Save As Does Not Open Dialog Or Save File

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

The Save As function is broken. Using both the menu item and keyboard shortcut fails to produce a save dialog and does not perform any file save action.

This affects normal file editing workflows and creates serious risk of losing work, especially when combined with unreliable dirty-file indicators.

Steps tried:

  • Used File > Save As...
  • Used keyboard shortcut Cmd+Shift+S
  • Restarted Cursor
  • Reloaded window
  • Followed AI troubleshooting advice to clear/rename the Cursor user data folder:
~/Library/Application Support/Cursor

Clearing that folder temporarily fixed the Save As problem, but it also wiped out my Cursor setup: project context, rules, MCP linkages, Markdown handling, login/session state, configuration changes, and other workspace/user state.

I restored the folder because the “fixed” profile was unusable, and I am now living without normal Save As behavior.

Steps to Reproduce

cmd-shift-S
file → save as

Expected Behavior

File > Save As... and Cmd+Shift+S should open a save dialog and allow the file to be saved under a new name/path.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.13.10
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: 4f02290ccd9304f0e6bf8ee85f6e9106f02ac1f0
Date: 2026-07-23T21:41:07.333Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

GPT 5.5

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

6

Hey there!

First, an important heads-up: please don’t clear ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor again. That folder holds your chat history, settings, rules, MCP config, and login state, so wiping it is a data-loss step rather than a real fix (as you unfortunately found).

There’s a safe workaround that routes around the broken dialog entirely. Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) → Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON), and add:

“files.simpleDialog.enable”: true

That switches Save As (and Open) to an in-window file picker instead of the macOS system dialog, so it should work even when the native panel is misbehaving. You can flip it back to false anytime.

To help pin down the cause, a couple of quick questions:

  1. Do other native dialogs also fail, e.g. File > Open (Cmd+O), or a plain Save (Cmd+S) on a brand-new untitled file? If those hang too, it points to the OS-level dialog getting stuck rather than something specific to Save As.
  2. Does it still happen in a fresh window (File > New Window)?

And if you’re up for one more: run Developer: Open Logs Folder from the Command Palette, open the newest folder’s main.log, and search for DialogMainService. If you spot a line there, paste it in. It’ll confirm exactly what’s happening.