Known Participant

Question

Blank file icons InDesign 17 Win 11

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
March 16, 2022
5 replies
3059 views

Since a few weeks I have blank file icons on all of my .indd files (WIN 11 / ID 17.1 x64), although my app icon is correctly displayed and in win/standard-apps it is set correctly to Adobe InDesign 2022.

I followed many WIN 11 troubleshootings, cleared my icons-chache etc... nothing worked.

Does anybody have an idea to solve this?

(btw. as I rightclick on the taskbar icon of InDesign all my exported PDF-files are also listed there (but truely not able to be opend by InDesign) and they carry the ID-icon (in WIN-explorer they carry the Acrobat-icon) - absolutely weired , or?)

It's very anoying, because I've lost a main component to keep a good overview about my ID-work.

Many thanks for your help!

Bug

This topic has been closed for replies.

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

So, I used the sunday yesterday to swipe my ID-installation via the CC-Clean tool and to to say it in advance: It did not solve my problem :-((

I closely followed the cleantool instructions on Adobes website, backuped the logfile, closed the listed running processes and ran the cleantool removing ID17. After restarting the system I looked at my ID-files on the harddrives (PC and NAS). They still carried the ID-labels (from different versions of past years / screenshot #09), although any version of InDesign is installed. How could that be? Did the cleantool not remove the complete (ID) installation including all icons, etc...?

After that I reinstalled ID17 via CC-App and did a restart again. A few minutes after adding/pinning the ID App at the taskbar and let WIN11 collect all data the rightclick menu was available (screenshot #10), but PDFs were listed again and labled as ID-files - JPEGs also. These files carry the (new) icon of ID17 while the ID files get an icon of some further version...

It remains weird and all effort has not lead to any improvement. What else could I do?

(btw. on my rarely used laptop (WIN 11 home) I also did the updates. Result: My ID files now also get there blank icons. But the rightclick menu behaves as it should: Only ID files - no exported PDFs or JPEGs inside there...)

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

correction: ...although not any version of InDesign is installed..."

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi heyix,

also had the issue with blank file icons for InDesign documents. All InDesign documents from diverse versions of InDesign on my computer. This happened after I installed the latest update for the official release of InDesign 2022, version 17.1. I'm on Windows 10.

Like Bob I didn't care much…

The issue is gone now.

But don't ask me how and why.

Possible things:

Uninstalled a prerelease version of InDesign and installed a different prerelease version of InDesign.

Had a Windows 10 update.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for your response, Uwe.

With my "light" solution from yesterday I'm a bit satisfied, because the icons don't stay pitch blank. As Peter mentioned maybe I'll try the same process again and aditionally I'll use the CC-Cleantool to swipe the installation completely clean. Perhaps the weekend will be ideal for that...

btw. "Uwe Laubender" sounds very german

Thanks, Ralf (also german)

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi Ralf,

that's right. I'm a German…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

So, just a quick update: Removed / uninstalled ID17 yesterday, cleaned up the remaining fragments in programs-folder and users-folder (local and roaming) and reinstalled it after restarting the system. One little progress was made: The INDD-icons now are not still blank. They now carry an ID-icon (files of older version 13/14/15 even the older icons (screenshot att.)), but new generated files unfortunately not the latest icon-version of ID17 - I think they are V15.

But in the rightklick menu of the taskbar icon the PDFs still appear and they are carrying the ID17 icon...(screenshot)

Who knows where Adobe stores the icons? I let the system do a complete serach for .ico files on partition C: and scrolled manually twice through a searchresult of plus 8K of icons, but wasn't able to figure out where the ID-icons are stored...

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Your screen shot is showing old icons for versions 56 and 7.5. Really strange.

For the PDF icon issue, try right clicking one, choose Open With... and then Choose another app... In the next dialog check the always use this app box and pick acrobat if it shows in the list else choose More apps and navigate to Acrobat in the Programs folder.

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for your quick response, Peter.

The strange thing of the PDF issue is a) that PDFs appear in the rightclick menu of the taskbar icon of ID17 and b) they are labled with the ID17 icon, but only there.

In file explorer all PDFs are correctly displayed with the Acrobat icon and they are linked correctly to Acrobat DC and open with that app. Really weird, or...?

BobLevine

Community Expert

This is a known issue. I have it here myself and while I saw the resolution was to uninstall / reinstall that did not work for me and frankly, it's an annoyance but not worth jumping through hoops to fix.

Once you open a file, it will show the ID icon.

As far as the INDD files showing up as PDFs, if you double click one in Explorer, where do they open. It could just be a file association issue.

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for your response Bob,

maybe I will try nevertheless - perhaps it will work here - the current situation is really anoying for me.

- changing the view in file explorer does not have any effect on the icons - they stay blank.

- with ID 17 completely new generated files always appear with a blank icon.

And the INDDs don't show up as PDFs. The PDFs appear in the rightclick menu of the ID taskbar icon and were labled with the ID icon... The ony application associated with the .INDD ending is Adobe InDesign 2022. No idea where I could take a further look...

R

Randy Hagan

Community Expert

This sometimes happens when the files were created by previous versions of the program.

If you change the view in your File explorer to Icons view, do the InDesign icons appear there? And if so, do the icons appear when you switch back to the List view?

When you open, change and save the file, does the InDesign icon appear then? If it does, That's probably the best course of action. If it doesn't, you try resetting your preferences for InDesign 2022. Recognize that if you have any custom preferences set, you'll have to rebuild them separately. You can learn more about resetting preferences through this link.

If that still doesn't work, the next course of action is to uninstall/reinstall InDesign. You'd want to use the CC Cleaner tool to wipe the previous installation entirely, then start from scratch. You can learn more about this process through this link. It's a rude cure, but if needed this would get you a complete, fresh install of your Creative Cloud software and a fresh start.

I'd try resetting the preferences first, only because it's less time-consuming and is likely to get you a fresh reset.

Hope this helps,

Randy

heyixAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for your kind response Randy.

- changing the view in file explorer does not have any effect on the icons - they stay blank.

- with ID 17 completely new generated files always appear with a blank icon.

Looks like I have to take the rough way - uninstall, clean up and reinstall ID17 to my computer...

Thanks, Ralf

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