"Access Denied" error message when you save a workbook to a UNC share in Excel 2010 or Excel 2013

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Symptoms

Assume that there is a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share for which you do not have Delete permissions. When you try to save an Excel workbook to the UNC share in Microsoft Excel 2010 or Microsoft Excel 2013, you receive the following error message:

Access Denied. Contact your administrator

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Cause

This issue occurs because Excel tries to delete the temporary copy of the original workbook on the UNC share.

When a user saves an Excel workbook to a UNC share location, Excel creates a temporary copy of the workbook. In the final step of the saving process, Excel deletes the original Excel workbook and replaces it with a temporary copy. If Delete permissions are not granted to the user, Excel cannot complete the saving process, and the user receives the error message that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section.

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Resolution

To resolve this issue for Excel 2013 on a computer that has Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 installed or for Excel 2010, apply the following appropriate update and follow the steps in the "Registry key information" section:

2553034 Description of the Office 2010 hotfix package (Mso-x-none.msp): August 30, 2011

2889848 September 9, 2014 update for Office 2013 (KB2889848)

Note To resolve this issue for Excel 2013 on a computer that has Windows 7 installed, you only have to follow the steps in the "Registry key information section.

Registry key information

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

You have to follow these steps to enable the hotfix:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate and then select one of the following registry subkeys:

For Excel 2010
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\General
For Excel 2013
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Type EnableSimpleCopyForSaveToUNC, and then press ENTER.
In the Details pane, right-click EnableSimpleCopyForSaveToUNC, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor.

Limitations

The resolution has the following limitations:

If you do not have Delete permissions for the UNC share, the temporary copy of the original workbook is not deleted after you save the workbook.

Notes
- To delete the temporary copy of the original workbook, use a script from an account that has Delete permissions. These files follow the <eight letters or digits>.tmp naming scheme and can be safely deleted at any time without affecting Office 2010 and Office 2013.
- You do not have this limitation if you have Delete permissions for the UNC share.
If you are disconnected from the network when you try to save the workbook, the workbook may be corrupted.

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