Can't save file 'this file cannot be found' error

[csscms]

Hi There,

I've been working on a file for a cople of days that's on my desktop. Today I opened the file, made some edits and hit CMD + S and saw this error...

Things I've tried...

1. Copying the art into a new document and saving
2. Saving the new document to different disks (all local, no servers)
3. Creating a blank document with nothing in it and saving

Bascially, I can't save anything - has anyone else seen this?

Cheers

Ben

[Matthew5C31]

Well, there's no harm in logging out and logging back in to see if that works. Another option that has helped is saving the file as a SVG format and then saving it again as AI or PDF. Those seem to be among the most successful solutions to this issue. Good luck!

[g80420514]

I can do as you ask, but that's like putting scotch tape on an open wound.
Is there not a way to fix the software so the error in question doesn't pop
up at all? That's part of the reason the Support Community is here...to
allow tech support to find the issue and fix it.

*Thank You,*
-Raul Garcia

[Matthew5C31]

I'm not tech support. Just volunteering to offer solutions that have worked. I don't receive that error message anymore once I logged out and back in again.

[g80420514]

My apologies...unfortunately, that doesn't work for me either, but thanks
for the suggestion.

*Thank You,*
-Raul Garcia

[Matthew5C31]

Another thing that has worked for me is to create a new document, copy all content from the bad file and paste it to a new file. Then try saving it as anything you want.

[g80420514]

Yup, tried that too. When I first had that problem, it worked. Now it's
not working. It won't save to clipboard when I close Illustrator and
restart so I can restart fresh and simply paste. The issue is sporadic.
The error doesn't always pop up, but 2 times in a weeks time is a little
odd.

*Thank You,*
-Raul Garcia

[Monika Gause]

I can do as you ask, but that's like putting scotch tape on an open wound.
Is there not a way to fix the software so the error in question doesn't pop
up at all? That's part of the reason the Support Community is here...to
allow tech support to find the issue and fix it.

*Thank You,*
-Raul Garcia

By @g80420514

If you want to reach out to Adobe's tech support: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

They can log into your system and figure this out.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @g80420514,

Thanks for sharing the details. I checked you are using a "teams account". I would like to know if you get options while signing in to your account like this or not:

If you don't, then turn off the automatic profile selection:

• Sign in to your Adobe Account with your email and password.

• Go to Account and security > Sign-in and security.

• Turn off the Select my profile automatically option.

After turning this setting off, log out from all the CC apps and restart your system, log in using the business profile instead of your personal profile or vice-versa and check if the issue gets resolved or not.

Regards,

Anshul Saini

[joseph25589762e6lj · Accepted solution]

Hello - I was having the same issue. Could not save and got the error, "file not found." My fix was that I saved the file as a PDF first. Then saved as an AI file and it did not error. 

Good luck!

[rafaels99379725]

I Had the same issue. What worked here:

Save the file as illustrator .eps. Then restart the app, open the .eps file and save it as a .ai file.

[WolfSZ78]

I know I'm REALLY late to the party, but I'm getting this issue now in December 2022. Trying to fix it now, but to save my work I just did File > Save a Copy, and it worked! Not sure if it's caused by the same issue, but I hope this gets looked into. 

[Fluk3]

I had this error as well.

Converting to RGB did not work. Saving as PDF did not work. Saving as SVG worked but destroyed all my artbioards, layers and converted CMYK and spot to rgb (so not a solution). I also checked security settings in macOS to no avail (full disk access, etc).

What finally worked for me, in illustator preferneces, file handling. Turned off Save in background, Export in background, and disabled turn off data recovery for complex documents. Then I set Automatically save recovery data to 30 seconds. Waited a while and then force quit illustrator. When I relaunched Illustrator it recovered my document where I left off and I am now able to save normally.

What an odd bug and so many unrelated "solutions".

[Monika Gause]

What an odd bug and so many unrelated "solutions".

