Interesting. It seems like Textastic wasn't able to create the file itself. Maybe there is an issue with the sandboxing system on your machine.

Since this is the sandbox container that is only visible to the app, it is normal that those files are just links to the original files.

The list of recent files should be saved in the file "com.textasticapp.textastic-mac.LSSharedFileList.plist" that is in the same directory.

On which version of OS X is this?

Where did you save the file? iCloud or local disk?

Ok, I've created an (almost) empty file which you can download here: http://www.textasticapp.com/other/com.textasticapp.textastic-mac.plist.zip

Can you try to unzip the file and put it into this directory?

It should grow in size when you start Textastic, change preferences and quit the app.

Unfortunately, I'm running out of ideas. Since this sequence didn't work either, I think it can't be an issue with automatic termination...

I'm not sure what might be different on this machine.

The preferences should be saved in this file:

~/Library/Containers/com.textasticapp.textastic-mac/Data/Library/Preferences/com.textasticapp.textastic-mac.plist

Does this file exist?

I have an idea what might cause the problem. I added support for automatic termination and sudden termination in the latest update and this might be responsible for it.

Which version of OS X are you running and what kind of machine is this?

Can you please try that:

- open a new untitled document with Cmd-N

- change some preferences

- quit the app with Cmd-Q while the document is still open

- reopen the app

- open preferences

Did it save the preferences?

Hrmm, that seems to be caused by the open panel. It shouldn't cause a problem with the app preferences.

Did you already try a restart of the machine? Maybe a service isn't working properly.

It also can't hurt to try to repair permissions in Disk Utility. Maybe a permission is wrong so it's not possible to write to a file.

I have to admit that those suggestions are just a shot in the dark :(

Is there something logged in the "Console" app when you run Textastic?

Another user just reported this problem when the code completion list is showing:

"When you have a code suggestion show with examples of what to write and you haven't hit enter or dismissed the suggestions, and then change application, the window disappears and only reappears when you change back to Textastic."

I'll try to fix this in an update.

I've recently had a another customer with a similar problem.

In his case it helped to do this:

- Quit Textastic

- Delete the following folder: ~/Library/Containers/com.textasticapp.textastic-mac

- Restart Textastic

I'm not sure what's causing these problems. Did you have the Trial version installed before downloading the app from the App Store?