Laptop suddenly won't save anything?

My laptop periodically suddenly stops allowing me to save. Pages will stop autosaving, Mail won't let me save drafts, I can't take screenshots, and I can't copy files, for example. Rebooting fixes it (why would rebooting change permissions?) but it happens again soon. When it happens, I can cut and paste from a document to a fresh email and mail myself what I'm working on (usually in Pages), but I can't download the new email till after I've rebooted.


I recently downloaded the newest EndNote, but the problem occurs even when EndNote isn't running (although I run the plugin, but that has been installed for years.)


I'd appreciate any insight into what is going on. I've tried repairing permissions via disk utility, but since they seem to be dynamically changing, that isn't working.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 7, 2013 8:05 PM

Reply
5 replies

May 7, 2013 9:41 PM in response to Linc Davis

I can't reproduce it; it tells me the document can't be saved. I think that when I tried a screen shot (so I had a record of my document) it told me that I didn't have permission to save to that location. But as I say, after a reboot, I suddenly had permission again.


It happened for the first time about 2 weeks ago, and happened 5 or 6 times in a few hours. It seems to be linked to Pages use--the more I'm using it the more often it happens.


A quick scan on Terminal looks like the file permissions are appropriate, but I only checked one directory.

May 8, 2013 6:17 AM in response to mmschuck

Problems such as yours are sometimes caused by files that should belong to you but are locked or have wrong permissions. This procedure will check for such files. It makes no changes and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.

First, empty the Trash.

Triple-click the line below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 -o -acl \) 2> /dev/null | wc -l

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

The output of this command, on a line directly below what you entered, will be a number such as "41." Please post it in a reply.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Laptop suddenly won't save anything?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.