InDesign 2023 makes a read only file

[Christina228449123bw0]

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?

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi @amyr12,

Thank you for reporting the issue. We would like to know if you are on a Windows machine or on Mac Machine. 

We will try our best to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

[amyr12]

I am on a Windows PC. Thanks.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Thank you for confirming. Could you please try signing out of InDesign and Creative Cloud Desktop app and restart the machine and sign back in?

Let us know if that helps. We will continue to assist you further.

Thanks,

Harshika

[amyr12]

I think the problem is solved. The files that were read only are no longer that way.

Thanks so much for your help.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Awesome. Glad to know you're back on track. Please feel free to reach out for any assistance in the future.

We would be happy to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

[leanner57525379]

Hi Harshika, 

Are there any updates on fixing the problem yet? We have 4 PCs in our Department & only 2 have this problem but it is very annoying & time consuming.

thanks Leanne

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi @leanner57525379,

Apologize for the frustration. Would you mind confirming if you're on Windows or Mac machine? Could you please share the impacted InDesign file with me so that I can check at my end and investigate further?

We will try our best to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

[leanner57525379]

Hi Harshika,

We are PCs on Windows 10, we are all connected to a network & this is not Wifi or VPN. The file will open as read only & usually if we close & re open it may open as normal. We are opening multiple files each day as we produce School Diaries & sometimes we need to go back & re open during the day but we never work on the same file as others (or same time) in our Department. Do you want me to attach the file here?  Regards Leanne

[jaimek99410139]

I have done this and restarted the computer now twice and it does not work. When will this be fixed?

[amyr12]

Good day Harshika -
Well while your "fix solution" worked initially, I am about to restart my computer for the 3rd time today to get rid of the "Read Only" file issue. I sign out of the Creative Cloud, restart my computer and am good for about an hour. Then the files start opening as Read Only again. I am too busy at work to keep this up so many times a day.
Any other advice? When will InDesign get an update to deal with this?
Very aggravating!!

Thanks.

[BriGuyOSC]

Good day Harshika -
Well while your "fix solution" worked initially, I am about to restart my computer for the 3rd time today to get rid of the "Read Only" file issue. I sign out of the Creative Cloud, restart my computer and am good for about an hour. Then the files start opening as Read Only again. I am too busy at work to keep this up so many times a day.
Any other advice? When will InDesign get an update to deal with this?
Very aggravating!!

Thanks.

By @amyr12

Hi, Amyr12,

Did you try the workaround she posted? That worked for me. It's annoying to have to disable the Windows Preview pane in Explorer, but that has been working for me so far:

• Disable Preview Pane in Explorer- >View-> Preview Pane.
• Close InDesign, Restart the system. 

[Anouk5C8C]

yup still happening in 18.5 and its really annoying- I am working on an Annual Report and have to save 5 different files a day !!

[CJC Williams]

Hi Harshika,

Thanks for the update and you and your colleagues continued efforts to sort this out. 

Until a future update correctingt eh problem comes out, is there a workaround that works for Apple Macs? 

[amyr12]

Hi - The solution above did not fix the issue. 

Any other suggestions? When will the InDeisgn software be fixed and available?

[Petrol Fumes]

Hi Harshika & Anyone else experiencing this issue: 

A bit of my environment: 

Deployment: macOS Ventura 13.4.x farm.

Adobe CC: InDesign 18.3 - 18.4

Anti-virus: Sophos EndPoint Protection (although Sophos have acknowledged the issue with file locks with Big Sur which was logged with Apple (rdar://50420490: SMB file system with odd locking behavior (openradar.appspot.com)) 

File Access: SMB (Windows Server) file share - fully patched as of mid July 2023 updates release. 

Network bandwidth: 10Gb/s throughout.  

NB: No Backups Running During Working Hours 7am - 7pm. 

It seems to happen very random, even though I've stripped the NTFS and Share Permissions and applied afresh from AD Universal Security Groups.

I've done tests with a countdown timer and the results vary saving to an SMB share:

- I get immediate read-only after opening a new blank project and saving immediately.

-  After a few seconds. copy-pasting a large volume of texts & graphics, saves normally. Moments later, saving again on a new canvas, saves as read-only. 

- Copying and pasting the same large volume to a blank canvas, waiting 30 seconds and saving, saves without issues. 

- Opening files on SMB shares seem to open okay. Occasionally, will open a random read-only file. 

It might be worth checking with Sophos if this is still an issue on Ventura. Also, a while back, on a forum, the recommendation was copying Adobe files from shares to a temporary location locally, working on them, then saving them back on the SMB share. Is this still the case?  

Thanks, 

Petrol Fumes. 

[J-Dubbs]

We're running a neearly identical setup and still have it pop up randomly for people. In addition to what you've described (gj btw):

-We've run all the betas for all the apps (ID/Sophos) and platforms (Mac Intel/M1/M2).

-Killed preview panes in 2012

-Tried all sorts of tweaks to the client's smb.conf

-Killed access-based enumeration on the SMB share (VMware VM of Windows Server 2022)

-Only ever let their security group have "modify" permissions (since "full control" mucks everything up for Macs)

-Get nothing but cries of pain from users with that workaround since it really puts a crimp on their workflow

We'd LOVE to hear that this is getting fixed too.

[David29598576igli]

Hello Harshika, we are on Indesign 18.5 version (Windows), and this problem is still happening to our indesign files - automatically changing to [Read-Only]. Can you advise what to do please?

[Isabel31870497ggqk]

After updating to 18.5 I am experiencing this issue frequently. We work on a network with only 3 people so we know that there is no chance someone else has the file open elsewhere. This problem seems to be isolated just to our windows computer and not our mac. 

I tried: "-Disable Preview Pane in Explorer- >View-> Preview Pane -Close InDesign, Restart the system." on a couple of files and it did not help.

[MPW_Verwaltung_Schweiz]

Hello
We are also still experiencing this on V19.2 on Windows 10 Pro.

[pifath67]

I think it's pointless to hope for a solution here.
Adobe only seems to be interested in making sure we all pay for our subscriptions.
The interests of customers are obviously of no interest to Adobe.
Unfortunately, they have the upper hand, as there is really no alternative for users.
It's very sad that customer friendliness is obviously no longer important today.

[MJMarek]

This is still an issue. (For me, it's only happening when updating documents created last year that are longer than 8 pages.) I am running 19.0.1 x64 on Win 11. 

[BobLevine]

Current version of InDesign is 19.3.

[MJMarek]

Thanks, Bob. I realize that, but we are not ready to upgrade and the issue was said to be fixed in 18.4, plus there was a question if the issue existed in new or old files, so I am confirming it is old files on my end, as well as it only being on longer documents.

[Jim27186468bpg8]

Heck nothing seems to matter anymore... New files or old files.  Short documents or long documents. Preview pane or no preview pane. Sophos or virus software on or off. New version of InDesign or older version.  The problem is not going away. And no one cares but us. 

[adrih24445711]

taking away the preview panel in your windows folders helps. I haven't had the problem anymore since I did that.