Excel crashes when saving files that contain comments

I've recently encountered a problem saving Excel files that contain comments. This happens if I open an existing file with a comment, edit it and save it, and also with a newly created file that I add a comment in a cell to.

What happens is I get a circling cursor and after a bit a message saying that Microsoft Excel has stopped working. In the directory where I tried to save the file a 0 byte file is left with a name that appears to be several random numbers and no extension. If I remove all comments from the Excel file, it saves fine.

I am running Windows 10 64 bit (creators edition) and Office 365 Home.

I took the following steps to try to resolve the issue:

1. I did a quick repair on Microsoft Office - no help.

2. I did an online repair off Microsoft Office (this seems to reinstall all of office) - no help

3. I went back to a restore point that I believe was prior to my experiencing this issue - no help and I have no earlier restore points to try.

Can anyone help?

Thank you for replying. To answer your questions:

1. The file does not cause a problem on another computer. Excel (same version from Office 365) saves it fine.

2. I have not done a full uninstall and re-install. But that's a good idea. I should be able to do it tomorrow afternoon and will report back with the result.

3. I have done a save as - still the crash if the comments are left in. I even created a brand new spreadsheet. Put in only a comment in one cell - nothing else - and it crashes. When I don't put a comment in it saves fine.

Thanks again. 

3. I have done a save as - still the crash if the comments are left in. I even created a brand new spreadsheet. Put in only a comment in one cell - nothing else - and it crashes. When I don't put a comment in it saves fine.

No joy :-(.

I uninstalled Office 365 using the Microsoft Office Uninstall tool. I rebooted and ran the tool again - it found a click to install piece, but then completed and claimed success.

I deactivated Office 365 in the online office management website (I guess I should have done that before uninstalling). I re-installed Office 365 - made sure it was linked to my account and started Excel. Unfortunately, I get the same behavior. I created an empty Excel sheet, typed in numbers in a few cells and put a comment in one cell and tried to save it. I got the same crash. I tried saving the file as xlsx, as xls and as xlsb. I get the same issue.

I'm pretty much out of ideas other than Windows reset or even a complete reimage. But these will require installing all applications again.

Can you suggest anything?

Holy moley. I think I found it!

I turned off MalwareBytes and McAfee RealTime scanning on this PC. Now no crash when saving an Excel file containing comments!!!!

I am running McAfee on my other PC, but not MalwareBytes. 

I will do more testing. But I believe I'm on my way to solving it.

Holy moley. I think I found it!
 
I turned off MalwareBytes and McAfee RealTime scanning on this PC. Now no crash when saving an Excel file containing comments!!!!
 
I am running McAfee on my other PC, but not MalwareBytes. 
 
I will do more testing. But I believe I'm on my way to solving it.

Just to close this out, it appears that MalwareBytes had an issue with Office 2013 and 2016 after the update to Windows 10 Creators Edition. It's noted here: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Office-crashes-or-hangs-in-Windows-10-Creators-Update-with-Malwarebytes-3-0-7a59dfbc-5997-4798-903e-a9e709f17692

That article has a link to a new version (3.1.2) of MalwareBytes. It's available at: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/malwarebytes-anti-malware/dl/344/. Though it was issued on 5/13, it still wasn't automatically installed. After I downloaded and installed the new version, the problem vanished.

I credit the Windows Secret Newletter for pointing this out to me.