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Question

Eye dropper tool in color picker freezes InDesign

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I have found that if I use try to use the eye dropper feature in the color picker in InDesign that InDesign freezes. It is as if there is a dialog box is open but is not visible on screen. My only option has been to force quit. I have repeated this on multiple documents.

I just thought Adobe should know.

I'm working in the lastest Mac OS on an Intel 16" MacBook Pro.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Aaron,

Have you explored any of these resetting ideas?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo...

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Mike Witherell

A

aaron_6047

Participant

I'm usually the first to try these fixes, but I just got this computer three weeks ago and haven't done anything to the settings. It started happening week 1 but the frequency increased ever since. I won't try to reset the program simply because it just seems like an intermittent issue. Sometimes the picker works just fine, other times it freezes.

My hope is to see if anyone resolved the issue and/or realized it was a user error so I can stop doing the same wrong thing.

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rob day

Community Expert

Are you running any third party plugins or start up scripts?

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A

aaron_6047

Participant

Just jumping on here to say I have the same issue as of October 22, 2025. Only solution is to force quit the app. Occasionally I have to force quit, open, force quit, and open to resolve the issue.
MacBook Pro 16-in, Nov 2024, M4 on macOS Sequoia 15.7.1
InDesign version 20.5

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rob day

Community Expert

Hi @aaron_6047 , Just to clarify the eyedropper inside the Color Picker (which is not that intuitive) usage expects you to click, hold, and drag to sample color from anywhere on the screen, not just from the Color Picker. When you use the Color Picker’s eyedropper are you clicking, holding, dragging?

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aaron_6047

Participant

Yes! This specifically is what causes the app to stop responding

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M

Marcus30397854yp20

Participant

I have the same issue.

Eye Dropper doesn't respond.

And then I can't even close the Pop up Box. So I have to Force quit InDesign. Making it 100 percent unusable. Consistent issue. Also, sometimes the dialoge colour window, just dissapears, and I can't interact with the rest of the interface. Also then requiring a force quit. Can't quit normally because it then spits out the error message 'Cannot handle the request because a modal dialog or alert is active'. But I can't find it anywhere. So I force quit. this is easy to reproduce. Just attempt to use the eye dropper.

Running iMac with Sonoma 14.2.1 , with InDesign 2024: 19.2

64gb of ram

I've tried turning off GPU performance, but the issue remains.

I.e The eye dropper doesn't do anything, and the dialoge box freezes.

Adobe! what gives?

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

I use it everyday without any issues on very similar specs

No issues my side.

I do have webroot installed and that causes havoc with InDesign.

Maybe there's a thrid party app causing it to behave like this.

Easiest way to determine is to start the os in safe mode and only open InDesign and see if it behaves normally.

If it does then it's another app interacting.

One thing I had to change too was a bunch of os preferences for Sonoma I was getting warnings about an app trying to use video recording when I tried to use the eyedropper first time.

Have to say it took about a week of making changes to os and third party apps for things to work normally.

It's not fun.

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J

joehahi

Known Participant

This is happening to me. Macos ID 2023. These programs get worse every release... Ready to switch platforms. Im over it.

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

What specifically is your issue?

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J

joehahi

Known Participant

The same issue as mentioned in this thread by the author. Still happening in 2024 on Macos Seqouia with INDD 2024.

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Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi Jim:

Which OS, exactly? Ventura or Sonoma?

~Barb

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~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Have you explored any of these troubleshooting ideas?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshooting/m-p/14117965#M543651

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Mike Witherell

L

Lisa37909027nlmh

Participant

I am experiencing this same issue. Color picker freezes cursor and does not work as shown in tutorials. Cursor changes to black filled arrow. Macbook Pro M3 chip.

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leo.r

Community Expert

I am experiencing this same issue. Color picker freezes cursor and does not work as shown in tutorials. Cursor changes to black filled arrow. Macbook Pro M3 chip.

By @Lisa37909027nlmh

-What's your version of macOS?

-What's your version of InDesign?

-Did you try the troubleshooting steps mentioned above?

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