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Christina228449123bw0
Participant
October 27, 2022
Answered

InDesign 2023 makes a read only file

  • October 27, 2022
  • 65 replies
  • 74270 views

I have just updated to the 2023 InDesign, and now suddently my documents are read-only and I cannot save the file, but have to make a save as version and give the document a new name everytime I have to save my work.

Do you know why this is happening? And how to avoid this?

    Correct answer Abhishek Rao

    Hi everyone,

     

    Thank you for continuing to share your feedback and experiences regarding the read-only file issue. I wanted to provide an update that a bug has already been logged with the product team, and they are currently looking for additional diagnostic information to help identify the root cause.

    If you're able to reproduce the issue and have access to an InDesign Prerelease build, the team would greatly appreciate logs from an affected system. To enable logging, please create an empty file named ENABLE_DOCUMENT_OPEN_LOGGING inside the following location:

    /Applications/Adobe InDesign 2026 (Prerelease)/Resources/Cookies/

    If the Cookies folder does not exist, please create it first and then create the empty file inside it.

    On macOS, you can create the file from Terminal using:

    touch ENABLE_DOCUMENT_OPEN_LOGGING

    Once logging has been enabled, please reproduce the workflow that causes the document to open as read-only.

    After reproducing the issue, please collect and share the contents of the following folder:

    macOS:
    ~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign (Prerelease)

    Windows:
    C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign (Prerelease)

    These logs will help the engineering team better understand what is happening during document opening and permission handling.

    If you're able to provide the logs, please let me know and I'll help coordinate getting them to the team for analysis. Your assistance would be extremely valuable in helping us move this investigation forward.

     

    Thank you again for your patience and continued cooperation.

    Abhishek

     

    <Marking as correct for better visibility on the thread>

    65 replies

    Show previous replies
    pifath67
    pifath67
    Participating Frequently
    December 7, 2023

    Short Story:

    The first InDesign file today was immediately write-protected again...
    As I had criminally not paid attention to this (to compensate for Adobe's inadequacy and sloppiness), I had to save it under a new name so as not to lose my work on the file.
    Then rename the old file, rename the new file, open it again - oops, read-only! - so open it three more times until it was no longer write-protected.
    Then I could continue working.
    Now that's what I call an effective workflow...
    WHEN WILL THIS FINALLY BE FIXED, ADOBE?

      J
      Jim27186468bpg8
      Participating Frequently
      December 7, 2023

      -

      M
      mhvz2019
      Participating Frequently
      December 1, 2023

      Hi everyone. I've discovered something purely by fluke. I find that if I do a Save As and save the file as an IDML file, making sure not to override a previous file, (so calling it V1, V2, V3 etc because it won't save over a previously saved file), InDesign then lets me save my native InDesign file. The Read Only message never disappears but it will let me save. 

      J
      Jim27186468bpg8
      Participating Frequently
      December 1, 2023

      There is a faster, less cumbersome "workaround"... just open the file, close it, and reopen it immediately. Then there is no Read-Only tag.... works 98% of the time....

       

      But we the people, want this fixed. No more "workarounds"... 1 Year + is long enough.

       

        T
        Tom24990841upiw
        Participating Frequently
        December 1, 2023

        I've done this Hundreds of times. Mostley just to see how many times it will take for the file to open as readable.

        Open, Close, Open, Close, Open, Close, over and over again. Usually about the 12th time it opens as readable.

        @Rishabh_Tiwari , any thoughts about the survey I suggested?

        Radio silence is all we can get?

          pifath67
          pifath67
          Participating Frequently
          November 10, 2023

          I have just updated to Mac OS Ventura 13.6.1 and Indesign 19.0.1 and the first InDesign file I opened after the update was immediately write-protected.
          The problem persists...
          And Adobe is obviously doing absolutely nothing to fix it...
          Very disappointing...

            Rishabh_Tiwari
            Rishabh_Tiwari
            Legend
            November 28, 2023

            Hi @pifath67 ,

             

            Sorry to hear about the trouble. Have you tried the suggestions shared in this discussion? Did the issue occur after the update, or did you experience the issue in an earlier version as well? 

             

            Thanks

            Rishabh

            T
            Tom24990841upiw
            Participating Frequently
            November 28, 2023

            My suggestion would be for Adobe to put out a simple survey with maybe 10 questions about Versions, OS, Server Protocals, Virus Protection...ect, to see if we can find a common issue here and get to the bottom of this.

            This has gone on long enough.(2 years?) If this isn't an Adobe issue, than Adobe needs to prove it!

            Otherwise this thread is useless.

              D
              Dan291424714xu2
              Participant
              November 7, 2023

              I know it's not a FIX as such but a colleague of mine was having the same issue and said that the issue doesn't happen when opening files from Windows Explorer. Previously they would open InDesign and open the file from within the software but by opening outside of it they think its stopped the issue from occuring.

              T
              Tom24990841upiw
              Participating Frequently
              November 7, 2023

              Dan291424714xu2,

              Please explain how you open InDesign files in a web browser?

                D
                Dean27672471wbrl
                Participating Frequently
                November 8, 2023

                I believe this means that if you navigate to the file on your server through Windows and double click to open it from its location rather than opening it through the OPEN function in Indesign then files opens without the READ ONLY issue.

