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Banana20*
Participant
Apr 22, 2018 11:10 PM UTC
Question

InDesign won't let me drag in or add photos

InDesign decided to stop letting me add photos or drag any in?

Anyone else have this problem, or how do I fix it?

Attached snip of what it says when I try placing an image, but i have full permission and it isn't in use.

When I drag one in, nothing happens.

Strange thing is that it let me put in a .png logo, but not a .jpeg image...?

    10 replies

    Community Expert
    Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Sep 20, 2026 12:49 PM UTC

    Strange thing is that it let me put in a .png logo, but not a .jpeg image...?

    Png logos? I won’t get into it ha ha. 

     

    If the Preview is open in Windows File Explorer it won’t place it. I’ve it had it before. Just an idea.

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    Alex38927545g06x
    Participant
    Sep 20, 2026 10:02 AM UTC

    For anyone who has the problem but no error message has popped up, check if the adobe survey window is open as a ID tab once i closed it all my actions happened at the same time but it was preventing drag and drop

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    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Community Expert
    Jeff Witchel, ACICommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 22, 2018 11:51 PM UTC

    Are you using File > Place to bring in your photo.

    Never drag in photos.

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    Banana20*Author
    Participant
    Apr 22, 2018 11:57 PM UTC

    I used file > place and got the above error message.

    Does dragging in photos not do any good?

    Using Windows

    InDesign CC 2018 - 13.1 x64

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    Steve Werner
    Community Expert
    Steve WernerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 23, 2018 12:06 AM UTC

    You should be able to drag photos from Windows Explorer or Adobe Bridge. You shouldn't drag from Photoshop or another application.

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    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 22, 2018 11:13 PM UTC

    What version of InDesign and what operating system are you using?

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    glenn_acawa
    Known Participant
    Dec 22, 2023 11:46 PM UTC

    It has nothing to do with the InDesign version but all with the user/admin ("UAC") privileges Windows forces us to use these days. If one app runs with admin privileges and the other with (default) user privileges, drag and drop does not work (anymore). There used to be a workarround by starting apps with admin privileges but this does not work anymore in recent versions of the Windows OS. Using "place..." from within InDesign is the only thing left we can do to accomplish the job, unfortunately 😞

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      chriss18229469
      chriss18229469
      Participant
      Aug 6, 2024 3:01 PM UTC

      For me, this was a server issue. Tried to drag place from the server... no dice. On a whim, I copied the folder to my desktop and then tried to drag place and BiNGO! This is not the first issue I have had with InDesign (and Acrobat) not playing nice with the server.

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