Inspiring

Question

Keyboard Shortcuts and Mouse Controls Not Working Across Adobe Apps on Windows 10

Forum|Forum|30 days ago
March 18, 2026
3 replies
149 views

For the last few weeks, I’ve been struggling to get my deadline projects finished in InDesign without the aid of the various shortcuts I’ve always used -- e.g., cntrl+spacebar to get the magnifying glass -- no go; drag to highlight text -- no go; spacebar to get the hand to move around -- no go. These functions just stopped working, cold.

Now I’m finding the same plus other problems in Illustrator and Photoshop, as well as in Acrobat! (Currently in Illustrator, I'm not able to edit text in or resize, or move text boxes -- and this is paragraph text, not point text, so it SHOULD be editable and movable.) In none of the programs can I zoom in and out with the cntl+mouse wheel, as I could before. I was caught flat-footed on a business call this afternoon because I couldn’t zoom in fast enough on a drawing I was discussing.

I do not have these problems outside of the Adobe products. I’ve searched the internet for fixes in all three programs. I’m not finding any answers. I’m on the latest updates, but I experimented and stepped back one version with InDesign and the problems still persisted. I haven’t tried it with Illustrator yet.

I read somewhere that a Windows update might be causing a conflict with the Adobe programs (I’m using Windows 10). Has anyone else experienced any of these sudden losses of functionality or do you have any ideas what conflict might be interfering with them? Sometimes restarting helps for a few minutes. Sometimes turning my mouse off and on helps (I use Logitech MX Master 3S), but adjusting any of the specific mouse settings in its Logitech Options+ software makes no difference at all.

I’m about to throw in the towel and move over to Affinity programs.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @casinclaire,

Sorry to hear you’re running into this issue. Could you please confirm if you’re seeing the same behavior outside of Adobe apps as well? It would help to test in applications like Word or Excel and see if the shortcuts and mouse interactions work normally there.

Additionally, could you try testing this in Safe Mode to isolate any third-party interference on your system? You can follow the steps here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

It would also be helpful to test by creating a new local admin user account and check if the issue persists there, which can help rule out any user-specific settings:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/manage-user-accounts-in-windows-104dc19f-6430-4b49-6a2b-e4dbd1dcdf32

Please let me know how it goes.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

casinclaireAuthor

Inspiring

The problems persist -- some of them -- in apps outside Adobe, so, if it is a Windows update that has affected my Adobe apps, it is also interfering with, at least, Word -- just as with InDesign, I cannot any longer drag and highlight text.

I did attempt to start my programs in SAFE mode, but that precluded Creative Cloud from recognizing my subscription and my only options were to “subscribe” (which I have been doing for years already) or to quit the program. I couldn’t get past this blockade to see if the program ran better in safe mode or not.

I’ve basically come to the conclusion that there is some extension or plug-in somewhere that isn’t playing nicely with Windows 10 and is telegraphing its displeasure throughout my system. My computer is getting some age on it now, so although it’s been working great until this recent spate of problems, I’m going to replace it. I’ll have Windows 11 on the new machine, will rebuild my installs, and will add back my utilities, plugins, and extensions one at a time so there won’t be any surprises. I’ll do it slowly, one add-in at a time, and track the results. Meanwhile, I can pull data files as needed from the old drives which I’ll also install on the new computer. I’m totally tired of dealing with this situation. The majority of my problems are inside the Adobe products, and I’m hoping my apps will interact with Win 11 better than they are doing now in Win 10. In any case, my installs will be brand new.

I thank you and all who have tried to help. But this situation has been so bizarre and unlike any other problems I’ve ever run into -- and so many at once, not just one at a time -- that I’m not even finding mentions of it all online, much less any current hints of answers. Unfortunately, neither has anything suggested here in the forum worked. But I do appreciate everyone’s attempts to help.

leo.r

Community Expert

try to create a new user account and work from there - will it make a difference?

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

If this is a problem that has occurred since updating the programs then it could be caused by having kept the preference files from the previous versions. During updates keeping the old preferences and settings is presented as an option but doing so can often lead to erratic performance. Resetting preferences restores the programs to their defaults and usually fixes problems that have ensued since the upgrades.

The process to reset preferences is similar for each program.

Here is the process for InDesign on a PC:

You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

casinclaireAuthor

Inspiring

I have always resisted resetting my preferences, but I finally did it, and sorry to say, it hasn’t really helped. I think I’m just going to get another computer and start all over!!

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Maybe explore/experiment with turning off any keyboard shortcut remapping that the Logitech MX Master software might be doing?

Mike Witherell

casinclaireAuthor

Inspiring

I totally deleted Logitech Options +, which controls the MX mouse. No difference. But I can’t help feeling it has had some impact, somehow ….

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