The ‘Saving’ screen is still flashing… now what?

Usually, the ‘Saving’ screen makes a quick appearance after you make a change in a program or application and goes away as quickly as it appeared. The appearance and then disappearance of the ‘Saving’ screen indicates that the answer or update was saved successfully.

If the ‘Saving’ screen shows up and then sticks around for longer than usual, your update has not been saved, and you’ll want to look into the underlying issue. Once that screen starts flashing and doesn’t disappear after a reasonable amount of time, it will not disappear on its own.

A continually flashing ‘Saving’ screen indicates that your change has not been or cannot be saved. 

Double click anywhere on the screen to hide the ‘Saving’ message, then try some troubleshooting.

Keep in mind that the saving process is still spinning behind the scenes, and this intentional hiding of that screen does not indicate that your update has been saved. The answer will remain in that text box so that you can still see it on your end, but it has not been saved successfully.

Start by trying to edit the field that you were just working on (add or delete a space in a text box, or choose a different multiple choice or checkbox option), and click elsewhere on the page to try that save again.

If the update saves this time, you’re all set! Keep working on your application, as usual.

If the change does not save, it’s time for some additional troubleshooting. 

To ensure you do not lose your work, do not keep working on the application or program until you have identified the cause of the saving issue. 

Why won’t it save?

Poor Internet Connection
Your internet connection may have blinked during the saving process.
Pasting Formatted Text
If you are pasting formatted text from a document or webpage, it is likely that the answer that you have entered has an ineligible character that is preventing the save. Sometimes, these characters are invisible ones added by software to aid in the formatting or layout of a document.

What now?

Check Your Connection
Check your web connection or try a different network. You could also try updating your browser or using a different one.
Clear Out Formatting & Unusual Characters

If you are pasting your answer from somewhere else, are there any formatted characters or sections? Clear out all formatting, including bullets, lists, special characters (including characters from non-English character sets), etc. and then paste the answer in and try the save again. You can use other methods of adding formatting to your text responses.

If that does not work, try pasting the text in sections, identifying which sections save and which do not. Once you have found the section that does not save, check in there for any unusual characters. Are there any words that spell check has found but that appear to be correct? There may be an invisible character in there, sometimes put in by an auto-correct or auto-format function. Try re-typing the text of that small section in your original version before copying and pasting it into ZoomGrants.

In Word, go to Edit > Clear > Clear Formatting to remove the layout formatting from your document. Then use other methods to add formatting, if you would like.

Contact Support
If you have tried everything else and are still having trouble, send your original text file to the ZG support folks and let them know what you are running into. If it is a character issue, they can help find the culprit and get it cleaned out. Sometimes there are also settings and setup issues on the administrator end, and our tech support can help identify other issues.
ZoomGrants support staff cannot complete your application for you.

If there’s a character in your original text file that is causing an issue, they can help identify the character and pinpoint its location so that you can delete it on your end. ZoomGrants staff is not authorized to paste the text into your application for you, as that is content only you can change.

How can I be sure it saved?

Applicants and collaborators can verify what answers have been saved by refreshing the page using the Refresh Page button in the top right section of the page or by checking the latest version of the print preview

Administrators and reviewers can refresh the page using their browser refresh button or the F5 key on their keyboard (Ctrl-R for Mac users).