delete to and from the folder storing the document, and to and from the .TemporaryItems folder in the root of that share.

Word first writes the file to disk under a temporary name, and tests for completion.  It then re-names the original to "Backup", re-names the new to Original, then deletes the backup.

If either file server locking or user permissions get in the way, a second save (re-save) of the file will fail.

This issue often occurs because the workstation user is not logged in to the SERVER.  Under those circumstances, the workstation user's Unix ID will be used as their user name.  If you have not been around and set each user's Unix ID to a unique value, they will all have a UUID of "501".  The server will then prevent them doing anything because the file is currently locked by "a different user".

Hope this makes sense: sorry, I am not a Unix Admin, so I can't give you detailed help.

We have asked Microsoft development engineers to review this web page, but so far we have not gotten anything back from them:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/CantSaveToServer.html

Hope this helps
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer. http://www.john.mcghie.name
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Allen Smith_4034 replied on

Thank you for the reply it helps to know the process, but still cannot get this to work.  Students have full permission to their own folder, the folder structure is  -  Vdisk -> Students -> HS -> under HS there are 4 folders 12th, 11th,10th, 9th.  There is also a MS folder with 8th, 7th, and 6th.  I putt the .temporaryitems folder on Vdisk, I felt this was root, but still does not work.  Is my folder structure to convoluted?  There is no problem if users log onto the windows side and use Windows Office....What am I doing wrong?
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DANDAVR replied on

John, thanks for good information.  Doesn't solve the problem, but it does illuminate.
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Robert Marks 21 replied on

I am getting the "Word cannot save this document due to a naming or permissions error on the destination volume" error not only with AutoRecovery files, but now with any file that I try to save over an existing file. I can create and save a file, say as "testfile", but if I then edit the file and try to replace the existing file with the new version using "Save" I get the error, and the name of the file changes to a temp file, e.g. "Word Work File L_1527511578.tmp". 

I have tried all of the suggestions in this posting. Repairing permissions using Disk Utility may fix it, but after my MacBook Pro (running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, with FileVault encryption of my home directory) is connected via AFP to a Mac running Tiger, it starts up again on the MacBook Pro - and PERSISTS after the machine running Tiger is disconnected.

I am required to keep patient-related documents on an encrypted volume by my employer for privacy and security reasons, so I cannot save the documents outside of the FileVault user directory (or put the AutoRecovery directory in shared folder).

Any other suggestions to try?

Thanks in advance for your help.
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snapdragon69 replied on

Reply In reply to deleted message

You've used Disk Utility to repair DISK permissions. Try repairing USER permissions

http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/



The 
$ cd /path/to/volume/or/sharepoint

$ sudo mkdir .TemporaryItems

$ chgrp staff .TemporaryItems

$ chmod 1770 .TemporaryItems


solution is great, but a terrible security risk as any user can see other's Office tmp files which can be opened and viewed. I just tested it.


Go to the Finder's "Go" Menu

Choose "Go to folder..."

Drag and drop your Home Folder icon in the text box, delete your username off the end of the string and replace it with ".TemporaryItems"

and you can see everyone's tmp files!


 /Network/Servers/server/Volumes/RAID/Staff1/.TemporaryItems

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