By @Fluk3

Those solutions are not unrelated. But this issue is caused by different things for different people.

Saving as an SVG is a crude hack in any situation and more related to snake oil than to tech support.

[Fluk3]

To be clear, Monica, save as SVG was not my "solution". So your "snake oil" insult was completely unnecessary.

My "solution" was to temporarily disable save in background and data recovery options and then relying on data recovery after a force quit, as noted in my second paragraph. I had to do this because none of the other suggestions worked for me.

You say the various suggestions people are listing are not unrelated? Changing color mode, saving as PDF, logging into different adobe id, changing the OS security/ransomeware settings, disabling background save and recovery options, as well as others - how are they related exactly then?

If the issue is caused by different things for different people then wouldn't it make sense that the various solutions are "unrelated"? Different and unrelated are synonymous, no?

And to be fair, in my original post I said my "solution" with scare quotes to indicate I did not consider it a true solution, but it did allow me to workaround my problem and I only shared it for any others that might be able to use it.

But thanks for your ever so "helpful" comments. You may be a Community Expert but I've been using and troubleshooting Adobe products full time since 1993.

[mattl63375823]

To be clear, bro,  I don't think she was referrnig to you. She was referring to Adobe's weird bug. JMO

[Monika Gause]

---

@Fluk3  schrieb:

 I've been using and troubleshooting Adobe products full time since 1993.

---

So there's one thing we have in common. Only that it's 1990 for me.

[Elisheva@613]

I was having the same issue, and none of the suggestions had worked for me - then I thought to save it first as a cloud file AI as a different name, then save it as a PDF and AI as I needed - this worked (no idea why) but figured I'd have I case it may help others.

[Marcin Wik]

I am experiencing this problem now. And no-one (definately not Adobe) is offering a good solution. I managed to save the file after first saving it to the cloud. Then after a few tries it finished saving. It appears that this problem gets resolved randomly through some independent process and the users think that whatever they were trying at the moment resolved the issue.

It would be nice if someone at Adobe looked into this and replied.

[Monika Gause]

I am experiencing this problem now. And no-one (definately not Adobe) is offering a good solution. I managed to save the file after first saving it to the cloud. Then after a few tries it finished saving. It appears that this problem gets resolved randomly through some independent process and the users think that whatever they were trying at the moment resolved the issue.

It would be nice if someone at Adobe looked into this and replied.

By @Marcin Wik

Please don't post into every available thread. 95% of people here are not staff, we are helping in our spare time. This is your thread: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/illustrator-wont-save-files-because-they-don-...

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @Marcin Wik,

We are sorry to hear about your experience. I understand your frustration. This issue has been going from several years now. There are different scenarios for almost everyone on this thread. We are unable to identify as people try alternate solutions & fixes shared on this thread to resolve the issue before contacting us. When we try to replicate it on their machine, the issue is no longer reproducible at their end and ours, which makes it challenging to identify the cause and fix it permanently.

If you are able to reproduce the issue at your end, please DM me so we can further investigate the issue.

Thanks,
Anshul Saini

[Wacho Baca]

What worked for me:
- Copy the full artboard

- Pasting on XD as a backup

- Restarting AI

- Pasting again on the same place and saving.

The error ocurred after I left Illustrator open for several hours and then came back to it. 

[shashiwardhan28904376l8bt]

I tried,

save as type: SVG(*.SVG), then open it on Illustrator then save as type: Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) 

worked for me.

[Monika Gause]

I tried,

save as type: SVG(*.SVG), then open it on Illustrator then save as type: Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) 

worked for me.

By @shashiwardhan28904376l8bt

This might ruin the editability of your file completely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYmoZw8TgWE

[WEIYI5CEB · Accepted solution]

I turned off the VPN of my pc security software then it worked.

[Marcin Wik]

I don't think this is the correct answer, because I generally don't work with VPN on and still had this problem.