                We found while this can reduce the number of time to problem occurs it does still happen. If you see an Indesign Lock file has been generated in the location folder on your server after you open the Indesign file you know you will be okay, but if a lock file fails to be be generated the READ ONLY issue occurs.  

                This could be an indication of where the problem lies??

                N
                Nöllsn McNölle
                Participant
                November 6, 2023

                Hello!

                I think I have a solution to the problem (works on MacOS Sonoma).

                you have to enable full hard drive access in design:

                Go to Security & Privacy Preferences > Privacy and click Full Disk Access from the left panel. Then activate indesign.

                then it should work.

                try it out!

                J
                Jim27186468bpg8
                Participating Frequently
                November 6, 2023

                This doesn't sound like a solution, but instead a sketchy "workaround"...and only for Mac users? 

                 

                I want this FIXED.. For everyone.

                  pifath67
                  pifath67
                  Participating Frequently
                  November 7, 2023

                  That is EXACTLY what I think.
                  BTW: I did this weeks ago and it didn't work, just like many other users.
                  @HARSHIKA_VERMA: Is Adobe actually doing anything to fix the problem or are they just leaving us alone with this problem?

                  pifath67
                  pifath67
                  Participating Frequently
                  October 12, 2023

                  We have just updated to InDesign 19.0 (MAC/Ventura) and both the problem of read-only files and the problem already mentioned in this thread that PDFs cannot be overwritten during export still exist.
                  Apart from the introduction of new "features" with dubious benefits, is work also being done on eliminating such serious errors?
                  Or do we have to prepare for another year of inefficient work and high risk of errors with expensive software?
                  Can we expect any reaction at all from Adobe?

                  @HARSHIKA_VERMA 

                    Harshika Verma
                    Community Manager
                    Harshika VermaCommunity Manager
                    Community Manager
                    October 16, 2023

                    Hi @pifath67,

                     

                    We apologize for the frustration you're experiencing with the read-only issue on your macOS. We would request you please try disabling the Mac preview for InDesign files and let us know if this resolves the issue.

                     

                    We will try our best to investigate further with the team.

                     

                    Thanks,

                    Harshika

                    J
                    J-Dubbs
                    Participant
                    October 16, 2023

                    That did not help us as we've been disabling the Finder previews since 10.6.8. This problem happens despite that old workaround. The "don't open it by clicking on it, open it via the Open command" one didn't help either FYI.

                    S
                    Sinead30764660gxaz
                    Participant
                    October 6, 2023

                    This is still happening! 

                      B
                      BriGuyOSC
                      Inspiring
                      October 6, 2023

                      Sorry so many folks are still having these issues. I personally still feel it is not an Adobe/InDesign/Acrobat issue or I would still be having the same problems, because I was also having them before. I am no longer having them. After I updated a couple months ago, the read only issue disappeared. And no one else here at our office is having the issue, either.

                       

                      - Windows 10 Home 64-bit w/ latest updates applied

                      - Acrobat Pro 2023.006.20320

                      - Acrobat Distiller product version (according to Properties tab in Windows): 23.3.20284.0

                      - InDesign 18.5 x64

                       

                      I would check your Acrobat and Distiller versions, too, and make sure they're updated, not just InDesign, if you haven't already. Seems to me it would be more of a Distiller issue, because that is where a lot of the PDF export settings come from.

                      J
                      Jim27186468bpg8
                      Participating Frequently
                      October 6, 2023

                      I am not following this explanation and what PDF exports have to do with the 7 pages of people having problems with Read Only InDesign files. Maybe I am missing something here.

                      pifath67
                      pifath67
                      Participating Frequently
                      October 6, 2023

                      We have had this problem for over a year now and I think for the not so small amount we pay for this software we can expect such a serious problem to be solved gradually.
                      It affects 3 MACs with Ventura and InDesign 18.5.
                      Working is extremely inefficient and the risk of errors is high.
                      After all, we are working in a production environment here and not for a hobby....
                      So, is it to be expected that there will be a solution soon?

                        D
                        Dan291424714xu2
                        Participant
                        October 4, 2023

                        This is still happening on 18.5, PC Windows 10. Do we have any further update to this? @HARSHIKA_VERMA 

                        J
                        Jim27186468bpg8
                        Participating Frequently
                        October 4, 2023

                        I am not sure this thread is even being monitored anymore.

                        MissTheClash
                        MissTheClash
                        Participant
                        October 4, 2023

                        Harishka posted a little over a month ago that they were still working on the issue. My guess is there's nothing new to report. Frustrating because we're about to begin work on our 18 section catalog which for the 2nd year will be a festival of read only warnings and wrong file deletions

                          J
                          Jan284177508w2p
                          Participant
                          August 4, 2023

                          FYI

                          Updated to v18.5 today.

                          3rd file I open is read only again.

                          This is ridiculous.

                            B
                            BriGuyOSC
                            Inspiring
                            August 4, 2023

                            Mine's working fine. I haven't noticed any Read Only issues since the 18.5 update yesterday and have turned Windows Preview back on to test. Every InDesign file I've opened since has opened correctly... at least, so far.

                             

                            Now, previewing multi-page PDFs in Windows Explorer, that's another story... ("previous page" button is suddenly grayed out; can only click the "next page" button).

                             

                            At least InDesign seems to be behaving at the moment.

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