Indesign files opening as read only when using File Open

Report · May 30, 2025

Good morning/ afternoon / evening to you all.

I've got a user who has InDesign 20.3.1 x64 installed on their computer. For the last two weeks the following problem occurs:

Open an INDD file using File, Open and the file opens as Read Only. If you use Windows File Explorer to open the file (Double-click to open file) it opens fine.

I've gone round the houses (and forums) with this one and cannot find anything to give me a hint of where to start looking at this. The user has had InDesign for years and this problem only started 2 weeks ago.

Diagnostics:

PC is an Intel I7 with 32 GB RAM, running Windows 11. The InDesign files are all stored on a network drive.

Windows Reliability History shows no major updates to the operating system or to system drivers, other than the standard Security Intelligence updates for Microsoft Defender, for the time period involved. The users are not able to update BIOS or firmware updates without a member of IT (me), so I know the system architecture hasn't changed.

I cannot find any reason why InDesign now behaves this way. Have there been any updates rolled out to InDesign about 2 weeks ago (week commencing 12th or 19th May)?

I'm getting to the point of uninstalling Indesign and reinstalling it. Does anybody have any ideas?

Kind regards, Simon

Report · May 30, 2025

Found a thread here

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-opens-files-randomly-in-read-only/m-p/1...

Also make sure you have permission to right ot that folder

There are no hidden .idlk files

Can you do a Save As and save it to another location?

Report · Jun 02, 2025

Thanks for the link, I'll go through it shortly.

With regards to your questions:

1. I'll re-run the test and will check for hidden files.

2. Save As works fine to that location or the next. However, we discovered that the file again re-opens as read-only if you use InDesign File, Open. If you use Fiel Explorer (double-click the file) it opens normally.

Report · May 30, 2025

Hi Simon,

strange.

With menu File > Open will you see the same behavior, read only InDesign document, when you use the option to open the document as Original or as Copy instead of Normal?

Also test a previous version of InDesign 2025 like 20.2.0 or 20.1.0.

Hm. Could it be that the connection to the server is a bit lame?

I suspect that latency could be a problem.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

Report · Jun 02, 2025

Thanks for the suggestions Uwe.

I'll run another set of tests and will check what the document option is saying. I'll need to schedule in an install of the previous version.

As for the latency thought, I am not 100% sure if it would unless there is an additional lag introduced when opening from within the program versus opening within file explorer, which would use the Default App to open the file. Here's where my knowledge is lacking as I don't understand InDesign (from a technical standpoint) well enough.

Report · Jun 25, 2025

Hi simon66540606 ,

Hope you're doing well!

We would like to follow up on your issue. Are you able to resolve the issue by following the suggestion mentioned?

Please let us know what worked for you, and feel free to update the discussion if you need further assistance from us.

We would be happy to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

Report · Jun 02, 2025

Hi @simon66540606,

Thanks for the update and sorry to hear about the issue. Please go through this similar issue and try the suggestions mentioned in the thread:
https://adobe.ly/45AD1E0

Let me know how it goes.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Report · Oct 09, 2025

@HARSHIKA_VERMA + @Abhishek Rao - this has been an ongoing issue with InDesign for years now. We really need Adobe to put some resources on this for a real solution. Its massively effecting our day to day work environement. Unsure if its an issue because our server is more Windows-friednly and some of us are on a Mac; however this simply should not happen. BIG pain point if you can solve it for users across the globe. thanks

Report · Oct 09, 2025

Hi Jessie

This issue has been cropping up for years in different forms. It usually ties back to how InDesign handles file locks across mixed environments (Macs accessing Windows shares or vice versa). The .idlk lock file doesn’t always get created or cleared correctly, which can cause that Read Only behaviour you’re seeing.

Can you confirm everyone’s using SMB (not AFP) for Mac connections to Windows servers, and to double-check that file versioning or sync software (like OneDrive, Dropbox, or server shadow copies) isn’t interfering. It’s also worth testing whether the issue disappears when files are stored locally if so, that confirms it’s network-related.

Report

Good morning /afternoon / evening.

So, my apologies for the long absents with responding to the questions above.

We're going to reformat the computer, however we need to wait until a weekend is free to do the work as its the only desktop publishing PC we have and see if that can fix the issue.
With regards to the PC itself, its a Lenovo P520c with a quadro 4000 card and 64 GB or RAM running Windows 11. It's connecting via LAN ethernet and cisco switches to a HP Proliant DL380 Windows 2019 file server.

Problem is still ongoing despite redoing file permissions , resetting preferences, etc. Hence the nuke and rebuild option.

We have a second computer with the user heading off on maternity leave in December, so I'm going to take that opportunity to install some older versions of InDesign and run more opening tests.

Kind regards,

Simon

Report

Whoops, in case people get confused, the second user is all about video editing, so they use other Adobe products and not InDesign. Hence why I am taking it as an InDesign tester. It's twice as powerful as the Desktop publishing computer.