Problem With Saving a Password Protected File in MS Word 2007

[cklover]

I have a question about setting a password on MS Word files. My problem is on my laptop. It is an HP G50 using Vista as the operating system.

I have been using Word 2007 for several months now. I save a lot of my files on a memory stick and I password protect them. I have had no problems with this until this evening. I wanted to save a file with a password and I could not. I keep getting the message “cannot complete the save due to file permission error.”

I only get this when message when I try to save a file to my memory stick in Word 2007 format. If I save a file in Word 97 – 2003 format on my memory stick there is no problem. I can save a file on my hard drive in Word 2007 format with a password and there is no problem. I can also save it on my hard drive in Word 97 – 2003 format without a problem.

I thought the problem might be with the memory stick so I tried two more and still had the same problem. I’ve tried looking through various settings within Word and I can’t find anything that has changed.

I shut down and rebooted, but that did not solve the problem. I had 13 updates to Vista yesterday so might that be the problem? Or is it with Word and are there any particular settings that I should be looking for?

Thankyou for any help that you can provide.

PS I also have Powerpoint and Excel 2007 and I have no problem saving a password protected file to my memory stick in 2007 format.

 

[trinket]

You're not running Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, are you? There is an issue with this error related to Kaspersky, and I'm seeing a lot of people describe experiencing it when they use that software.

Also, and if not, Word 2007 files end in ".docx" by the default instead of just the ".doc". If your stick is FAT32 (and not NTFS) it may be having an issue related to truncating the filename. You don't have another version of the file with just ".doc" in the same folder, do you? Try saving the ".docx" file to your local hard drive somewhere, renaming it to ".doc", then copying the renamed file to the stick.

Also, are their spaces in the filename? Try something short, like "test.docx" (or the renamed "test.doc" and copied over).

 

[cklover]

I'm using Norton not Kaspersky.

Everything was working fine until last night. I could save password protected files to my memory stick until then. I can open password protected files from my stick and I can copy a password protected file from my hard drive to my stick, without renaming it, and open it from the stick. I've also tried short file names and it still doesn't work.

 

[trinket]

Well, as you mentioned, there were a number of patches released this past week, including for Vista. Maybe one of them reset or tightened up a setting (security or otherwise). Here was a similar problem.

You don't mention your specific password technique - are you just talking about Word's own internal "password" setting, or are you using something like TrueCrypt? I'm trying to narrow down where the issue is occurring. I don't think I saw you mention if you've tried saving a non-passworded file from Word 2007 to your USB drive to see if that works or not. Although from an OS perspective it's just a file write, so if Word is applying a password to the file vs. not it shouldn't make a difference with your .DOCX, but you never know - try it without and see if your results differ so you can trace back under what circumstances it fails.

Also see here, if the last two posts in particular help you out.

A thread like this might help you out too - see the second post. It might be a permission thing where the temp file can't be renamed and original deleted (which is part of the save process). Again, as you say, there were both updates to Vista itself as well as Office this past week so perhaps something got reset or defaulted back to a basic security level.

 

[cklover]

Thanks for your help trinket. I'll check out some of these and see if I can find the solution.

I am using Word's password function as I don't need strong security on my files. I can save a non-password protected file to my memory stick, .docx format, with no problem at all. The problem seems to be in file permissions with a password with .docx and only when I save to a memory stick.

 

[Corny]

what happens if you save it on your harddrive and try to move it to the memory stick?

 

[trinket]

He seems to be okay on that part of it, Corny:

...I can open password protected files from my stick and I can copy a password protected file from my hard drive to my stick, without renaming it, and open it from the stick.

I can't quite figure out the pattern based on the symptoms. I did see a reference during Google searching that some users are having trouble saving password-protected Word 2007 .DOCX files when using RDC/Citrix connections, and normal non-passworded files are fine, so it's almost like password protection requires invoking something extra that requires additional privileges.

 

[Corny]

It has to be something like that then. But this would be weird, too - this has to work on FAT drives, too. FAT is just still too dominant.
I wonder if maybe some Antivirus is causing trouble here? The first link you posted shows that there is a problem with scanning a file while it is being created. I know of a few worms that also spread over USB sticks, maybe the programs became overzealus.

 

[cklover]

I am still having the same problem. I have found though that I can save a file to my memory stick in .docx format. I can go click on the Microsoft Office button (top left corner), click on Prepare, click on Encrypt document, type in my password and the file will save with the password. I then close the file and it requires a password to open it.

The problem then would seem to have something to do with permissions in the initial save if I try to password protect the file at that time. It's strange though that I can password protect the file after I have saved it.

 

[Corny]

So did you try disabling Norton and saving the encrypted file?

 

[cklover]

So did you try disabling Norton and saving the encrypted file?

I disabled Norton and it didn't help. I didnt' really expect there to be a change as I can password protect an excel or powerpoint file with no problem.