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Question

InDesign Opening Files As Read Only - Preventing Saving

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
May 30, 2024
6 replies
3787 views

We are experiencing an issue with Adobe InDesign in which it opens files with only read permissions, so when the user tries to save the file it errors and the user is forced to use Save As and use a new file name.

Details:

Software: Adobe InDesign 2024 (19.4.0.63)

Device: macOS 13.5.2 (22G91) (Build 22G91)

Storage: Files stored on Shared Drive (SMB)

We have checked on the server where the files are stored, and Computer Manager confirms that the user has the file open in "Read" mode instead of "Write+Read". We have verified that the user has Full Control permissions to the file and that no other user is trying to access the same file at the same time.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

B

BB22951764yccu

New Participant

System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Accessibility -> Unlock in lower left -> Turn on AEServer and re-connect to server! That fixed it for me!

Robert at ID-Tasker

Brainiac

@163773218923cn

Someone just posted:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-for-windows-opening-files-as-read-only-when-oplocks-disabled-on-network-share/td-p/14847950

Might be an answer to your problem?

Karl Kerschbaum

New Participant

I've the same problems with InDesign-Files opening in just "read only". My PC is running windows 10.

Simple solution: Klick the file with right mouse click and choose from the pop up menue "Open with" > choose InDesign.

With this methode all files open in "read and write" modus again.

I know it should work with just a doublklicking on the files, but who cares 🙂

Hope that helps and works for you, too.

free your mind

Karl Kerschbaum

New Participant

It seems that the file size has also an impact on creating this problem. The before mentioned "right mouse click"-method does not work with big files (2 GB and more). Here it is helpfull to wait a few seconds (at least 10 seconds) after you selected your InDesign-document. Give your system the time to "preload" all date it needs before doubleclicking to open your file. Its more cost effective, than to try again and again, till the file finally opens in "read and write". Its not the solution in solving this problem, but less stressfull.

free your mind

rob day

Community Expert

The other thread has 253 replies and 37,000 views, so it is an ongoing problem. Early in the thread I thought the problem was with fies converted from earlier versions, but it is clearly a server problem Adobe has not been able to fully solve.

If @Mike Witherell ’s security fix doesn’t work for you, another scripting approach would be a Save As to a temp file, Save As back to the original, and delete the temp. I’ve never actually experienced the problem, so it is difficult for me to test, but you could try this script and see if it makes the file writeable:

var d = app.activeDocument;
var fn = d.fullName
var fp = d.filePath;
var n = d.name;
var tp = fp + "/Temp-" + n;
d.save (File(tp));
d.save (File(fn));
File(tp).remove()

1

163773218923cnAuthor

New Participant

Thank you both the the replies and suggestions.

I will try the setting change to 'Full Disk Access' and see if the issue keeps happening or not, and then try the script to see if that helps.

Regarding the first reply, unfortunately, I can confirm that we can't use Save As then then use this to overwrite the original, getting the following error:

rob day

Community Expert

Did you try the script or is the script triggering the error message?

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Accessibility -> Unlock in lower left -> Add Adobe Softwares -> Make sure they are checked. Next, scroll in the left column to "Full Disk Access" -> Add Adobe Software -> Make sure they are checked. Click the lock in the lower left.

If open, InDesign will need to be restarted for changes to take effect.

Mike Witherell

kyriosity

Inspiring

Is there a Windows version of these instructions?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @kyriosity,

Thanks for jumping into the discussion. On Windows, there isn't a direct equivalent of the macOS Security & Privacy steps, but you can try running InDesign as an administrator to see if it resolves the read‑only issue. Also, make sure that the user has full access to the shared folder and that no antivirus or backup software is locking the file.

If the problem persists, try opening the file by right‑clicking and selecting Open With > Adobe InDesign rather than double‑clicking, as some users have found this works reliably.

Please give these steps a try and let me know if it resolves the issue.

Abhishek

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @163773218923cn , This seems to be an ongoing problem with certain server configurations, see this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-2023-makes-a-read-only-file/m-p/14632371/page/11#M574885

Can you confirm that the Save As has to be to a new file name—you can’t overwrite the open file with a Save As to the same name?

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