There exists two conditions when you’re expected to receive the error mentioned in title of this post. Firstly, when you’re running out of space on your system hard drive and secondly, when a feature of Microsoft Office is causing this issue. In the latter case, where the problem is not actually related to memory space, but still you’re receiving the following error message which directly indicates the low disk space condition:

Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough available memory or disk space.

To make more memory available, close workbooks or programs you no longer need.

To free disk space, delete files you no longer need from the disk you are saving to.

Microsoft Excel Cannot Save Any More Documents Because There Is Not Enough Available Memory Or Disk Space

We faced this problem with a Excel spreadsheet downloaded from Google Docs. The spreadsheet size was less than 1MB and we have GBs of free space on the disk where this spreadsheet was saved. Also we’ve another spreadsheets saved on same location and created by Excel on local computer, which we can open without this error. So this clearly shows that this is not a memory related issue at all, plus the problem persists with spreadsheets downloaded from the Internet only.

Read : How to prevent Internet usage in Office 2013?

After a bit of research on this, we summarize that the Protected View feature of Office 2013 / Excel 2013 is root cause in generating the hiccup, so here is how to fix it:

FIX : Microsoft Excel Cannot Open Or Save Any More Documents Because There Is Not Enough Available Memory Or Disk Space

1. Open any new document in Excel, and click FILE -> Options.

Microsoft Excel Cannot Save Any More Documents Because There Is Not Enough Available Memory Or Disk Space

2. Next, in the left pane of Excel Options window shown below, select Trust Center. Now in corresponding right pane click on Trust Center Settings button:

Microsoft Excel Cannot Save Any More Documents Because There Is Not Enough Available Memory Or Disk Space

3. Moving on, in the Trust Center settings window, select Protected View from the left pane. Finally, uncheck/disable all options in right pane there, which are:

  • Enable Protected View for files originating from the Internet
  • Enable Protected View for files located in potentially unsafe locations
  • Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments

Microsoft Excel Cannot Save Any More Documents Because There Is Not Enough Available Memory Or Disk Space

Click OK, OK and then restart your system. After rebooting the machine, try to open the spreadsheet with which you’re getting error, you’ll find that this time it opens as expected.

That’s it! Checkout how to make files password protected in Office 2013.

85 Comments

Add your comment

  • Dan Grover

    This did not work for me. Ive been trying to find a fix for this for days now and nothing works. Even the boxes when selecting don’t match up sometimes. What is ther about 20 different versions of office and windows 10? I just dont get it.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Then you need to make sure, you’ve enough space on the harddisk :)

  • Junaid Atari

    Solved my problem. Thank you.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad we could help :)

  • Chip

    Thank you! This solved my problem with Excel 2016.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Happy to help!

  • Ganesh Bawane

    Thank you! solved my problem.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for feedback!

  • Simon

    Thanks man, you made my day ! What a piece of crap ! Especially the error message that had nothing to do with it whatsoever !

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Great to see it worked!

  • Terence

    Finally solved my issue! Thanks!!

  • Eldridge Scott

    worked for me thanks using Office 2013 on a surface Pro 3

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Cool :)

  • Akshay singh

    problem resolved……..thanks…

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad it helped! :)

  • gh iran

    tankyou for data
    very nice

  • efafofana

    Resolved, thanks for help

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Awesome 😊

  • techiebuddhas

    thanks man :)

  • Tom

    Many thanks, got me out of a hole.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Nice ☺️

  • sriram

    Thank you Kapil Arya

  • JPin MN

    I have 700 gb available – still getting this error. I have MS Excel for Mac 2016. There is no Trust Center or Protected View settings that I can find. Any advice?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ The settings should be there. By the way which edition of Office you’re using?

  • edalati

    thanks a lot you solve my problem

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Perfect 😎

  • Alice

    Thank you!!! I was going nuts, but your solution worked. Yay!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for your feedback!

  • Ajay

    problem showing same i have remove all protected view options but problem same in office 2016

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ No idea why it didn’t worked for you! Anyway, try repairing Office and see if it helps: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-repair-office-2013-offline

  • vel

    Thanks problem got solved,…..

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Great!

  • Mustakinur Islam

    Thanks for your help

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ :)

  • Nancy

    This was AWESOME! Totally fixed the problem I was having. Thank You!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Very nice!

  • Judith

    this worked for me:
    file–>options–> Trust center –> trust center settings –> File Block Settings –> activa la opciΓ³n Open selected file types in protected view and allow editing

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for adding this!

  • Jimmy

    Thank you !!!! It works perfect

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Excellent 😊

  • Andres Barreto

    Trust center settings did not work. This did work:

    youtube.com/watch?v=3ugck2ml_WE

    I had to change the registry file to point to C:\windows\temp

  • gidraj

    thkz bro..!you made it easy.

    Great JOb.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ 😎

  • nurhadi kamil

    Tks, guys

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Very cool!

  • shree

    Thanks a lot !! It worked :-

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Welcome!

  • chetan Ghodasara

    dear team,
    Thanks for the solution.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Nice!

  • Abdul Mohsin

    Thanks a Lot !
    Solved my long time issue…
    Appreciated!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Happy to hear that!

  • Taslimarif

    solved my issue thanks

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ πŸ‘

  • vijay kumar t r

    this works!!!!

  • sariful

    Thank you so much its really working..

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks a lot for your feedback!

  • Francois

    Thank You for posting this awesome fix! This fixed for our Office 2016 and 2013 users. I cannot seem to figure out how those settings were turned on. Might have been an update to the Office Suite? Thanks again.

  • ajay

    thanks problem has been resolve.

  • gerry

    This fix worked for me only on “existing Excel files”.
    I am still unable to open a “new Excel file” and still getting the same error message.
    Any suggestions?

    I am running Excel 2016 on Windows 10 64 bit

  • edo bastanta sinuhaji

    thanks 10x

  • vinu

    thanks !
    issue has been resolved

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Amazing!

  • pedramrasouli

    i dont trust at first, but solved the problem so thanks

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ That’s cool!

  • Abhishek

    Yippee issue resolved. Thanks Kapil

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad it helped 😊

  • KATIE CARTWRIGHT

    THANK YOU!!!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for your feedback, Katie!

  • Dron

    hello Kapil,

    Can you please help me withan issue were user is unable to sign in to the Office applications.?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Sure, what happens when you sign-in to Office? Do you see any error message/code?

  • BALDEV SINGH

    Thanks Kapil for Help

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ πŸ‘πŸ˜Š

  • Saurabh Lokhande

    Its Working. TYSM

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ You’re welcome, Saurabh!

  • Bob T

    I tried all of the above without success. Finally, I went to the Trust settings as explained earlier, and went to “Trusted Locations”. The file I couldn’t open was on the desktop, so I added the desktop to the list of trusted locations. Bingo! The file opened up with no problem.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for adding this, Bob 😊

  • Prabakaran Murugasamy

    Hi Thank you its working fine. Issue solved.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to hear it helped you 😎

  • Joyz

    I’m using MS Excel 2016 and Bob T’s instruction worked for mine. TY!!!

  • Miki

    Thanks alot .. solved ! πŸ˜„πŸ˜„

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help, Miki 😊

  • Prashant Upadhye

    Thank you. This setting worked for me :)

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ You’re most welcome, Prashant!

  • PKS

    Totally solved my problem. Using Office 2016 on Win 10. Thank you.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help PKS 😊

  • Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *