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elise___h
Participant
Jun 13, 2022 11:31 PM UTC
Answered

Photos appearing with coloured lines

 

Hi,

 

I'm trying to open some files I created in an older version of InDesign in the current version. All of the photos are appearing with this black box and coloured lines. The links to the photos are not broken. Does anyone know what the problem is? 

 

Cheers,

Elise

 

erhewittCorrect answer
Participant
Oct 1, 2023 5:05 AM UTC

This solution from Brad on Adobe Support Community page https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign/m-p/13399492 worked for me after other suggested fixes did not work.

 

If you are on a Mac, make sure your Adobe apps still have Full Disk Access under your System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access. Recent OS updates have been known to reset these settings, and your symptoms are indicative of this.

 

15 replies

Vasilis_Lambrou9382
Participant
Jun 6, 2026 11:11 AM UTC

Did anyone find any solutions for this problem. I tried everything I read from this page. I even uninstall an install again for Adobe. But when I restart the computer, I have the same problem with my files. But on my older Mac that runs MacOs venture there is no problem with the same files. 

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Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
Jun 6, 2026 2:39 PM UTC

Have you tried toggling GPU performance in the Prefs?

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Vasilis_Lambrou9382
Participant
Jun 6, 2026 8:05 PM UTC

Yes I did. Put it didn’t work 

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Participant
May 29, 2024 5:48 PM UTC

Full Disk Access was turned off and worked for me! 

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erhewittCorrect answer
Participant
Oct 1, 2023 5:05 AM UTC

This solution from Brad on Adobe Support Community page https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign/m-p/13399492 worked for me after other suggested fixes did not work.

 

If you are on a Mac, make sure your Adobe apps still have Full Disk Access under your System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access. Recent OS updates have been known to reset these settings, and your symptoms are indicative of this.

 

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Participant
Aug 14, 2023 5:15 AM UTC

Hi Elise,

Did you ever find a solution for your problem? This is happening to all of my files and it's getting very frustrating.

 

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Participant
Jul 24, 2023 8:02 PM UTC

Hi, did you ever find a solution. I'm having the same problem with all of my linked images in InDesign. 

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Community Expert
Jun 14, 2022 7:42 AM UTC

Hi Elise,

if you are on MacOS go to the InDesign preferences and turn off GPU support.

Imporant: Then restart InDesign or your machine.

 

Your screenshot looks like a typical GPU rendering issue with InDesign.

I assume, that if you export to PDF/X-4 you cannot see the effect in the exported PDF when you open it with Acrobat Pro or Adobe Reader.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

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Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Community Expert
Jun 14, 2022 4:31 AM UTC

There is some damage in the image file or its data structure. 
what happens when you open the image in Photoshop?

if it looks fine, save it as PSD or TIFF with a new name and replace it in InDesign. 
If it looks the same, it is more serious. You have to take the latest backup which is ok and replace it with that. 

You have to chech if your disk has some problems. E. g. Dropbox has a feature which caused many problems in the last two months. In synchronization (in its preferences) you can define the rarely used files are only saved remotely. When those files are called they should be transfered to the local disk. When InDesign takes a partial availble file and thinks it is complete it could also happen. Should not be, but it is worthy to check it. 

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Jumpenjax
Community Expert
Community Expert
Jun 14, 2022 12:48 AM UTC

Have you tried closing the file and reopening the file. Reboot computer? If you tried those and it has not helped try turning off the GPU  in preferences.

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Lee- Graphic Designer, Print Specialist, Photographer
elise___h
elise___hAuthor
Participant
Jun 14, 2022 1:20 AM UTC

Thanks for the suggestions Lee! Unforutunately none of those worked though 😞 

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