Cannot save existing file

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
July 15, 2025
3 replies
288 views

Most of the time when trying to save an exisiting file, InDesign instead tries to Save As.

The file name appears greyed out and can't be selected, and when trying to save the document with the same name the following error appears.

This only seems to happen when saving to a network shared drive, as I cannot replicate the issue when saving the machine. We have checked file permissions and cannot see any issue there, there is also the fact it will sometimes save the file without this issue.

I have noticed a .idlk file appears in the folder when it prompts to save as.

InDesign 2025, MacOS 15.5

Bug

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @334425544rsn,

Thanks for sharing all these details! I understand how frustrating this must be, especially when working on shared network drives.

This behavior often happens when there are network latency or permission conflicts, which can cause InDesign to lose connection to the original file and prompt a Save As instead. The appearance of the .idlk (lock) file suggests InDesign still thinks the file is in use or locked, which might point to a network caching or permissions issue. I would suggest, as Bill mentioned, checking with your network team and asking them to analyze the traffic to understand what is happening at the time of save.

InDesign does support working across networks, removable media, and cloud-synced folders like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., and it is tested across many configurations. However, not all setups including different software, hardware, settings, and access rights have been tested, and certain configurations can cause unexpected behavior.

To avoid such issues, we generally recommend working on files locally (for example, on your Desktop) and then manually copying them back to the network drive, cloud folder, or removable media after editing.

Let me know how it goes!

Abhishek

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

Contact your system administrator and make sure that your network shared drive has been updated for full compatibility with 20.4.1. Many times network servers are not updated to match the current versions of programs because of issues with virus protection. This can lead to saving issues.