New cell entry causes Excel to be unable to save and states an unknown filename

In my well-used Excel 2013, if I try to insert a new column (between existing ones) and then put a title in (in Row 9, but it happens even when I've put in new rows above it), then attempt to save the spreadsheet, Excel comes up with the message:

.. cannot acceess the file '....\15326C00'. There are several possible reasons:
The file name of path does not exist
The file is being used by another program
The workbook you are trying to save has the same name as a currently open workbook

Excel is then usually frozen and I need to close it (sometimes with Task Manager)

This happens nearly always when I attempt to generate a new column and txt title it. I can occasionally get round it be copying another column into the new one and then changing that to the new required one - but not always.

I do not have any filename 15326C00 - I do not know where Excel gets this from. There is a similar, but different, filename each time. But sometime later, this folder does get files with similar, if not exact, names - these cannot be read by Excel (or anything else to my knowledge).

The file path mentioned does exist - I use it all the time - but not that file.
There is no such file anywhere on my PC - used by another program or Excel

If I attempt to close Excel, it offers me a chance to save the file, it then repeats the above. I cannot save to a new or old filename.

I've had this problem for some time, including with Excel 2010 and before and after a fresh re-install of both Excel, MS Office, and my whole PC. I have even just tried again as I write this, and this time the filename is 2AD88C00

Any ideas please?

Thanks for getting back to me.

I'm afraid it would be very difficult to provide a copy of my spreadsheet in an anonymised form. There are 19 sheets in it, and it is 21MB in size.

There is also the problem that if I strip off all the 18 associated spreadsheets - which are linked (& I realise that may be the source of the problem) - then the problem may go away; but I'd still have the problem on the whole spreadsheet.

Is it any use just doing Snip of the two states? I'll attach a before and after, but I'm not sure that'll be much use.

The problem cell is GQ9, in which I stripped off just one letter from "Berri" (I really only want "Cherry" in there). And then tried to save the same spreadsheet that I'd just freshly loaded. And it froze.

20150104_PicOfError.PNG20150104_PicOfNormal.PNG

Thanks for those thoughts.

My file is not on a network.

If it would help, I am happy to upload my whole file (21MB) if that would help and if the site can handle a file that big. I have no issues with privacy if the Forum doesn't - I am self-tracking my lifestyle and health metrics with a view to improvement (I have three co-morbidities).

Many thanks for all your suggestions and what to do - I rarely use my OneDrive, but that seems the best place to link to: http://1drv.ms/14dr0Ce

The problem is on the first sheet, named Raw Data.

Whilst the particular problem I have just now is with trying to tidy up the name in GQ9 (which I want to be just Cherries), this problem happens whenever I attempt to add a new column and then add the title - you'll see that GR9 is blank, 'cos I gave up trying to title it, and it's temporary anyway.

Zipping my file didn't reduce it much, but I've done that.

Thanks

Oops; apologies. Password now removed.

Once again, my apologies. Perhaps this longer link will work: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...int=file%2czip

As I don't use OneDrive often, I'm not too sure how it works. Previously when I've used it, my friends given a link seemed able to access it without any trouble, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong now.

Thanks for taking the trouble to look at my problem and attempting to find a solution.

Starting again is not really an option.

Most/all of the comments are there for very good reasons, which would be too lengthy to go in to. Often repetitive ones effectively allow me to track back to allow me to know what I intended to do and/or confirm that I am still doing something. To pick and choose which to do and/or delete would be too time consuming.

I realise there are also repetitive formulas, but again the same explanation applies as that above. Plus I use the same formulas for different purposes in different sheets.

However, all that said, I do tidy up somewhat at times (believe it or not; but this spreadsheet is the result of 7+ years of daily use).

But thanks again for your input. I just hoped my problem was something simple that another's eyes would quickly see I'd done one specific thing wrong and so could easily be corrected.

Oh; yes I did misunderstand.

The different conditional formatting I use is, again, the result of many different filterings - sometimes for cells with non-0 items; sometimes all those items which are increasing/decreasing; etc.

But there's no conditional formatting on the problem cells, so that's not a source of my problem.

It is odd that you cannot replicate my problem. I'm still having the same problem when I remove the 'Berr' from 'Berr Cherries'.

I must confess, I cannot see any connection between conditional formatting and my problem tho'

I'll just have to live with it.

I may; but darn me, just as I was playing around with the aforementioned peculiarities, I found I could save the spreadsheet with the new column titles (albeit after a couple of false 'can't save, etc).

However, I'll give your idea a try next time I hit this problem (which, on past form, will be sooner rather than later).

Thanks

We may be talking at cross purposes here. Much of my spreadsheet colouring is just Fill from Format Cells.

I have just tried the option of removing all the Conditional Formatting from the entire sheet, and the problem remains; so that's not it I'm afraid.

I think my laptop is reasonably good:
W8.1 64 bit
16GB
i7-4800MQ 2.7GHz 6MB
C: 58GB free; E: (MY Docs) 54.8GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M - 2GB DDR5
Updates: they're automatic, both W8.1 & MS products and OK at 08:00 today

Thanks for that tip. I do use Ccleaner now and again, but not recently. So I've just run it. As my spreadsheet seems to be working OK at the moment, it is difficult to say whether that's made any difference. I'll report back, maybe in a day or so (if not before) and report if things are still OK. Maybe that has fixed it.

I'll hold off trying the safe mode exploration for now; I'm not sure I'd know what to do if I did find that cured my problem anyway.

Many thanks for all you help.