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trishad61088048
Known Participant
November 19, 2025
Question

InDesign 2023 Libraries Not Working

  • November 19, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 83 views

We are using InDesign 2023 (18.5.4) on Mac Studio, yes I know we should be using the latest version but we need a plug-in that only works in 2023 and can't be updated.

 

Our libraries worked earlier this week and yesterday they stopped with a message that reads:

"This file is already open by another user or another application. This file may be stored on a network server and connot be opened until the other user closes it."

 

I'm the administrator/owner of the libraries and my co-workers have "view & use" rights, we're all getting the same message when trying to drag an item out of the library.  I've searched for similar topics and tried all of the possible solutions (updating the CC app, trashing the CC Library folder, etc.) nothing has worked.

 

Funny thing is the libraries work in 2024 and up. Has Adobe turned off library support for 2023? Anyone else having this issue?

 

Any suggestions on a fix would be greatly appreciated!

2 replies

E
Community Expert
Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 20, 2025

Reports from others I see online is some others having same issue 

 

It might be an issue with Creative Cloud libraries. I'll raise internally and see if we can resolve. 

 

Thanks

HARSHIKA_VERMA
Community Manager
HARSHIKA_VERMACommunity Manager
Community Manager
November 20, 2025

Hi trishad61088048, & Eugene Tyson,

 

Thank you for reaching out and reporting the issue. We are checking with the team to determine if this is a known issue with the Creative Cloud libraries and will share an update here as soon as we receive a response from the team.

 

Thank you for your patience.

 

Thanks,

Harshika

E
Community Expert
Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 20, 2025

Creative Cloud Libaries right? Not the standard Library using File>Open and choosing and indesign library file and opening that - you're talking about the CC Library panel? 

It does sound like something has changed server side rather than on your machines. Libraries are basically little cloud databases and they can fall out of sync if they get stuck in a locked state. The rather dramatic “file is already open by another user” message is usually just the sync engine having a wobble rather than an actual user lock.

 

  • Sign out of Creative Cloud on all affected machines, quit everything, then sign back in. This forces a fresh token and sometimes clears the library lock.
  • Make sure the Creative Cloud Sync process is actually running. The Libraries panel in older versions depends on that background process behaving.
  • Create a brand new temporary library in the browser version of Creative Cloud and see if 2023 can read it. If the new one works but the existing ones do not, that points to corruption in the original library rather than a version block.
  • Check that no one has the library content open in Illustrator or Photoshop. Even old linked previews can occasionally keep a ghost lock.

 

The fact that everything behaves normally in 2024 and later makes me think compatibility has drifted a bit rather than Adobe turning anything off deliberately. 2023 is still within the usual support window, so this feels more like a sync bug than a sunset.

 

If none of that shifts it, you may be safest exporting the problem library to a new one using the browser interface. It is clunky but it often resets whatever ghost lock is stuck.

 

Hopefully that gets you and your team moving again.

 
 
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