If you are just beginning to troubleshoot the issue, the first thing you should investigate is whether you have a secondary copy of the document you are trying to share. Duplicated documents will trigger this error in certain Office suites due to a logic error. Another reason you might see this error is if link editing is disabled in your Microsoft 365 account settings, or if the share link functionality is broken. Since system file corruption can also be responsible for this issue, reinstalling the Office suite and scanning for malware are good practices before ensuring that Word is updated to the latest version. However, there are documented cases in which this problem occurs due to an issue with OneDrive syncing. Try clearing the OneDrive sync cache and unlinking your account temporarily to resolve the issue in these instances. Below you’ll find a series of step-by-step methods that will walk you through everything.
1. Remove the duplicate copy of the document.
If the file you are trying to share is a duplicate of another document that is already part of the Shared list, this is most likely the reason why you are experiencing issues when trying to generate a share link or when attempting to invite people via email. This problem seems to occur only with the standalone installation of Word, as it has not been confirmed to occur with Office 365. In case you are just beginning to troubleshoot this issue, start by ensuring that the file you are trying to share is not currently open in another instance of Word. If it is, close one instance. Next, navigate to the location where the file you are attempting to share is hosted, and delete any duplicates of this file that are residing in the same path. Note: Hosting Word file duplicates shouldn’t be a problem, but certain Office builds (particularly Office 2019 and older) will restrict specific sharing functions for duplicated files. If you navigate to the location path and notice two Word files with the same type, size, and modified date, delete one of them before attempting to share the remaining file once again.
2. Allow link editing (Microsoft 365 only).
If you see this error in Microsoft 365, it is likely because the individual file settings for the documents you are trying to share are configured to disallow editing. If this scenario applies, you’ll need to navigate to Share > Link Settings and adjust the permissions to “Allow Editing” before clicking “Apply. Note: When you share a document, the document and its metadata are automatically added to the recipient’s Shared view in OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Office.com. If this scenario applies, follow the instructions below to enable link editing for the specific file that is causing the error:
3. Share the document via email invitation (Microsoft 365).
If you’re using an older Office suite, it’s possible to see this error due to a glitch that affects the link generation function for shared files. While some users have managed to resolve this issue with a simple restart, others report that the problem has persisted even after they’ve reinstalled the Office suite. However, there is one fix that the majority of affected users have successfully used to bypass the error when sharing Word documents via the link-sharing function. It involves sending the invitation using the built-in integration. Note: If you choose this option, the link will automatically be embedded in the invitation email that your shared contact will receive. Here is a quick guide on how to share a Word document via email and avoid errors.
4. Remove malware before reinstalling Office.
There are documented cases in which the error occurred because their machines were hosting spyware or malware that prevented Office from making registry changes. This will prevent you from generating shared links, adding collaborators, or even installing, uninstalling, or updating the Office suite and any installed apps. If this scenario appears to be applicable, you should begin by using a powerful anti-malware cleaning tool to remove the security threat before touching the Office installation. We recommend performing a deep scan with Malwarebytes. Begin by installing Malwarebytes, then deploy a deep scan on every system partition, and wait until the operation is complete. After the scan has finished and the security threat has been removed, follow the instructions below to uninstall your current Office installation. Then, reinstall the most recent version from scratch and install every cumulative update. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to accomplish it:
5. Unlink OneDrive sync.
The error might also be fixed by unlinking the OneDrive account that is synced to your Office account. This could cause the issue if you are currently using a different OneDrive account than the one synced at the moment. You should try unlinking the current account to see if it makes any difference. You can do this from the Office Upload Center. Here are the steps on how to do this:
6. Reset the OneDrive temporary folder.
If you have already tried following the method above but couldn’t clean the Office Upload Center, the workaround is to reset the entire OneDrive sync client directly from your Run window. Note: This method is typically reported to be effective with newer Office installations, including Microsoft Office 365. Here’s a quick guide that will show you how to reset the OneDrive temp folder.
