Manually save your diagram when standard saving fails

If your diagram fails to save while you are using a version of draw.io, you can always access the XML source of the diagram and manually save it.

  1. Select Extras > Edit Diagram.
    Click Extras > Edit Diagram to view the XML source of your diagram
  2. Select the text that starts and ends with the <mxGraphModel> tags. This is the XML source of your diagram.
    Copy your diagram's XML source into a text file if you ever encounter a problem with saving
  3. Open a text editor and a new text file. Paste the copied XML source and save it.
    • If your diagram has multiple pages, you must save the XML source of each page individually.
    • If you understand the XML, you can also edit the diagram source in this way.
  4. Rename the file to have the file extension .drawio or .xml.

Now you can reload the diagram editor, load the file you just created, and keep editing your diagram.

Note: It is very rare that your diagram fails to be saved. If you are using the draw.io app for any Atlassian product, please contact your local administrator and submit a support request providing as much detail as possible. If you are using one of the free, open-source versions of draw.io, please submit an issue at https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues.