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matthewe5262730
Participant
Apr 10, 2026 6:26 PM UTC
Question

InDesign: Artboard grays out when disconnecting/switching screens

When using inDesign my artboard goes blank (gray) when disconnecting from my Apple display and often when I open my disconnected laptop to resume work in an open InDesign document. This has been happening for years on a different combination of displays and laptops so it is an Adobe issue, not a me issue. It seems lots of users have been frustrated by the same defect and it boggles my mind that Adobe has failed to fix this bug. Yes, I know I can switch to CPU Preview.. it reminds me of that old Rodney Dangerfield joke “I went to the Doctor and said - Doc, it hurts when I do this. The doctor says - don’t do that.”

    3 replies

    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Apr 10, 2026 7:48 PM UTC

    Hello @matthewe5262730

    I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Could you confirm the version of the OS/InDesign installed, and let us know if you encounter similar behavior with other Adobe apps on your device so we can better assist you? Also, try running InDesign under a different administrator account (macOS) and share your observations.

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Anubhav

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    matthewe5262730Author
    Participant
    Apr 10, 2026 8:56 PM UTC

    MacOS Tahoe (26.3)
    Apple Studio Display 27in
    InDesign 21.3

    To my knowledge this issue is unique to InDesign. I tried your request by running InDesign under a different admin account and got the same result. Specifically, when I disconnect from a display my Adobe window is still the size it was on the display, so I resize it to my laptop screen by double clicking the top bar. That’s when it grays out.

    Hope this helps.

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    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Apr 14, 2026 5:44 PM UTC

    Hi ​@matthewe5262730,

     

    Thanks for sharing the details, that really helps.

    Could you please take a look at this similar discussion and confirm if it matches what you’re experiencing:
    https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-blank-window-when-switching-displays-887781?postid=3557065#post3557065

    If it does match, then this is a known issue and the product team is already working on a fix. I’ll keep you posted here as soon as I have any updates.

     

    Let me know what you observe.

    Abhishek

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