Microsoft Office 2013 introduced tight integration with SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service. By default, Office 2013 apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint prompt you to save new documents to SkyDrive when you click “Save”.
While cloud integration offers benefits like easy collaboration and universal access to documents, many users find the constant SkyDrive save prompts annoying and unnecessary. Fortunately, you can easily disable SkyDrive saving in Office 2013 with a few simple tweaks.
In this article, I’ll explain step-by-step how to disable the Save to SkyDrive prompts in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office 2013 applications. You’ll learn:
- Why the Office 2013-SkyDrive integration may frustrate some users
- How to disable SkyDrive saving in Office 2013 apps
- Tweaks to speed up saving documents and remove unneeded cloud storage options
After following the steps here, you’ll be able to save Office 2013 documents wherever you want on your local hard drives, without constant prompts to use SkyDrive.
Why Disable Save to SkyDrive in Office 2013?
Before jumping into the how-to, let’s look at some reasons you may want to disable SkyDrive integration in Office 2013:
Finds SkyDrive Saving Annoying
Many users don’t need or want cloud document storage and collaboration. Having Office 2013 ask you to sign into SkyDrive and use it every time you save a document becomes frustrating fast. Disabling it removes the unnecessary prompts.
Doesn’t Use Cloud Storage
If you never access documents from multiple devices and prefer to store everything locally on your computer’s hard drive or a networked file server, the SkyDrive integration is useless clutter.
Security/Compliance Concerns
Some businesses don’t allow storing files in the cloud over security and compliance concerns. For them, mandatory SkyDrive saving prompts become an obstacle.
Speed Up Saving
Looking for SkyDrive to save files introduces a slight delay each time you save an Office document. Removing it can speed up the saving process.
Step-by-Step: How to Disable Save to SkyDrive in Office 2013
Without further ado, here are the step-by-step instructions to disable SkyDrive saving in Office 2013 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps:
1. Open Any Office 2013 App, Click File > Options
To start, open any Office 2013 application like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
Click the “File” tab in the top-left corner, then select “Options” at the bottom of the left pane.
Office 2013 File Menu
This opens the application’s options window.
2. Uncheck “Show Additional Save Locations” Under Save
In the left sidebar, click “Save”. Then uncheck the box next to “Show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required”.
Uncheck SkyDrive Option in Word Options
This prevents Office 2013 apps from showing cloud storage locations that need you to sign-in, like SkyDrive.
3. Check “Save to Computer by Default”
While still in the Save section, check the box next to “Save to Computer by default”.
Set Save to Computer by Default
Now when you save a new document, the Save As dialog will default to your local hard drive instead of the cloud.
4. Click OK to Save Changes
Click “OK” to save the changes and close the Options window.
The next time you save a new document, you’ll go straight to the regular Save As dialog instead of getting prompted to use SkyDrive.
Additional Tweaks to Speed Up Saving
A couple additional Office 2013 options tweaks can further speed up saving documents and remove unneeded cloud storage choices:
Disable Backstage View on Save
The Backstage view shows cloud saving options even if you disable showing additional save locations. Getting rid of it skips that step.
To disable it:
- In File > Options, go to Save
- Check “Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files”
Set Default Local Save Location
When you save a new document, Office 2013 defaults to your user Documents folder. Changing this skips you having to navigate there each time:
- In File > Options > Save, find “Default local file location”
- Enter a custom default path like
D:\Work Files
Now Office will default to your custom location instead of Documents.
Wrap Up
And that’s it! With those simple tweaks, you’ve disabled the constant prompts to save Office 2013 documents to SkyDrive in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps.
You’re now free to save files wherever you prefer on your local hard drives, without unnecessary cloud storage options getting in the way.
Disabling SkyDrive integration not only removes annoyances, but can also speed up the saving process in Office 2013. Just a couple quick settings changes makes saving Office documents a much smoother experience.
Hope this guide helps you banish bothersome SkyDrive saving prompts from Office 2013 once and for all! Let us know if you have any other questions.
