"Protected View..." error message when trying to save an opened email attachment

jonchalk · August 17, 2021, 3:21am

You or your recipient just received an email with an attachment (A Writer document). You or your recipient open(s) the attachment, then you or your recipient want(s) to save as. An error message saying “Protected view…” (the message is longer than this example) when you or your recipient try to save as from the File menu.

What do you do? or How do you handle this problem? See my solution in the solution section.

mikekaganski · August 17, 2021, 4:58am

So this is not a question, but the combined question and answer?

This is great - this way, you share the knowledge with others! Thank you! (And your description is correct - we really make files saved in some special directories - e.g., in temporary places - readonly for this reason).

But to make it properly answered, which would immediately tell users searching for this that it has an appropriate answer, and it helped someone, it would be nice if you stripped the answer from the question, and provided the answer separately (and marked it as a solution).

Thanks again!

jonchalk · August 17, 2021, 6:51am

Hello Mike,

That is an excellent suggestion. I am not sure how to separate the answer and mark it as a solution. How do I do it?

Thank you.

mikekaganski · August 17, 2021, 6:55am

Edit your question (using a “pen” icon below it), and cut the answer/solution part from it. Save the edit.
Click a “Suggest a solution” button in the bottom, and in the composing box, paste your solution. Post it.
Below the new answer, you will find a “checkbox” button, named “solution” (you might need to click “…” first to see it). Press it to mark the answer as the solution.

jonchalk · August 18, 2021, 1:38am

Thank you Mike. Your instructions were very helpful.

jonchalk · August 18, 2021, 1:36am

Solution: have the recipient (or yourself) save the attachment to the disk (Hard drive, SSD, SD, USB, memory card, external drive, etc.). Then open the file from where it was just saved.

The reason this error message appears when you try to save as after opening the email attachment is to prevent data loss.

I tagged this under “writer”. I have not encountered this problem outside of “Writer” as I generally send out .ODT documents. This solution most likely may apply to the other modules (Calc, Draw, etc.).