Hi!

We are experience an issue where users saves their word document on a fileshare
and when they open it some days later all the content in the document is gone.

This happens randomly and not on all documents (haven't managed to reproduce the issue) and for different users.

We are using:

Office 2010 Professional
Windows 7
Windows 2008 R2 as fileserver

Hi,

Based on your description, I think the first thing we should check is file size. If the file size is not 0, we can follow steps below to trouble shoot the issue:

1.        Lunch to a new Word document, open the blank document through File -> Open -> Open and Repair instead of double click
2.        Double click document -> ctrl A -> Ctrl C, paste it to a brand new document
3.        Try to change the font or style of the blank file
4.        Rename Global Template, refer to KB918429 Method 1
5.        Start word by default settings: Start -> Run -> winword /a, then open the document
6.        Change format of the document, like from .docx to .doc
7.        Use the Recover Text from Any File, File -> Open -> All files -> Recover Text From Any File(*.*) -> Open

Also we can check if the document is blank when we open the file locally on the fileshare. Do we have a shadow copy configured for the shared folder? If so, we could use the shadow copy to recover the documents.

Thank you.

Hi,

Based on your description, I think the first thing we should check is file size. If the file size is not 0, we can follow steps below to trouble shoot the issue:

1.        Lunch to a new Word document, open the blank document through File -> Open -> Open and Repair instead of double click
2.        Double click document -> ctrl A -> Ctrl C, paste it to a brand new document
3.        Try to change the font or style of the blank file
4.        Rename Global Template, refer to KB918429 Method 1
5.        Start word by default settings: Start -> Run -> winword /a, then open the document
6.        Change format of the document, like from .docx to .doc
7.        Use the Recover Text from Any File, File -> Open -> All files -> Recover Text From Any File(*.*) -> Open

Also we can check if the document is blank when we open the file locally on the fileshare. Do we have a shadow copy configured for the shared folder? If so, we could use the shadow copy to recover the documents.

Thank you.

• Proposed as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Monday, April 06, 2015 5:05 AM
• Marked as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Monday, April 13, 2015 3:34 AM
• Unmarked as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator 1 hour 2 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator 58 minutes ago

Hi,

Based on your description, I think the first thing we should check is file size. If the file size is not 0, we can follow steps below to trouble shoot the issue:

1.        Lunch to a new Word document, open the blank document through File -> Open -> Open and Repair instead of double click
2.        Double click document -> ctrl A -> Ctrl C, paste it to a brand new document
3.        Try to change the font or style of the blank file
4.        Rename Global Template, refer to KB918429 Method 1
5.        Start word by default settings: Start -> Run -> winword /a, then open the document
6.        Change format of the document, like from .docx to .doc
7.        Use the Recover Text from Any File, File -> Open -> All files -> Recover Text From Any File(*.*) -> Open

Also we can check if the document is blank when we open the file locally on the fileshare. Do we have a shadow copy configured for the shared folder? If so, we could use the shadow copy to recover the documents.

Thank you.

• Proposed as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Monday, April 06, 2015 5:05 AM
• Marked as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Monday, April 13, 2015 3:34 AM
• Unmarked as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Thursday, April 23, 2015 6:27 AM
• Unproposed as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Thursday, April 23, 2015 6:30 AM

Hi,

Based on your description, I think the first thing we should check is file size. If the file size is not 0, we can follow steps below to trouble shoot the issue:

1.        Lunch to a new Word document, open the blank document through File -> Open -> Open and Repair instead of double click
2.        Double click document -> ctrl A -> Ctrl C, paste it to a brand new document
3.        Try to change the font or style of the blank file
4.        Rename Global Template, refer to KB918429 Method 1
5.        Start word by default settings: Start -> Run -> winword /a, then open the document
6.        Change format of the document, like from .docx to .doc
7.        Use the Recover Text from Any File, File -> Open -> All files -> Recover Text From Any File(*.*) -> Open

Also we can check if the document is blank when we open the file locally on the fileshare. Do we have a shadow copy configured for the shared folder? If so, we could use the shadow copy to recover the documents.

Thank you.

• Proposed as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Monday, April 06, 2015 5:05 AM
• Marked as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Monday, April 13, 2015 3:34 AM
• Unmarked as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Thursday, April 23, 2015 6:27 AM
• Unproposed as answer by Chloe WangMicrosoft employee, Moderator Thursday, April 23, 2015 6:30 AM

Thanks, I will try this when the problem occurs again.

Yes we have shadow copy enabled so we have always managed
to restore the documents.

Hi,

How did it go?

Hi!

Haven't got a opportunity to try it until now.

Tried all of the steps you proposed but it didn't make a difference.

By restoring the the document by using shadow copy I got this info:

The original document that had content in it was 399kb and the one
that are blank was only 12,2kb.

When looking at the documents properties in word, the original document
had 14 pages, 1481 words and a editing time of 137 minutes and the blank one
have one page, 0 words and a editing time of 3 minutes.

Hi,

Thanks for the update. Have you noticed if there was anything in common of those documents becomes blank? Was there any parallel editing of those documents?

Can't find anything common about them.

No the documents where all edited on the users
home catalog where only the users themselves have permission.

Hi,

If you dont mind, I will give a brief summarize of the issue and need your help to clarify some more information:

Summarize of the issue:

1. The issue is randomly happening, no common of those documents
2. File size of the documents appear blank are not 0
3. No parallel editing

Information I will need for further investigation:

1. How does your fileserver set up, is it a UNC path or other type
2. How does user upload the document to the fileserver
3. Is there any error or information on the file share server in Events log
4. Does the document turn to blank immediately after upload to fileserver
5. If you copy the blank document back to user local computer, will it still be blank and what about the file size?
6. Was there any antivirus software on the fileserver?

1. How does your fileserver set up, is it a UNC path or other type

   It uses a UNC path

2. How does user upload the document to the fileserver

   They save it on on their private folder that is mapped as a network drive with Group Policy Preferences

3. Is there any error or information on the file share server in Events log

   There is no error that seems related to the problem

4. Does the document turn to blank immediately after upload to fileserver

   No, it seems that the document have to be on fileserver for at least one day before it becomes empty

5. If you copy the blank document back to user local computer, will it still be blank and what about the file size?

    The document stays the same with the same filesize if it is copied to the local computer

6. Was there any antivirus software on the fileserver?

   We are using System Center Endpoint Protection with only Real-time scanning enabled, no
   scheduled scans

We are using Tivoli Storage Manager as the backup solution on the fileserver and it takes a backup every night

5. If you copy the blank document back to user local computer, will it still be blank and what about the file size?

    The document stays the same with the same filesize if it is copied to the local computer

Do you mean if it copy to local computer, the document open correctly? Have you tried other type of files, like Excel? Will Excel files turn blank too?

Is there any settings in Tivoli Storage Manager could cause this issue? From your description, I suspect it has something to do with this tool. You may also want to consult this with IBM. Thank you.

Sorry I was unclear, the document doesn't open correctly when copied to the local computer.

I have seen the problem with PowerPoint documents as well.
Not on Excel though, but Excel aren't used as much as Word and PowerPoint.

I will contact IBM about this.

Thanks for your help!