Everybody has been there. You’re banging out the perfect Word doc, and the power cuts out before you can hit save. Last week’s Microsoft Word update makes that worry a thing of the past, as long as you have internet while you’re working.
As of October 8, 2025, Microsoft has begun automatically syncing your Word docs to your Microsoft OneDrive cloud account. You can turn it off, but unless you have a very serious distrust of the cloud, I’d recommend you keep it turned on, because it’s a handy guard against corrupt files and power cuts.
what it is and is not
This isn’t a backup service for if you accidentally delete a file on your computer. If you delete it there, it’ll delete it on iCloud, too. It’s not unlike how an Apple user, if they enable iCloud, has their files automatically copied to their iCloud account that mirrors the creating, modifying, and deleting they do on their Macs.
It’s a redundancy feature, distinct from a backup service, in that it’s a guard for if a locally saved file on your computer is corrupted or if you lose your internet connection or power in the middle of working on your Word doc, before you have the chance to save it.
Keep backing up your files, including your Word docs, as I describe here. That’s what you need to do in order to mitigate the risk of losing your files if you lose or destroy your computer.
The automatic cloud syncing is a bit of a double-edged sword, with benefits and, depending upon how you feel about your work existing on a corporate server in the cloud, potential drawbacks.
Those who don’t wish to have their work automatically mirrored on OneDrive can disable the feature, although it’s turned on by default. Microsoft Word’s new trick is handy, though, for those who want an extra layer—not a replacement layer—of redundancy to their backup regimen.
The post Microsoft Word Has Started Automatically Saving Your Docs to the Cloud appeared first on VICE.
