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sidneydavenport
sidneydavenport
Inspiring
September 5, 2025
Answered

Three Control panel icons unresponsive

  • September 5, 2025
  • 8 replies
  • 344 views

The Control panel menu (gear), hamburger, and lightning bolt icons are unresponsive. I particularly miss the link to "no break".)

 

I'm using version 20.5 on Windows 11 Pro. I reset preferences and rebooted but that did not help.

 

Thanks...

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi @sidneydavenport,

 

Thanks for sharing the details. Since you already tried resetting preferences and rebooting without success, could you let me know if this happens across all documents or only with certain files? It would also be helpful if you could share a short screen recording showing the issue in action for a closer look. In the meantime, please try switching to the Essentials workspace or resetting your current workspace to see if that restores functionality to the Control panel icons.

 

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

8 replies

sidneydavenport
sidneydavenportAuthor
Inspiring
May 14, 2026

Adobe changed a lot of things for Enterprise users, including licensing, in 2024 and it just caught up with us. After a good deal of housekeeping this problem has disappeared. Thanks so much for your support.

Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
Community Manager
May 15, 2026

Hi ​@sidneydavenport,

 

Thanks for the update, and I’m glad to hear the issue has been resolved.

 

Really appreciate you keeping us posted.

Abhishek

sidneydavenport
sidneydavenportAuthor
Inspiring
May 5, 2026

Thanks so much Abhishek. I’ve been away from the computer but I hope to follow-up on this tomorrow.

    sidneydavenport
    sidneydavenportAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 1, 2026

    Not working yet. Trying safe mode not.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 4, 2026

    Hi @sidneydavenport,

     

    Thanks for the update. I’ve shared the next steps with you via DM to take this forward.

     

    Please check and let me know how it goes.

    Abhishek

    sidneydavenport
    sidneydavenportAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 28, 2026

    Thanks. I have no problem seeing the twp icons. My screen and app are plenty wide. They're just unresponsive when I try to click them. 

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 29, 2026

    Hi ​@sidneydavenport,

     

    Thanks for the update and clarification. 

    To narrow this down further, could you please try a High DPI override on Windows. Right click the InDesign shortcut, go to Properties, then Compatibility, click on Change high DPI settings, enable Override high DPI scaling behavior and set it to Application. After that, relaunch Adobe InDesign and check if the icons respond correctly.

    Also, please create a new custom workspace from Window menu > Workspace and test the behavior there to see if it is specific to the current workspace setup.

    Additionally, try launching InDesign as Administrator once and check if that makes any difference.

    If the issue still persists, please test this in Windows Safe Mode using the steps here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234 to help isolate any third-party interference.

     

    Looking forward to hearing back from you. 

    Abhishek

    sidneydavenport
    sidneydavenportAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 25, 2026

    Peter, Thanks. I followed your instructions and the three icons are showing again. The Quick Access (left icon) is now responsive. The other two (to the right of Quick Access) are still not responsive.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 28, 2026

    Hi ​@sidneydavenport 

     

    Thanks for the update. Could you share a short screen recording of the issue in action on how it behaves? 

    Also, please try setting your display scaling to 100% in Display Settings, restart InDesign, and check if that helps.

     

    Looking forward to your update.

    Abhishek

    sidneydavenport
    sidneydavenportAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 20, 2026

    Now these icons have disappeared on all files. I particularly miss quick access for “no break” and some p-style overrides.

    They haven't been responsive in my saved Workspace for a while so I finally checked the built-in workspaces, none of which showed those icons. And sure enough, when I went back to my siddav workspace, the icons were gone.

    Can anyone tell me if they are somewhere else?

    I'm using Indd version 20.5.3 (long-term supported) because my system is, or was, not quite robust enough for the newer versions.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 22, 2026

    Hi ​@sidneydavenport,

     

    Thanks for the update, and sorry to hear the icons have disappeared again. Could you please share a couple of screenshots of what you’re seeing on your end? That will help me understand the current state better.

    On my side, I’m able to see the hamburger, lightning bolt, and gear icons in both custom and default workspaces. I’d suggest trying a manual reset of preferences using the video at the bottom of this article: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

    Also, if possible, please try resetting your workspace using the steps here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/customizing-workspace.html and check if that brings the icons back. Please note that resetting the workspace will revert your custom settings.

    If you can, please also try installing InDesign 21.3 and check if the icons appear there. You can keep both 20.5.3 and 21.3 installed side by side.

     

    Let me know how it goes after trying this, and I’ll take it forward with you.

    Abhishek

    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 5, 2025

    You should asl try the alternate methods of resetting prefs, and for clearing the cache files, which you will find at Reset InDesign Preferences and Other Troubleshooting 

      sidneydavenport
      sidneydavenportAuthor
      Inspiring
      September 7, 2025

      Thanks Peter, I didn't have to do further troubleshooting but I'm glad to have this link on hand.

      Abhishek Rao
      Community Manager
      Abhishek RaoCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
      Community Manager
      September 5, 2025

      Hi @sidneydavenport,

       

      Thanks for sharing the details. Since you already tried resetting preferences and rebooting without success, could you let me know if this happens across all documents or only with certain files? It would also be helpful if you could share a short screen recording showing the issue in action for a closer look. In the meantime, please try switching to the Essentials workspace or resetting your current workspace to see if that restores functionality to the Control panel icons.

       

      Looking forward to your update.

      Abhishek

        sidneydavenport
        sidneydavenportAuthor
        Inspiring
        September 7, 2025

        Thanks Abhishek,

        Between yesterday and today it resolved. I worked on the same set of files for about a week and always had the problem but when I checked just now the icons are responsive in the files I had been working on and also other files.

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