NVivo 14 and 15 for Windows is reporting ‘File ‘Size’ Errors and Crashing up Saving

NVivo 14 and 15 for Windows is reporting ‘File ‘Size’ Errors and Crashing upon Saving

This week, NVivo 14 and 15 and now NVivo 12 for Windows is starting to throw errors about file sizes when discs or folders are not full. This has happened on four occasions in the past week with different clients. We have posted some information below to help users if they encounter this problem:

NVivo users are seeing disk-space type errors in NVivo for Windows (14 & 15) even when the drive isn’t actually full, and it looks like this isn’t just a random one-off because several of our clients’ have asked for help with this in the past week. There’s some emerging chatter and support guidance that lines up with their reported symptoms which we have gathered below to assist.

🐞 “Could Not Allocate Disk Space” / File-Size Errors – What’s Going On

❗ Known Pattern

Recent support documentation flags a Lucene.Net index error that reports something like “could not allocate disk space” or “filegroup is full” — even when the actual disk isn’t full. This seems to be a bug that pops up especially when a project file is stored in a synced location (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).

Key points from that guidance:

The error often surfaces if the project file is synchronized by a cloud service while NVivo tries to write to it.
This can lead to project corruption and disk-space-related errors even on systems with plenty of free space.

🛠 Practical Workarounds (Try These)

✅ 1. Always Work on Local Files

Ensure that the .nvpx/.nvp project is on a local non-synced drive when editing.

Copy the project locally before opening it.
Pause OneDrive/Dropbox sync while working in NVivo.

This is the most consistent practical workaround reported so far.

✅ 2. Compact & Repair

From NVivo for Windows:

Move a local copy of the project to your C: drive.
Go to File > Help > Compact & Repair Project.
If that works, create a new blank project and import the repaired one into it to clear out index issues.

This can fix underlying Lucene index corruption.

✅ 3. Update NVivo

Always check File > Product Info > Check for Software Updates and install any pending updates — sometimes these bugs are quietly fixed in minor revisions.

Why It Keeps Happening

NVivo’s internal text index (Lucene.Net) can throw disk errors when file writes are interrupted or delayed — most commonly by sync clients.
Even temporary log files being accessed weirdly by sync tools can trigger a false “disk full” condition inside the NVivo engine.

Any Official Bug Reports or Threads?

There isn’t (yet) a widely published bug-tracker entry specifically for this on the official Lumivero/Jisc site — but this exact pattern has been noted in support posts and knowledge articles focused on the Lucene error in Jan 2026.

If this is happening repeatedly, it’s worth:

Raising a support ticket with Lumivero/QSR with logs and screenshots.
Mentioning that it coincides with cloud sync involvement — that often helps them classify it as a reproducible bug.

Quick Checklist Before requesting Support from us or Lumivero

✔ Project stored locally on a non-synced disk
✔ Sync tools temporarily paused
✔ Latest NVivo updates installed
✔ Compact & Repair run
✔ Create a fresh project and import old one if needed

Steps for seeking Technical Support

Use this link to access the Lumivero Community Forum: https://community.lumivero.com/s/nvivo-support If you already have a ‘MyLumivero’ account, then login, if not, create an account which is a simple process. Once logged in to the home page you will see a list of Lumivero products including NVivo. Navigate to the bottom of the page to access this link:

You question will be first assessed by AI but if it can’t answer your question it will automatically create a ticket for you and email a confirmation of your case number to you. You can also navigate from the forum to ‘Help & Support->My Cases’ where you can view any open or closed cases you have raised or create a new support ticket.

Please provide full information when making this request including the version of NVivo you are using, operating system, any error messages received and specific steps being undertaken when the error occurred, and any steps taken to-date to resolve it (many people do not, resulting in a reply that contains questions rather than a solution or fixes that have already been tried). Providing full information will save time in rendering assistance to you.

You can also search questions already posted on the forum in case you may find a response that already answers your question, and you can search the FAQs or post a new question to the community.