SAS Display Manager might fail intermittently when you save SAS programs to a network drive or shared network location. This issue can occur when you use the Save option.
As a result, the following error message might occur:
ERROR: Save FAILED.
Typical symptoms of this issue include the following:
- ERROR: Save FAILED. is displayed intermittently when you try to save a SAS program.
- You might hear a Windows notification sound when the Save operation fails.
- The SAS program is not saved even though you selected Save.
- Multiple save attempts eventually succeed.
- You can save SAS files locally, but intermittent issues occur when you save directly to a network share.
- Using Save As successfully saves the file to the network share, while the standard Save option might fail.
- You can save other file types to the network share without issue, but SAS program files are intermittently affected.
- The issue might begin after a period of normal operation without any apparent changes to the SAS environment.
Note: Saving to a local drive or desktop location succeeds.
This issue can be related to the Safe save functionality that the SAS Enhanced Editor uses when saving files to certain network locations.
Workaround
Method 1: Disable "Safe save" from SAS Display Manager
- Open SAS Display Manager.
- Navigate to Tools ► Options ► Preferences.
- Click the Edit tab.
- Clear the Safe save (Enhanced Editor only) check box.
- Click OK.
- Test saving programs to the network location again
Method 2: Disable "Safe save" by Updating the SAS Configuration File
- Before making changes, close all SAS sessions and create a backup of the SAS configuration file. Here is an example location:
C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\nls\en\sasv9.cfg
- Create a backup copy. Here is an example:
sasv9.bak
- Edit the original sasv9.cfg file and add the following line near the beginning of the file:
-SET SAS_NO_SAFE_SAVE=1
- Save the file and restart SAS.
- After SAS restarts, test saving programs to the network location again.
Additional Information
If the problem persists after disabling Safe save, investigate potential environmental factors, including the following:
- network share availability
- file locking
- antivirus or endpoint security software
- user permissions
- network storage synchronization software
- recent operating system updates
- file server or storage changes
Testing file saves from applications such as Microsoft Notepad directly to the same network location can help determine whether the issue is specific to SAS or affects the network location generally.