InDesign Files Missing Content When Opened by Different Users

Question

Hello Adobe Gurus! I need some help. I work in a student newspaper setting and recently two computers (or maybe accounts?) started doing this weird thing where pages designed on one computer by one designer look fine on that computer and most the others in the office, but whenever I try to open them on my computer, or when I am signed in on another machine, they are missing all the content such as images and text. (we use saved graphic textboxes that have filler text, and the filler text remains in them) It seems to be a problem between our adobe accounts because it's just between us. This designer often can't open my pages either.The attached images are what his page looks like completed, and how it looks when I try to open it.We have deleted both of our preference files on both computers and that has not worked. The problem seems to slowly be spreading to other user accounts as well because other people are sometimes not able to open his pages either, could it be something about how he is saving them? (Currently he's doing what we all do and just going to file-save or using command+S.)
Also, I am not suuuuuper tech savy on the back end of adobe, so please give me steps to try for any suggestions so I can make sure I am doing it right.

Thank you for all your help!

Joel Cherney · Answer

Like Eugene, I'd like to see an actual file. But I can spot a few potential problems in your screenshots:

1) One of you is working in 2024, one of you is working in 2025? That's a dicey workflow to use; sometimes they update the text composition between versions, and so words that would fit on a single line in 2024 might or might not fit in 2025, especially if the fit was tight. So you should both be working in the same versions, and ideally anything you started in 2024, you'd finish in 2024, and anything you start in 2025, you'd finish in 2025. That's also why the other designer can't use your work; you're saving it in a newer version of InDesign than the one they're using. There is an error message you should be seeing when attempting to open a 2025 file in 2024 that says exactly that.

2) You say that content is missing, but like Eugene, I suspect that text has become overset. You have all of your indicators hidden by looking at your layouts in Preview mode. So if you were to go to View -> Screen Mode -> Normal, and then View -> Extras -> Show Frame Edges, then you'd be able to see where the red plus symbol marked a frame that had overset text. Without some visible containers for your objects, you can't see where the problem might be.

3) I also wonder if you're sure if the top screenshot (of page 3) is really showing us the same content as in the bottom screenshot (that being page 2).

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