Inspiring

Question

Panels not expanding bug

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
November 25, 2025
17 replies
616 views

Ever since updating to the new version of InDesign (about a week or two ago), I encounter inconsistent behavior with expanding individual panels on the right side when you click on the panel name. Sometimes, the won't expand. When this occurs, I also cannot open the panel as a stand alone window by selecting it from the Window menu. However I CAN use the << at the top of the Panel menu to expand all the panels.

Once it occurs, if I close InDesign and reopen it, that usually fixes the problem.

I have not been able to find a consistent thing that causes this to happen. I think it might occur more when opening files that have not been saved in the current version, but sometimes doing that does not cause the problem.

Bug

jon@studentpress.org

Participant

It is comforting to know that I’m not the only one experiencing this on-going issue. Since my last communication with Adobe on August 11, I have nearly eliminated all my program preferences (everything from the interface appearance to not enabling Dynamic Spelling) and a very basic custom Workspace. The inability to click to open/close the right panels has been significantly reduced - but not completely eliminated. Just haven’t had the time to try to figure go through each program preference to figure out if one of those may be causing the issue.

Adobe again closed my case.
“This behavior is a result of a corrupt window-focus and interface handling loop within your Windows 11 operating system.” Their solution is to perform a Windows 11 OS Reset and to contact Microsoft tech support. However, they further say, “Please ensure all your important files and creative assets are fully backed up to an external drive or cloud storage before initiating the OS repair.” Anything that involves the operating system scares me to death. This seems like a radical solution from Adobe.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @jon@studentpress.org

I’m sorry to hear you’re having similar trouble with InDesign. Would you mind trying to run InDesign under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and checking if it behaves the same there as well?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

jon@studentpress.org

Participant

Yes, that’s been tried. However, to fully test, that means setting all the program preferences and building a workspace to match exactly in the administrator. When I find yet another couple of hours in my life to continue this testing, I will.

tonks_the_auror

Community Expert

Windows 11 Home Version 25H2
InDesign 21.5.1 x64

I cleared my InDesign caches and reset all of my preferences.

I started working on a poster. At first, the panels were expanding as normal. I had a couple of files open, copying/pasting between them. Then I saved my final poster file and closed the other files I had open.

When I opened another file, the panels no longer expanded as they should. Resetting my workspace fixed the problem for me.

I can confirm what jon@studentpress.org wrote:

…close the InDesign file (but don’t quit InDesign) and minimize the InDesign window. Restore the InDesign window, and the side panels no longer open/close with a click.

FWIW I don’t have this problem on my Mac.

A

aki_6325

Participant

Our company updated to InDesign 21.3 in spring 2026. Ever since then we have had this problem of the panels not expanding. We have since updated to 21.4 but the problem remains.

As others have noted here, the panels work when I first open InDesign, but they often stop expanding after I have closed the document and opened another document(s). It might be noteworthy that we open the documents from our editorial system to InDesign and there is a plugin involved.

Resetting or rebuilding the workspace does not help. The problem reoccurs always.

The problem can be worked around if I detach the panels from the right side of the workspace and use them as floating panels, but the problem is very irritating.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Interface problems usually mean a corruption in the InDesign cache files, which must be deleted and InDesign restarts to regenerate fresh cache files.

Read more detail in this compendium to troubleshooting.

Mike Witherell

A

aki_6325

Participant

Deleting the cache files does not help. The problem reoccurs always.

I can open the first indd-document from our editorial system without problems: the InDesign panels work as they should (they expand/open normally). When I close the document and open another document, the panels stop working (they do not expand/open). Sometimes this happens directly after closing the first document and opening the second document, sometimes the panels work then but stop working on third or fourth opening or so.

Again, using InDesign 21.4 in our editorial system.

jon@studentpress.org

Participant

I’ve been battling this for eight or more months. Multiple calls to Adobe Tech Support. They act like no one has ever reported the problem. Yes, all Adobe software has been removed and reinstalled. All preference removed (and rebuilt - ugh) twice. One point, they blamed it on file residing on OneDrive.

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

For me, it’s a Window 11 version issue. Not sure if Mac users are having the same issue, or not.
Operating system and Adobe products are all up to date.
Using custom Workspace.
When InDesign is launched and a file opened, the side panels open/close with a single click (like they’ve done for the past 25 years).
But then, at some point in using InDesign (with other InDesign docs) the panels stop responding.
Only ways to get the side panels to return to normal functionality is to:
- Quit and restart InDesign, or Window > Reset Workspace
- However, this is only temporary and the issue will quickly start happening again

ISSUE “CAUSE”

After hours of “testing,” I’ve narrowed down the action that causes the problem - the minimizing of the InDesign window.

Launch InDesign and open an InDesign file. Or, launch InDesign by opening an InDesign file.
Side panels work as expected.
Close document and open another document (either through File > Open or by double-clicking on an InDesign document). Side panels work as expected.
BUT, close the InDesign file (but don’t quit InDesign) and minimize the InDesign window. Restore the InDesign window and the side panels no longer open/close with a click.

So, I’ve narrowed down what’s triggering the issue, but now how do we get Adobe to fix the problem?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @jon@studentpress.org,

I'm sorry to hear you're running into this issue, especially after spending so much time narrowing down a possible trigger. I really appreciate the detailed investigation you've already done.

I'd like to investigate this further with our product team. Could you please share a short screen recording showing the complete workflow, starting from launching InDesign, opening a document, minimizing and restoring the application, and then demonstrating the panels no longer expanding? I'll use it to try reproducing the behavior on my end.

It would also be helpful if you could confirm your exact InDesign version (for example, 21.4.1 or 21.5), your Windows 11 version, and whether you're using an external monitor. If so, does the issue only occur when the external monitor is connected?

Finally, to rule out any third-party interference, could you please test the same workflow in Windows Safe Mode and in a new local administrator account, then let us know if the behavior persists?

Safe Mode:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

New local administrator account:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/manage-user-accounts-in-windows-104dc19f-6430-4b49-6a2b-e4dbd1dcdf32

I look forward to your update so I can continue investigating this with the product team.

Abhishek

H

hayleyW18336215

Participant

Updated to Indesign 2026 yesterday and having the same issue. Tried deleting cache and it hasn't worked, have to keep minimising indesign everytime it does it to be able to use the side panels. Have they got a patch for this yet?

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @hayleyW3983916,

I'm sorry to hear you're having similar trouble with InDesign. Could you please confirm the exact version of the OS/InDesign installed and share a brief screen recording of your workflow and the issue, so we can review it with the team? Also, try to run InDesign under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

H

hayleyW18336215

Participant

Hi Anubhav,

It's Windows 11 and indesign 21.0.2 x64.

You open indesign files then go to the side menu panels on the right and click on them, it highlights but they don't open. The left hand side works fine. Have to minimise indesign and then reopen to get them to work. Have since found that it is doing this to all files that are older versions of indesign files - the ones I've saved as 2026 version all open and the menus will work fine. It will be an ongoing problem as not everyone is on the new version and we still need to open and use all the indesign files previously created before 2026 indesign.
Saw elsewhere about deleting preferences but don't want to try that as some have said it didn't solve the problem and causes other issues instead and I also do not want to lose my settings doing that.

Thanks

creative explorer

Community Expert

@davidfox@charter.net have you tried resetting the workspace? Also it might be corrupted preferences as well. Close InDesign completely. Hold down Ctrl Alt Shift (PC) or Cmd Ctrl Opt Shift (MAC) immediately after launching InDesign. Click Yes when prompted to delete preference files.

m

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