Why does InDesign insist on saving changes to book files?

[Owen Linzmayer]

Why does InDesign insist on saving change to book files when I've done nothing to the book file itself?

This behavior has been going on ever since I can remember, and still happens in 15.0, the very latest version.

I open a book file, then I double-click a document file inside the book panel. 

I work on the document file, save my work, and then close the document file.

I've done nothing to the book file itself, yet if I try to quit InDesign, it always presents a dialog box asking if I want to save changes to the book file.

Huh? I didn't change the book file, so why does InDesign ask  me to save "changes?"

To make matters worse, if I click Save, it doesn't just save the file.

Nope. InDesign then presents a Save As dialog box, defaulting to the same book file name and location. 

So then I click Save again. But of couse, that's not going to work, because the file by that name already exists in that location, so I must click Replace.

This is not typical Mac application behavior and it's infuriating because it prevents me from easily quitting the app or shutting down my Mac until I've dealt with "saving" or ignorning changes to each and every book file opened during the work session.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to prevent InDesign from insisting I save unchanged book files?

[ergophobe]

I wish this question had an answer. I searched the web and all I find is this unanswered question. It is ridiculously annoying. Isn't there some way to turn off this behavior? 

[ergophobe]

PS - this official page suggests this should NOT be the behavior

https://helpx.adobe.com/lv/indesign/user-guide.html/lv/indesign/using/creating-book-files.ug.html

There must be some reason it is happening to Owen and I. It also happens to another friend who has been a designer for 40 years and she hasn't figured out how to make it stop either. Many different versions of InDesign seem to do it.

[rob day]

It will happen if you open a book saved in an earlier version. Regular InDesign files work the same way—an .INDD file saved in an earlier version will show [Converted] in the titlebar and requires a Save As the first time you save in the new version.

[Owen Linzmayer]

Rob,

I completely understand and expect that if I have opened a book file from an older version of the application that the book file needs to be converted and saved in the latest format. That's not what I'm complaining about.

My concern is that every single time I open a book file and then later try to quit InDesign, it refuses to quit without asking me if I want to save the open book files even though I have done absolutely nothing to alter the book file.

[rob day]

I’m not seeing that here using CC2020 with OSX High Sierra

[ergophobe]

Similar to what Owen said, I would expect the behavior Rob mentions, but I have only one version of InDesign. It's really old - CS6 - but I'm an occasional user. So I have only ever created and saved files in CS6. And Owen I'm sure has a more modern version and has the same issue. It's either a bug that is deeply baked in or a setting.

Also, I should have mentioned, I'm on Windows. Owen, are you on Mac or Windows? I wonder if it's a bug in the Windows version and that's why most people don't encounter it and there is not too much discussion of it. I think most InDesign users would be on the Mac version.

Anyway, when I look at the documentation for CS6, I should be able to Save or Save As, yet for book files, and *only* for book files, I can only ever Save As, never simply Save. Or, more precisely, Save behaves like Save As. So every time I save a book, I need to Save, then it asks me to give a file name, I click on the existing file, it asks if I'm sure I want to replace it, I say yes, and then it saves. Super bizarre and very similar to what Owen has experienced.

It's minor, but annoying. 

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

If the Book file is open, and you open an INDD file that's in it and make changes to the INDD file, then you'll be prompted to save the Book file again.

The Book file keeps track of several items:

• The individual INDD files that make up the book.
• Pagination of the entire book and the individual INDD files.
• Sequencing of the INDD files.
• How to paginate from one INDD file to the next (continue numbering, etc.)
• Whether any of the component files have been modified.
• And more.

So to me, it makes sense that when I tool around in any component file of the book, InDesign will prompt me to update the Book's information bysaving it.

[ergophobe]

Hi Bev, 

In my case, and I'm not sure this is exactly the same as Owen upon reading carefully, it's not that I have to save that bothers me, it's that it will not let me save with the same name. So it opens the Save As dialog box every time. If I simply load the file and make no changes, or make changes and want to simply save using the same name, no matter what, I get the Save As dialog and have to choose a name and, if I want to save over the existing file, I have to say it's okay to replace it.

And despite what I asked in the last message about Windows vs Mac, I realized that my friend on a Mac has the same experience and says she doesn't know why, it's just the way book files have always worked for her and she's produced many books with InDesign.

AGain, it's a very minor issue, but it is annoying.

[Owen Linzmayer]

ergophobe, 

Your experience is exactly what I'm experiencing on a MacBook Pro running Big Sur and InDesign 15.1.3, but it's been happening for years under earlier versions of the OS and app: InDesign always insists on presenting the Save As dialog box which means you have to go through extra steps to confirm replacement of the existing file.

[ergophobe]

So bizarre and a bit disheartening. I thought I would do a search and find a simple solution that was just not obvious to a non-expert like me. 😞

[YWexler]

I think I might have found the solution to this...

When closing a Book it had always needed to be saved, that I was used to, but was driving me crazy that all of a sudden today I kept needing to Save As and Replace... all those unnecesarry steps.

Well after reading the above posts here I think I found the solution.

I remembered I had turned on "Automatic Document Conversion" in the Book panel, since my Book had been created in an earlier version and I was now working on it with a newer version. 

I realized maybe that was causing the problem so I shut that off and all off a sudden Book closes with just requiring me to save and no need to Save As and Replace!

[mostlycloudy]

I have the same issue in 2023 with the latest version 18.5 - InDesign ALWAYS presents a Save As . . . dialog box on indb files, even after they have been overwritten before by the same version of InDesign.  Every time I close a Book, I'm presented with a Save As . . . dialog box and have to tell it to overwrite the version it saved just 10 minutes ago.  It's annoying.  Can we still use the software? Yes.  But you'd think this would get fixed eventually.

[Tswelopele25040066xg4k]

Try and package the book. This problem should go away once the book is packaged.

[Scott Falkner]

This makes perfect sense. The book file contains references to the InDesign files, including page count, starting page number, section info, parent pages, styles, and swatches. The data in the book file on the InDesign file needs to be kept current. Naturally, this includes noting the modification date of the InDesign file. If the InDesign file is changed the book file needs to be updated to ensure the data about that file is up to date, even if none of that information changed.

[tucsonwriter]

I found that if I checked 'Automatic Document Conversion' in the Book menu, then unchecked it again, that it solved the problem. Go figure.

[Chris34961083hwcx]

This issue of having to resave an indesign file despite not making any changes to the file... I notice when i open up a .indd file and copy out an element, it requires a resave afterwards. Interestingly photoshop and illustrator does not require it when doing the same action. Curious why this is?

[Scott Falkner]

The book file contains information about the files it links to, the number of pages in the files, whatever sync information is needed, and when the files were updated. opening a book file updates the Book file, even if nothing changes within the file because the data and metadata for the linked INDD files is updated.

Edit: I see I have roughly the same answere here 1 year and a half ago.

[Owen Linzmayer]

Scott, Thanks for explaining again why InDesign thinks it is necessary to save book files every time any document file within the book is changed. 

It's good to know the reason, but the problem still persists that I can never just shut down/restart my Mac without InDesign insisting that I manaully confront a series of dialog boxes for every open book file (I often work with dozens during the day). 

[Chris34961083hwcx]

Thanks for the explanation Scott.
This seems to be a persistent problem for InDesign users. This is a behind the scenes issue that is also a user problem. It looks like this is something Adobe needs to fix.