Save Options grayed out in InDesign

[julians24124784]

I had the same issue as in the post below.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2648879

I mean in general it would be nice if the save function always would be available. But if there are possibilities that this can break you could at least could make a prompt after hitting CMD+S that says it could not save the document. Would have saved me a lot of time today.

{Renamed By MOD}

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi Julian,

We're so sorry about the trouble. This is unusual behavior. I would request if you can share a few more details like:

1. The exact version of InDesign and the Operating System.
2. Are you able to save files right now? Did it happen once only?
3. Where do you save the file, locally or on any network or shared drive?
4. Have you checked if this is happening on a specific file or multiple files?

Regards

Rishabh

[julians24124784]

Hey Rishabh

Sure I can give you a bit more details to it.

1:

Mac Mojave 10.14.6
Indesign 15.0.1

I was working on a document. There were some things going funny already (CMD+Z went back about 10 steps and undo would not work). I saving all the time and then at the end I hit CMD+S again bit later I closed (this is where I admit it is partly my fault:) I got a prompt if I wanna save it before closing. I get that all the time, when accidentaly click on a element and move it by 1px or something like this, right after saving. As I exactly knew I just saved it, I foolishly ignored this and clicked "close without saving". 
As I reopened it I realized that my last 2 hours of work are gone. At first I thought it just me that is going mad and after all I did not hit cmd+s – even if I recalled it doing it multiple times in the last few minutes.

But then - when rebuilding the whole thing I realized when I hit CMD+S the star next to the file does not go away (doc is not saving) looking at the menu I realized the 'save' + 'save as' are greyed out (same as printscreen of other post mentioned above).
2: Luckily I was able with Srishti Bali's tip from the other post to at least resque the work I rebuild again by exporting as idml. After restarting OS it seems to work again so far.

3: Doc and all links were on my local machine

4: First time this happened (exept few times I accidentally renaming / moving an open file or lost connection to external device I used – which if of course clearly are user-error and never had issues with fixing these (rename, move back...) – but in this case I did nothing like this)

Only one file so far, which was newly created today (not converted from other version or anything that I think could have corrupded it)

kind regards Julian

[Laubender]

Hi Julian,

you said: "CMD+Z went back about 10 steps and undo would not work".

Think this a bug on Mac OS X only and will be fixed with the next bug fix version of InDesign 2020 soon.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender]

For that bug with "Undo" I mentioned see more details here:

Undo Not Working properly in InDesign 2020

kevin | November 08, 2019

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/38991835-undo-not-worki...

Now marked: Available in Beta Builds

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[BenjaMillan]

I have the exact same issue with the latest version. Is my first time using ID and it seems like a lot of people struggle with the same. Save, Save As, and Undo are grayed out. I'm running Mac OS Monterrey 12.1 and InDesign 17.3

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi @BenjaMillan ,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Could you please try the suggestions shared here https://creativepro.com/save-save-save-copy-undo-help/ and let us know if this helps or if you need any further assistance?

Regards

Rishabh 

[julians24124784]

Cannot work with this anymore... I'm just going to use Indesign 2019 now and use my 2020 Indesign installation to convert documents to idml that I cannot open. – Hopefully 2021 version will be stable enough again to work with it.

[BobLevine]

You can join the prerelease program and get the patch now.

[julians24124784]

My whole office is complaining about buggs at the moment for new versions of Adobe software (which is kind of understandable though, as macOS is undergoing a lot of changes at the moment) – So don't think pre-releases will make it any better... Maybe it would fix this bugg but probably there would be a couple new ones.

[zsofiag34858584]

Same happaned to my by now two times and on multiple files. The second time for sure it happaned after hitting Undo (Cmd z) multiple times, and it effected all of the Indd files I had open at the time. Save, Save as, Save a Copy were all grayed out. As a workaround Export Idml worked. 
Running macOS Big Sur Version 11.2.3 and Indd 16.1
Any solution, bug fixes on the horizon? 

[Nicm14]

I am having the exact same issue! Has this bug been fixed?

[Eugene Tyson]

Have you updated InDesign - is the bug still present?

[Nicm14]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes InDesign is fully up to date and I'm running the latest version of Mac OS.

Undo functionality disappeared. Then all save functions were greyed out. Had to export to IDML so I didn't loose my changes and then when I went to close the file it prompted me to save which then said the file couldn't be saved.

[julians24124784]

Reinstall the whole adobe cc. If that does not help downgrade to indesign 2020, which is a much more stable version...

[Nicm14]

Thanks I will give that a go.

Are there plans to fix this bug in the newest version of InDesign?

[julians24124784]

I think it is probably something that rarly happens due to a corupt install/update. So I don't think they will put much effort into this unless a lot of people are starting to have this issue.
If you need the most recent version and reinstalling app / CC collection does not work I would contact Adobe support. They can help deleting all hidden app files that might have an issue and reinstall and I'm pretty sure they will get it working again.

[Nicm14]

No worries, thank you for your help!

[Ivan Berka]

Just wanted to let all know that it still happens, but I was able to fix it. Or at least I hope so. 

After a couple of minutes of despair, instead of stubbornly trying to save the file under the same name (Why would I change it once a had a good reason to name it just the way I wanted it, right?), I cleared the field name completely (in that moment the Save button was still gray), but after typing first letter of a new name the Save button got its color and function back. 

It happened to me right now. macOS 14.2 Sonoma, Mac Studio with M2 processor, InDesign 19.1.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi @Ivan Berka,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing the solution that worked for you. In addition to this suggestions, if anyone else is experiencing this issue, please check if InDesign has full disc access. You can do that by going to Apple Menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disc Access. Feel free to update the discussion if you need further assistance.

Thanks

Rishabh

[Ivan Berka]

Thanks for the tip, Rishabh. InDesign didn’t have full disk access enabled and now I’ve set it up.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Glad to hear that! Feel free to reach out if you need further assistance.

[soulglowdeej]

FYI, this seems to happen all the time when adjusting variable fonts in Indesign 19.3 - as soon as you move the adjustable width slider all options (and undo) get revoked, even with full disk access enabled.