Black modal screen when trying to save

[Erin33612282lqe4]

I just spent hours on this and haven't saved it til now (I know, my fault), but when I clicked save as, this modal popped up and I can't exit out of it or do anything in InDesign now. HELP!! I don't want to lose all this work.

[Barb Binder]

Yikes.

What happens if you click the green circle in the top left corner?

Do you have more than one desktop defined or multiple monitors? Can you look at the other desktops or monitors to see if save as is over there?

I work with multiple desktops on my Mac, and sometimes when I move InDesign from one desktop to another, the model dialog box appears on the original desktop and I have to go find it.

~Barb

[eacribb]

The green button just makes it go full screen. I can't even move the InDesign over to another screen. Unfortunately nothing is on my other screen 😞 This modal has blocked me from doing anything in the file

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

try hitting Esc to exit the dialog and see if you are able to export to .idml

If that fails, consider doing a force quit in hopes that restarting InDesign will fix the problem and hopefully auto-recovery will kick in.

[Barb Binder]

I think Peter's suggestion is the only one left to try. Let us know if that works. 

This won't make you feel better (yet) but we've all lost work like this, and I can say from experience that it takes a lot less time to recreate it, the second time around. 

I'm sorry, @Erin33612282lqe4.

~Barb

[Peter Spier]

This won't make you feel better (yet) but we've all lost work like this,

By @Barb Binder

Too true.

Good luck.

[Eugene Tyson]

Very frustrating - have your resolved it? 

[eacribb]

Update! I had to force quit. Nothing was working. But somehow my data was recovered for most of the document other than the last few things, so yay! 

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @eacribb,

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you experienced. I'm glad to know that most of your data was recovered after the force quit.

Could you please provide some additional details to help us understand the issue better?

• Which macOS version are you using?
• Is this happening with all files or just this particular one?
• Are you still facing this issue with new files?

Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,
Anshul Saini

[Peter Spier]

I'm glad that  worked. Most of the time it does, but you never know.

Were you able to save after reopening?

One more thing I would recommend at this point if the file is still wonky is to try moving the pages to a new document. First create a new one-page file with the same specs and save it to be sure that works and leave it open. Back in the original file open the pages panel select all the pages, then from the panel menu choose move pages,  for the target choose your open new file, and insert the pages Before Page 1. Resave the new file.

You will probably also need to import the styles from the old file. You can do that in the new file from either the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles panel menu.