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Can't change colors from the swatch panel

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For some reason, I cannot change the color of text or objects in InDesign CC. The options are not grayed out but when you select a different color, it goes right back to the previous color without change. I am running Mojave 10.14.2 on my Mac with the other CC Adobe apps. I’ve tried changing colors in all kinds of files (both new and old) and still cannot make any kind of changes to the swatches. All I can do is to create a new color whenever I need to colorize something. I can't even make adjustments to these colors I create either. Once the color has been set, there's nothing you can do but create yet another color.

I found a post about this issue but the suggestion to dump the preferences doesn't seem to help--both manually and automatically. I also tried uninstalling the app and then re-installing it from the Cloud. But that doesn't seem to matter either. Please help. This is extremely frustrating!

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leo.rCorrect answer

Community Expert

Hi

I'm having this same issue. Could you please share how you discovered which third party app it was? Much appreciated.

Could you please share how you discovered which third party app it was?

By @Kenia31989640ywd9

Disable Magnet.

P.S. Some recent threads regarding the problems caused by the last Magnet update:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/paragraph-styles-not-applying-to-selection/m-p/14999691#M599049
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-with-warning-sounds/td-p/13327364
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/problem-with-swatch-pallette/td-p/14997619

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Matthew32736743eo88

Participant

same problem - October 2023 and the bug is STILL not fixed!!!

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Rishabh_Tiwari

Legend

Hi @Matthew32736743eo88,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Please share the version of InDesign & OS, we'll try our best to assist you.

Thanks

Rishabh

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GeorgiaJLow

Participant

I am having the same issue on all files I work on. I hope Adobe gets this fixed.

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Hugo Nadeau!

Participating Frequently

Still have the same problem in the latest version of InDesign on Mojave too. Clearly they didn't adress that bug at all in the last years. Reinstalling Adobe or clearing cache is a joke of a solution in my opinion, it's obvious it's a simple programming bug.

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NOcreationsBE

Known Participant

Yes, same problem here too! Seems to be a bug indeed. I posted this on the Uservoice bugreport page: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/42787331-applying-a-different-swatch-not-always-working-bu.

If you want, you can vote for this issue to be solved.

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jennifery53726323

Participant

Had the same issue here and it was resolved by highlighting whatever it is you want to chage, use the colour picker to change it anything on the current page (regardless if you intend to use that colour), it somehow unlocks the selected features and you can change colour from swatch as usual.

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NOcreationsBE

Known Participant

Thanks Jennifer, this worked for me! But I must say, I had this problem with only one file, so it may not work if someone has this problem with all files.

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NOcreationsBE

Known Participant

I have to add that this problem indeed continues, as @Hugo Nadeau! just mentioned (on and off, it does not seem to have anything to do with the file itself). Fortunately the solution to use the color picker to change the color still works for me too, but it is sad that Adobe did not fix this problem by now.

Also, I noticed that changing text to white or black or vice versa with the swatches panel sometimes solves the problem too. So yes, that looks like a bug!

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

If you've already tried trashing preferences and reinstalling you might also want to try trashing your InDesign cache files. This can be helpful for problems within panels such as the Swatch Panel which could be the source of this problem.

To trash cache files on a Mac:

The User Library folder in which InDesign’s cache files are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N).With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the “Caches” folder. Within the Caches folder find and delete the entire folder “Adobe InDesign”. I find that deleting the InDesign cache folder completely leads to a lasting change.

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sarahm23500858Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks, Bill. I had seen that suggestion on cache files before. However, if you look at the screenshot below, I don't seem to have an "Adobe InDesign" folder in my Cache folder. Could this be different with Mojave?

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

Did you follow the path Macintosh HD>User>Home>Library>Caches as directed in my first post?

ADDITIONAL EDIT: It appears that you have gone to Macintosh HD>Library>Caches. The InDesign cache files are in the User library.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

What exactly are you doing and does this happen on all files or just one?

Screenshots might help, too.

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sarahm23500858Author

Participating Frequently

WITH TEXT: I have text selected using the "T" type tool. I then go into the swatch pallet and then select a color other than the default black. I am able to select a color but it does not change to the one I designated. I can, however, select the color without it being grayed out.

WITH OBJECTS: As you can see from below, it won't change the color of the box I placed (using the open arrow) here either.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

Interesting. Does it happen with all files or just this one?

If it's just this one, you can try the IDML route.

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