This behavior began recently, I believe.
If I open a Word, PPT etc. file that resides in my OneDrive, if I then use save-as, the location presented for saving is the SharePoint "equivalent" of the initial OneDrive folder. For example, if I open the file:

when I use F12 to save as, or when I click "publish to PDF" the folder presented is:

This is annoying at the very least, but also causes some strange downstream behaviours. For example, when I save a Word document as a PDF, my browser is prompted to open a sharepoint url and download an(other) copy of that PDF to my browser's download folder.



In case it's relevant, I'm using Microsoft 365 (from my business) on a Windows 10 PC.

Any idea what's going on? I just spent over an hour on the phone with Microsoft, with no success.

Hi paulkaye,

Did you ever find a solution this problem? I only recently got moved to a work laptop that is syncing everything to OneDrive and I immediately ran into the same issue with F12 > Save as Type: PDF > it tries to open the PDF/download the PDF in my Chrome browser.

The only "solutions" I can figure out are to:

1) In the F12 save dialog, uncheck the "Open file after publishing" option which causes the file to save normally but not open automatically after saving. Not ideal, because I typically want the newly created PDF opened after I save it.

2) After hitting F12 > Save as type: PDF, I can redirect the save location to a "true local" folder that is not synced to OneDrive. The PDF then opens automatically in Adobe Acrobat (default PDF app) like I would expect. Not ideal because I have to go through the steps to redirect save location, I am not saving in same location as original file, and the saved PDF will not be backed up by OneDrive.

3) Stop using OneDrive. Not ideal because files won't be backed up.

I am on a Lenovo PC, Windows 11 Enterprise, "Microsoft Office 365 Apps for enterprise."

Thanks in advance!