Textedit won't allow me to save .txt file "The file "Untitled.txt" couldn't be opened."

same here...

i can save new documents only to the ~/Documents folder....

i don't get it...

for me, when i try to save a new document to the Desktop (or anywhere *not* ~/Documents) is says this:

The document “Untitled” could not be saved as “saveme.txt”. The file doesn’t exist.

I have recently upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.2 - there are a number of glitches that I have noticed. Hopefully Apple will remedy the issues soon.

Recently TextEdit has been behaving weirdly.

I type a document and go to save and I get the following:

I think you'll agree that the document exists, this is a screenshot of it.
I know there is a "/" in the name and that Mac doesn't like it but the same problem exists with whatever name is used and in whichever location is selected for the save.

Having run Macintosh since OS 8.6 I do have some working knowledge of how to resolve problems. My immediate action was to reboot the system. Nothing - same issue. I then moved to the Preferences directory (~/Library/Preferences) and did the usual trashing of the applications preferences. I noticed that in Mavericks there are way more associated preferences for each app. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I trashed the lot and emptied the trash. I was not able to empty the trash entirely - the system informed me that one of the documents was in use. I did not have TextEdit running. I removed the offending file from the command line using rm.

I then rebooted the system again and opened TextEdit and tried again and lo and behold the documents were able to be saved. However on inspection of the Preferences again I now find that TextEdit seems to have no preferences? See the Spotlight search below.

Whilst I tend to adhere to the adage "if it ain't broke - don't fix it" in this case I would really rather like to see the TextEdit Prefs.

Maybe there is a Mac-guru out there that can explain a) what is going on here b) how to reinstate some prefs for TextEdit as it would seem pretty normal that they exist. and c) what happens if TextEdit throws a wobbler again, I have no prefs to trash

At this time of writing TextEdit seems to be behaving normally aside from the above mentioned prefs issue.

I have the same issue, (Can't be saved because it doesn't exist?) but it hasn't self-healed. Any idea what might have happened to make the issue resolve?

TO ALL HAVING TEXT EDIT ISSUES SAVING DOCUMENTS TO THEIR DESK TOP.....

I too ran into problems w/ 9.3 trying to save a document to my desktop but finally......

File> Duplicate and duplicated my TextEdit document. Then I saved the duplicate just like always.

Once I did that and it worked, it's worked ever since whether I use File> Save (Save As) or

the Edit on top of the document. Hope this helps others.

Think it's a bug in OS10.9.x Apple needs to fix.

Hi thatnanothing

I just posted a response to "Text edit won't allow me... " Please see the discussion thread.

It's not very technical but it worked and seemed to fix the problem. I hope it helps you too.

Ricki

Thanks, Ricki. That sounds like exactly the kind of solution that would work. In fact, I may have already done it accidentally because the problem seems to have settled down, but it's nice to know what probablys olved it. Much appreciated!

SOLUTION:

This is not a new issue, and yes it ***** that Mac will just simply post the answer here as its extremely easy.

The problem when you get that "The document Untitled could not be saved as "-----" . The file doesn't exist" message is actually nothing more than a Pathway problem. The pathway Text Edit wants to use has been corrupted and TextEdit has no idea where to turn.

Odds are VERY likely that if you look at the "start" folder of the path from which you are trying to save (and from which you probably save regularly), it is NOT the Top-Level Hard Drive Folder, but some folder inside the hard drive, possibly nested several layers in.

To Fix This:

1) Create any New TextEdit document, and click Save.

2) When the Save Dialogue box pops up, navigate BACKWARDS to the absolute Top Level Folder of your Mac (probably called something like "Macintosh HD" or the like - we are talking the level ABOVE your User name / account).

3) Click on that Top Level, and then navigate from there down through your User account to the actual folder where you would like to save your document. It does not matter how deep your desired folder is located as long as you Start from the absolute Top Level of your entire system.

4) Click Save. It should save Just Fine. 🙂

What you basically just did was tell your Mac which way to turn - the "directions" the Mac was using got corrupted and the TextEdit save process got lost in the woods. Doing the steps above sets the save process back on the correct path.

I have happily only ever had this problem twice, and this solved the issue 100% both times.

If you are using TextEdit with the default settings, it won't let you save the file with a .txt extension because the default format is rich text. The extension for that must be .rtf .

If you want TextEdit to always use plain, unformatted text, then open its preferences and click the radio button for "Plain text". New files will then always be created this way. To switch back and forth without opening the preferences, press Command+Shift+T.

Edit: And I just noticed this was a 7 month old resurrected topic.

Good god, thank you (Shamovala McNerbstern-Ni) so much for posting this info. I resorted to all sorts of troubleshooting steps, including repairing my permissions, verifying folder permissions on my Documents directory, saving to other locations, etc. Nothing worked until I followed your steps.

Isn't technology grand?

I too had this problem. Whenever I tried saving a file with textedit, I got the error message "The file "Untitled.rtf" couldn't be opened" .

I tried duplicating the file, and got the same error.

I tried saving the file with a different extension, and got the same error.

I tried deleting the TextEdit.plist file, and still got the same errors.

I tried deleting the entire com.apple.TextEdit container, but still I got the same error

Finally, I found a website that suggested opening Internet Accounts in System Preferences, then iCloud, and then deselecting "Documents and Data". It warned me that all my iCloud documents would be removed from the Mac, I decided that would be OK since they would still be on iCloud.

That solved it!!

Then I opened up the same iCloud menu and selected "documents and Data", and it copied all the iCloud documents back to the Mac. The problem is still gone.

A simple problem and it only took me barely an hour of frustration to solve it. Amazing!

I HATE APPLE SW

Kurt,

It may be an old thread, but no one ever answered the question until you did.

I also searched several conversations on several other lists & also never found the answer.

Learned about lots of other stuff reading all those other answers, but I do thank you for answering the original question, as I come from Windows land & had the same question.

This is what I have figured out:

Re: Document could not be saved file does not exist