How to force "Track Changes" to stay off for a particular file?

Every time I open a personal file (not shared, hence it is not necessary to track changes), I get blasted with the “Track Changes” mode, no matter how may times I turn it off. Previously, it was as simple as

  1. Turn “Track Changes” off from the status bar every time a file is opened

But since 8.3.3, that alone is not enough. It still shows me markups and balloons. Now, I must

  1. Go to the Collaborations tab
  2. Accept all changes
  3. Close the document
  4. Reopen the document.

The markups completely ruin the document pagination, so for certain types of documents, I need it to stay off. Is there any way to truly turn this feature off?

Hello @subhasiscgr

Please let me know if you are using Document Server in a ready-to-solution, e.g. Nextcloud, or in an integration with your own web-storage application.

Also, in your scenario:

How fast are you performing these steps?

It is a ready-to-go solution. I can confirm that this behaviour is present even in the “Example” server that comes with the default installation. I have observed that this behaviour is only visible on documents that have been imported from MS Word (and probably had “track changes” enabled). Documents created in OnlyOffice do not display this behaviour. Their “track changes” can be permanently disabled.

Also, I have tried loading these files in MS Office, disabling the “track changes” mode there, and importing them back into Onlyoffice. Track changes mode stays disabled for a while, then gets reenabled. Also, saving these files in MS Office increases file size by several times, so I do not wish to do that for all files.

Can you share a demo file? I did not manage to reproduce the situation.

Sure! This is one such file. It is empty, but the issue persists. I tested this file in a fresh Windows Server 2022 VM. Can’t turn off the tracking. As soon as I close the browser windows and repoen Onlyoffice, the tracking is back.
testtrackchanges.docx (45.0 KB)

As I can see, this file was create on version 8.3.3 of Document Server – can you elaborate on how exactly track changes was enabled?

This is a blanked version of an old file. All of these were made in MS Office before we transitioned to OnlyOffice. It has been exported from Onlyoffice 8.3.3.

The “Track Changes” option was surely turned on in MS Office, but sadly I do not remember the details.

I’d be nice if you could provide a step-by-step scenario on how track changes mode is enabled in MS Word. As of now I cannot replicate this behavior with Word file, possibly this scenario is the key to the issue.

I would love to, but I do not remember. I do not have an active Office 365 subscription anymore.

However, I have noted that setting <w:trackRevisions w:val=“true” /><w:documentProtection w:edit=“trackedChanges” w:enforcement=“0” />
in the settings.xml file of any docx mimics the behavior.

It seems modern word documents do not use this exact formatting.

That being said, now I know how to disable this annoying behaviour in my existing documents. I just have to manually edit that portion out.

Thank you for the information. It worth checking out the situation anyway, we’ll do. Please await the feedback.

I was informed that the bug was registered on this issue. Thank you for sharing the information.

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