illustrator is saving the file under a new name everytime i hit 'save'

[veralunajoy]

hi! i have issues with saving an illustrator file. let's say i have a document called screen1.ai (and i'm working on it in illustrator). everytime i hit cmd-s (save), it saves the document under a new filename called screen1 2.ai (whilst still working in illustrator on the document screen1.ai) few hours later after saving the same document a few times i have 6 different versions on my laptop of the same document! screen1.ai (the oldest), screen1 2.ai, screen1 3.ai, screen1 4.ai, screen1 5.ai and screen1 5.ai...

why is illustrator doing this? i just want it to update the screen1.ai document everytime i save THAT document...

i have the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, but i have had this problem since the beginning (but i always forgot to save my document throughout the process. i just saved it when i was done lol). one time illustrator crashed and my whole document was gone, because i didn't save it while working on it. now i hit cmd-s every halfhour and as a result i have 6 versions of the same document :))))

[Monika Gause]

Which system?

Which version?

Exactly where do you save files?

[veralunajoy]

i have a macbook pro and i've updated illustrator to 24.0.2. i just save the document in 'documents'.

[Monika Gause]

Which system?

Are all user privileges set up correctly?

And also: do you use any virus protection, backup software ...?

[veralunajoy]

i have macOS catalina 10.15.2. intelcore i5. i don't know what you mean by user privileges lol. i don't use any virus protection atm

[Monika Gause]

Then please read the Catalina documentation on how to set the user privileges and all the new security features it introduced.

[manal shanableh]

maybe this happen when you open an illustrator file with older version.

[veralunajoy]

i had the same problem with (all of the) older versions of illustrator... i have illustrator for 3 yrs now

[AllenArtis]

I am having this exact same problem but i am having it with illusrator cs6. Anyone know why this happens? It is really annoying!

[Sammie Francis]

I've been having the same issue and it's been driving me nuts, but I think I might've figured it out! (At least one answer, that is.)

I use iCloud storage, and since I have pretty limited storage on my MacBook, files back up really quickly to the cloud. When the .ai file I'm currently working on does this and shows the cloud icon next to the file, illustrator isn't able to save over my source file, and it makes copies renumbered the exact same way the OP described. I've found that redownloading the file back off the cloud in its finder location has solved this and allows me to save without creating obnoxious copies. 

tldr: Make sure your file is downloaded before you save! Hope this helps! 

[hojo53]

OMG Thank YOU!

[Michael5E6B]

🙌