Microsoft Warns of Word Bug That Can Delete Documents

Microsoft has issued a warning to users about a bug in Word for Windows that may cause some documents to be deleted instead of saved. This issue affects only users of Word for Microsoft 365, version 2409 (build 18025.20104).

The problem was confirmed by Microsoft after a surge of user complaints that Word was deleting certain files. According to the company, the bug occurs only if a user closes Word after editing a document and is prompted to save changes. If the user saves changes in this way, the file may disappear.

Demonstration of the issue. Photo: Neowin

Additionally, on affected systems, locally saved files may be deleted if their names contain the “#” symbol and the file extension is written in uppercase letters (for example, .DOCX or .RTF).

What to Do If You’re Affected

• If a file is deleted, Microsoft recommends checking the Recycle Bin, as the deleted file may be recoverable from there.
• To avoid the bug, users are advised to manually save documents before closing Word, as the issue does not occur in this case.
• Users can also enable the setting “Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts” in File → Options → Save.
• As another workaround, affected users can temporarily roll back to a previous version of Word until Microsoft releases a fix.

Microsoft developers are currently investigating the issue and working on a patch. In the meantime, following the above recommendations can help prevent data loss.