I am unable to save my processing sketch

Whenever I attempt to save one of my sketches, I get a long error. This is the error I get:

java.io.IOException: The system cannot find the file specified
at java.io.WinNTFileSystem.createFileExclusively(Native Method)
at java.io.File.createTempFile(File.java:2024)
at processing.app.Util.saveFile(Util.java:170)
at processing.app.SketchCode.save(SketchCode.java:324)
at processing.app.Sketch.save(Sketch.java:817)
at processing.app.ui.Editor.handleSaveImpl(Editor.java:2656)
at processing.app.ui.Editor$35.run(Editor.java:2645)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:311)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:758)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:728)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:205)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

That is the FULL error I get whenever I try to save. The short version (what I get when I click copy to clipboard):

The system cannot find the file specified

I have no idea about what this means. But, when I press save again, the error still shows in the console, but the area above the console says, “Done saving.” Except it doesn’t show the changes when I reopen the file. When I run my code, it works fine. I just need an explanation of what this error means and how to fix it.

  • if processing is damaged just delete and download
    processing IDE 3.5.3
    and unzip it again
  • and please anyhow delete the dir where the preferences file is,
    for windows it is under
    C:\Users\ < USER > \AppData\Roaming\Processing
  • what you not mention is that when you press [save] or i use at first [save as]
    a window should open where you can adjust dir and project name.
    if that works on your system the next question would be what you selected there…
1 Like

I attempted to use Save As again. It showed an error message saying the file could not be found, even though I was trying to create a new file. This happened to me before and I could only fix it by reinstalling Processing. Ugh