How to Enable or Disable Background Saves in Word in 3 Simple Formats

When you apply a change to your Word files, Microsoft saves those changes automatically. This feature helps in restoring or reverting a change in the document in case of any sudden crash. However, if for some reason you do not want this feature, then you can disable Background Saves in Microsoft Word. We will show you how to do that in three different ways.

Also, it is possible to enable Background Saves in Word after turning it off initially. This guide will show you how to enable or disable Background Saves in Word in quick and easy-to-follow steps.

ALSO SEE: HOW TO FIX SAVED WORD DOCUMENTS OPENING UP BLANK

How to enable or disable Background Saves in Word

Turn on or off Background Saves in Word with Word Options panel

You can easily disable Background Saves in Word using the Word Options panel, see the steps below:

1. Launch the Microsoft Word app.
2. Click on File, and then Options.
3. Navigate to the Advanced tab.
4. Move over to the Save area.
5. Check the Allow Background box.
6. Click on OK and you are done.

To turn off Background Saves in Word using the Word Options panel, follow the steps above from 1 – 4, then on 5, uncheck the Allow Background box, and click on OK to save.

How to Enable or Disable Background Saves in Word with Group Policy

Enabling or disabling Background Saves using Group Policy is a breeze. We show you how.

1. Punch your Win+R keys to launch the Run dialog.
2. Type gpedit.msc and click on OK.
3. Go to Microsoft Word 2016 > Word Options > Advanced.
4. Double-click Allow Background Saves.
5. Click on Enable.
6. Click on OK to save, and restart the app.

To turn off the Background Saves in Word with Group Policy, likewise follow the 1 – 4 steps above, and on 5, touch on the Disable icon. Then click OK to save, and restart the app.

Turn On or Off Background Saves in Microsoft Word using Registry

You can either disable or enable Background Saves in Word using Registry. See how below.

1. To open Registry, search for regedit in the Taskbar, and click on the result you get.
2. Click on the Yes button.
3. Navigate throughHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0
4. Right-click on 16.0 > New > Key.
5. Set the new key name as word.
6. Right-click on word > New > Key and set the name as options.
7. Right-click on options and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
8. Set the name of the newly created REG_DWORD as backgroundsave.
9. The backgroundsave REG_DWORD default value data is 0. You need to change it to 1 to enable background saves.
10. Click on OK and restart your computer to apply the change.

To disable background saves using Registry, follow the steps above from 1-8, and on 9, change the Value data back to 0. Finally, click on OK and restart your computer.