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Participating Frequently
June 17, 2021
Answered

Text disappears when typing in text box

  • June 17, 2021
  • 146 replies
  • 115536 views

I'm getting this issue where when I make any changes to text within a text box, like typing within it, cutting/pasteing, editing, etc. the text disappears. Sometimes it'll come back if I click out of the text box. Sometimes it comes back if I switch between normal and preview mode.

 

It doesn't happen every time, but often enough to be incredibly annoying.

 

I'm running:

  • Mac OS 11.4
  • Macbook Air M1 2020
  • InDesign 16.2.1
Correct answer Rocky5D5C

Hi Sarah, updating to 17.2 fixed the text issue for my wife. She hasn't had it happen once since then, so far.

Have you updated?

146 replies

New Participant
February 14, 2022

It doesn't happen happens every time, but often enough to be incredibly annoying.

 

I'm running:

  • Mac OS 12.2.1
  • Macbook Pro 13 inch M1 2020
  • InDesign 17.1

 

Yes, I can disable GPU Performance and this problem goes away... but then scrolling is so jittery as to make we want to return to Microsoft Word. 

New Participant
February 11, 2022

I'm joining the club. 

Having the same issue with a Mac Mini M1. 

 

Inspiring
February 10, 2022

Because everyone needs a good laugh about this, on the bug report pages for InDesign there are posts from August of 2017 that you would be unable to discern from the most recent posts here about text dissappearing.

New Participant
February 9, 2022

Is there an update on this? I'm using v17.1 on an iMac (OS 11.5.1) and the issue is making it almost impossible for me to get any work done. 

New Participant
February 8, 2022

Same here. This has been happening ever since I upgraded to new Mac chip in July 2021. I've lost all patience. I've sent the information you outline via the cloud. PLEASE FIX THIS.

 

Known Participant
February 7, 2022

Hi everyone—I just downloaded 17.1—with high hopes—and you know what my reward was. I created a new text document and guess what? Adios, arrivederci, type. I love the idea of a class action suit. I'd like to write to the CEO of Adobe and send him my current assessment of his company—what's this clown's name? Never in my life have I seen such incompetence from a company I have done so much business with. This is customer service at its lowest. I'd love to hear from one of the Adobe techs on the ground who is trying to solve this problem. Is it so difficult? If yes, explain, and I'm with you, but please Adobe, give us more feedback than you're doing now. I love it when I open an Adobe app and get the little questionaire asking me to rate things. I'd love to know who's reading what I say.

Srishti Bali
Community Manager
Community Manager
February 8, 2022

Hi all, 

 

Sorry for the trouble this issue has caused. I understand how frustrating it is. Our engineers are working hard to fix this as soon as possible. 
It is hard to believe that the issue is not fixed even after multiple user attempts. I can definitely assure you at it's a work in progress.
 
@roberteblesse I will try to answer all the questions in the best possible way. This issue is completely dynamic. There are different scenarios where users are facing this issue. We have worked with multiple users on live sessions. 
  • Few of them were getting this issue when the system was connected to high-resolution screens.
  • In few cases, users have confirmed that turning off GPU fixed the issue.
  • In some cases, we saw that closing the Discord app helps resolve this issue.
  • Turning off Print Preview has also helped resolve this issue in some cases.

Even after collecting information from multiple users, we still couldn't replicate this issue on our machines. Would you mind sharing the following details so that we can attempt to reproduce it again?
  • SPX file
    Click on Apple Icon > About this Mac > System Report
    This will launch the System Profiler
    Then Click File > Save > Save in Creative Cloud Files
    Then open https://assets.adobe.com/files 
    Click on three dots next to spx file > Share > Copy Link and share it with us.
  • Recording of the issue.
  • Those who want to help us get this fixed through a live session can send me a DM. Just click this link and click "Send a Message."

 

Regards,

Srishti
Note: Marking this as correct to highlight

Participating Frequently
February 8, 2022

I find it VERY hard to believe that you can't replicate this problem. Are you using M1 Macs?

New Participant
February 7, 2022

I'm not working on a Mac at all - I am working on a PC, which has never been an issue before this mess.  I publish books for a living - I'm NOT a computer programmer as some of these answers seem to suggest is required.  I live in fear of making a text edit in a book layout after it has been formatted, because no amount of this mumbo jumbo makes sense to me. I format books. I edit books. I publish books.  I am sure a lot of the people on this thread don't have the foggiest idea what these "workarounds" even mean.

For example, I imported a client's 360 page Word doc. In InDesign, I put in a simple a wrap-around on an image.  Now nothing after page 27 appears no matter what I do.  I even tried to set up a new document and it did the same thing. What should have taken me 6 or 7 hours took about 40.  SO RIDICULOUS!

If I'm the only one who doesn't understand these so-called workarounds, well, sorry but I'm a paying customer too and have multiple seats since 2006. This is costing me and my company not only money, but clients.  It should just work. It has always worked.  Now my company has thousands of projects that I cannot possibly just transfer over to another platform. 

 

How does a class-action lawsuit sound? Because we're all paying for something that doesn't deliver on the promises it makes, and it is severely hurting our businesses.  

New Participant
February 7, 2022

Very well said. Thank you. --
Marilyn Novell

New Participant
February 7, 2022

This is still happening. Any word on a fix and not a workaround?

 

j4m1eb
Known Participant
February 7, 2022

Bad news for anyone expecting a quick fix.

 

"Dear Jamie,

Hope you are doing fine!
I am writing to let you know about the issue you had with Text disappearing while editing in InDesign and as per our discussion on Friday.

We would like to inform you that we have shared the information collected on Friday with our Engineering team and they are researching/working on it to fix as soon as possible. 
However there is no ETA to fix the issue as of now.
I would suggest you to please try the below workaround till the issue gets resolved:
1. You may switch between GPU and CPU preview.
2. Zoom in and Zoom out.
We appreciate your patience.

Please feel free to revert to this email and we will be more than happy to assist you or contact us at 1-800-833-6687 via Phone or initiate the chat session to continue from here.

Thanks for working with us, 

Adobe Customer Care " 

Inspiring
February 7, 2022

If this email is recent, like, 2 days or so, then this is such hackery from Adobe. 17.1 says it fixes the issue. Yet they release it into the wild where not just a handful of people still have the issue, but instead pretty much everyone still has it. Then this email suggesting they're going to look into it? What is this? 

New Participant
February 7, 2022

Exactly, and still they keep charging for their faulty software. They should stop collecting subscription payments until they've fixed the issue. It's making a lot of people's working lives very difficult.


I agree completely.--
Marilyn Novell

New Participant
February 4, 2022

Hi adobe— has this issue been resolved? Any edits, corrections, ragging, tracking / kerning— essentially ANY typesetting causes the text to disappear. It will sometimes reappear if you zoom in /out, turn preview on/off, etc. which is inefficient and problematic when finalizing text. I'm a book designer and this has created a huge amount of work for myself, editors and publishers. Extremely unprofessional for INDD. 

 

Mac Mini (M1, 2020)

Mac OS Big Sur 11.5.2

InDesign v17.1