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.

[Karim284735558zya]

Our superman .. thank you

[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.

[bajra2000]

Hit Esc and on File menu click "Save a copy" or press command+option+s that can save the file.

[nice_amazement9191]

I have the same issue in windows 11

See Screenshot: Blank document -> File -> Save As -> Dialog freezes
InDesign Version 20.2
I have also opened old .indd files and tried to save them -> same result

Tried to uninstall and install again - same result
Tried to uninstall all previous versions and install InDesign Version 20.2 - same result

Need help!

[Eugene Tyson]

Try resetting your preferences:

InDesign 19.3 and newer go to Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart.

Or
Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.


More in-depth cleanse of preferences
https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

------

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

------

Rollback to a previous InDeisgn version

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html#:~:text=Open%20the%20Cr....

[Peter Spier]

UI issues like this are usually caused by a corrupt cache. See Reset InDesign Preferences and Other Troubleshooting and scroll down to the section on deep reset to see how to manually find and delete the cache files.

[nice_amazement9191]

Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart.

--> did not work - same result

I followed the instructions from here 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo... 
Close InDesign; then rename these InDesign folders:

C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign

C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign

In both places, rename the InDesign folder to InDesign.old. Now try to relaunch/restart InDesign
did not work either (same result)

Next try was "Reset with the nuclear option (4)"

A fourth and final way to reset InDesign is to uninstall the application using the CC Cleaner tool and reinstall from the Creative Cloud Desktop app. https://helpx.adobe.com/at/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html 

Does not work either but now I get a different error message right at the begining:

[Peter Spier]

I don't think the result will be any different, but it will be informative to find out, so please try both of the following:

Sign out of the CC Desktop app and sign in again, try to open InDesign.

Reboot in Safe Mode and try to start InDessign.

Did you by any chance recently update Photoshop? There's a bug that's causing the update to install a faulty startup script for InDesign, though the error messabe is typically different.

[nice_amazement9191]

Sign out of the CC Desktop app and sign in again, try to open InDesign.

--> did no difference

Did you by any chance recently update Photoshop?

I do not have photoshop

Unfortunately to the new error message I do not find anything on the reference code 224?

[Peter Spier]

Please try Safe Mode startup so we can eliminate software conflicts.

My google search of the error code seems to indicate it's related to missing links, which seems irrelevant iin this case.

[rajabaalk]

RE: the black Save screen:

Savie our document initially using control+alt, then exit and do not save when called upon to do so.

Open the documet and you will find iit saved. in your prior cotrol+alt !

Save from now  on the normal way. The problem is gone!

[soumend]

The same thing happened to me today when I used 'Save As' in Adobe InDesign 2025 for the first time. Initially I followed these steps: quitting InDesign and then pressing and holding Ctrl+Shift+Alt while restarting the application, and unfortunately the issue was not resolved. Next, I simply uninstalled the application with the 'no preference saved' option and then reinstalled the app. Now, the 'Save As' issue is resolved, and it works fine.

[Eugene Tyson]

For future issues

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html