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Dominique_R2
Dominique_R2
Known Participant
September 4, 2026
Answered

Cannot save current document

  • September 4, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 23 views

Hello all,

Today I am facing a completely new issue, at least for me: my boo document is open, I work on it, add some body text and photos, but when I try to save, Ctrl-S doesn’t work, and when I open the File menu, all Save options are grayed out.

InDesign knows that my document has been modified, as you can see from the little asterisk in the attached screen captureA.

When I try to close the document, InDesign asks logically if I want to save it, but when I click Yes, it tells me that it “cannot save the document”, without any explanation (see captureB attached).

I am quite puzzled and would love to hear your ideas and suggestions.

Many thanks in advance.

Dominique

    Correct answer Abhishek Rao

    Hi @Dominique_R2,


    Sorry you're running into this, especially with unsaved changes in the document.

    Please don't close the document yet. If File > Export is still available, first export it as InDesign Markup (IDML) to a local folder/Desktop to preserve your current work. Ref:
    https://adobe.ly/4gClXmu

    If the document is stored on OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, a network drive, or external storage, please also test from a local folder. We recommends local-storage testing for save/access issues:
    https://adobe.ly/4qTdgrp

    After securing the work, reopen the IDML and save it locally as a new INDD file. Please also test whether a new document saves normally. If the issue affects multiple documents, back up and reset InDesign preferences:
    https://adobe.ly/4ykYPyS

    Please also share your exact InDesign/OS versions, file location and what action you performed just before the Save options became unavailable.


    Thanks,
    Abhishek

    2 replies

    Dominique_R2
    Dominique_R2Author
    Known Participant
    September 4, 2026

    Thanks very much, it worked fine. I shut down the program and although that seemed to be happening normally, it generated an error report that I sent to Adobe. I launched the program again and now the saves appear to be working normally.

    I run Windows 10 fully updated and v. 21.5.1 x64 of InDesign.

    Do we know what is causing this problem, so that we may prevent it from happening in the future?

    Thanks again for your help.

    Dominique

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    September 4, 2026

    Hi @Dominique_R2,


    Sorry you're running into this, especially with unsaved changes in the document.

    Please don't close the document yet. If File > Export is still available, first export it as InDesign Markup (IDML) to a local folder/Desktop to preserve your current work. Ref:
    https://adobe.ly/4gClXmu

    If the document is stored on OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, a network drive, or external storage, please also test from a local folder. We recommends local-storage testing for save/access issues:
    https://adobe.ly/4qTdgrp

    After securing the work, reopen the IDML and save it locally as a new INDD file. Please also test whether a new document saves normally. If the issue affects multiple documents, back up and reset InDesign preferences:
    https://adobe.ly/4ykYPyS

    Please also share your exact InDesign/OS versions, file location and what action you performed just before the Save options became unavailable.


    Thanks,
    Abhishek

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