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will.hebert
will.hebert
Participating Frequently
April 8, 2020
Answered

Illustrator 24.1 - Issue "Can't save the illustration. .278"

  • April 8, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 13469 views

Hey everyone, 

I've updated my version of illustrator earlier this week to 24.1 on Mac OS 10.15.4 and I'm having an issue that I can't manage to find a solution for. Basically, whenever I try to save any files on my main hard drive I get a pop-up saying "Can't save the illustration. .278". I've managed to find a work-around where I can just save my file to my external hard drive and copy it after on my main drive, but it's still really annoying to have to do every time I have to save my file.

Correct answer Monika Gause

I tried to re-install my printer and updating the drivers but it still has the same issue...


Can you try and uncheck all those settings that improve saving files in the preferences?

Also: do you have iCloud set up? It might interfere with Illustrator.

Are you saving into a synchronized folder? Again: might interfere with Illustrator.

 

You could try and have Customer Care take a look. Please contact Customer Care: http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html 

 

4 replies

H
hillary_7735
Participant
July 1, 2025

In my circumstance, a setting had been set up by a former employee.

1. Right mouse click on the file

2. Click 'Get Info'

3. Go to the Sharing & permissions section

4. Check to make sure that the permissions can "Read & Write"

caroline56green
caroline56green
Participating Frequently
December 30, 2020

Hey there,

 

I know this is a late reply, but I recently had the same issue where I was trying to save an SVG from an Ai file onto my portable hard drive. I found succes by moving the larger folder on my portable hard drive (containing smaller folders) onto my Desktop, then deleted the (smaller) folder in which I was specifically trying to save to. I am now able to save as SVG as per usual. I have no idea why this problem arose, or why this was the solution, but here I am. 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 8, 2020

And this only happens with one particular drive? Or one particular file?

will.hebert
will.hebertAuthor
Participating Frequently
April 8, 2020

This only happens when I try saving to my main drive. I tried importing my artwork in a new document and the same error pops up. No matter what file I try to save it just doesn't want to save it to my main drive. It only works if I save it to my external ssd which never happened before. 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 8, 2020

Looks like this error can have different reasons.

Sometimes it's because of an external disk, sometimes because of a missing printer.

Sometimes because of the cmputer having some hiccup (not rebooted for days etc.)

Might be other reasons.

 

So when was your last reboot?

Do you have a printer attached? If not, set up a PDF printer

Are all disks checked, privileges set correctly?

Is Illustrator allowed to write to the disk?

will.hebert
will.hebertAuthor
Participating Frequently
April 8, 2020

E
emilys49633241
Participant
October 29, 2020

I solved this by cleaning out my hard drive, which was almost full. And I also uninstalled old versions of illustrator. Somehow, one of those things worked.

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