Panels not expanding bug

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
November 25, 2025
2 replies
444 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

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

Screenshot 2025-12-16 120751.png

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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