Workspace Panels Disappearing and/or not opening

[kspond]

Hello.

I'm on Mac OSX Yosemite and Adobe CC 2014. I am having a constant issue with my workspaces disappearing and/or panels not opening. I can fix the problem by deleting preferences, but I'd rather not do that every time I start up. Also, for workflow efficiency, I would REALLY love for my preference to be customized and saved. This problem is preventing me from doing that.

Specifically, when I launch Illustrator, my workspace panels will sometimes have all been removed. There is nothing there. If this happens, I can add my panels manually from the Windows menu. If I do that, I can only use the panels with the panel dock expanded. If I collapse the panels and click on a panel icon, it will not open. Let me know any way I can further help to solve this issue.

Below: Essentials workspace at start up. All panels missing.

Below: After manually opening panel windows. Collapsed view. Notice Strokes panel highlighted, but not open.

[Larstown]

I have been having the same irritating problem in InDesign for some months...

(Running the latest version 11.2.0.99 on a Apple Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.3)

Not every time, but very often when I leave InDesign and go to some other program and get back to InDesign the control panel is not visible.

The only way to fix it is to choose some of the other workspace settings – and then choose my own workspace setting again.

I have tried to delete the settings plus created a new workspace setup, it didn't work.

[GPGW]

I had this happen just now upon opening InDesign.

Infuriating!

[ryank74578718]

I guess Adobe doesn't care about this because nothing has been done to fix it!

[Kreshteena]

Sorry to hear that you guys have been experiencing this problem for some time now. My panels (e.g. Book panel, Paragraph Styles, Character Styles Panels in INDESIGN CC2014 have now just disappeared.

Hope we can get some advice from Adobe about what to do to make them appear again. I have rebooted, restarted InDesign but same problem ... no items appearing inside the panels.

[Kreshteena]

Found the answer in Anne Marie Concepcion's article:   http://indesignsecrets.com/rebuilding-indesign-preferences.php

It works!

[GPGW]

Kreshteena‌, I wonder if that works for Illustrator?

Allow me to vent.

Received e-mail from Adobe saying subscription increasing for 2017.

I probably would't mind so much IF THEY BOTHERED TO FIX THIS ISSUE!

/vent

[Kreshteena]

You can but try.

Otherwise, check out the instructions shown in  Missing tools and panels (Illustrator CS2-CS5 on Windows)

[jmorenajr]

Having this issue as well.  Have to restart the computer in order for the Panels to appear again.  I wonder if the bug has something to do with the docked panels and documents being Opened as Tabs instead of free floating?  I turned it off in the Preferences so will see if it's an issue going forward.

[Guest]

It seems like there is still no actual fix for this? I am using indesign CC with Yosemite on mac and can see my swatch panel load and then disappear each time I start up the program. "reset workspace" does work (@jmorenajr you might want to try this instead of restarting), but is rather irritating to do this each time I start up. I did try your idea about tabs vs free floating and there is something to it, since when I leave the swatch panel free and clear before I quit it loads up fine the next time I start up. Again, not a fix, but perhaps better than resetting all the time.

[jmorenajr]

Yeah...today was the first time I open Illustrator after switching the "Open Documents as Tabs" off and the panels opened fine. Layers, Tools, Pathfinder...everything.  Hard to say with out checking that on a daily.  I'll post again in a few days if this seems to work or not.

[Guest]

Watch here if that help you >>>>>>>> How to recover toolbars/tool pallets/missing panels in Adobe Illustrator CC/Adobe Photoshop CC - You...

[jmorenajr]

So it's been a week since I switched the "Open Documents as Tabs" off in the User Interface Preferences and I haven't had this problem since.  Hard to confirm if this is an actual fix but it seems to have worked.  Hope I didn't jinx it haha

Can someone else try this and confirm or deny if this is working for you?

[jmorenajr]

Well after a few weeks of no problems, this happened again.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

[GPGW]

I'm getting sick of Adobe products crashing and/or not working properly.

Which is what happened when Illustrator suddenly crashed and reopened without any panels except the tool bar.

I've expressed my frustration in a new splash screen, as I just can't take this app seriously anymore.

[GPGW]

PS. Sorry for the HUGE file size. It appears I can't edit the post and the 'Actions' drop-down has no actions associated with it. Typical of Adobe, I suppose ...

[kate_paullin]

Doing the same thing for me for 2015 CC InDesign! Only fix I found for this was to go into the Windows panel and select a palette I knew should have been opened; then all panels opened back up. It's just frustrating! And I have to do it EVERY single time I open a new document. Come on, Adobe, you should have fixed this glitch by now!

[rossw52106505]

This is a work around for the same problem in indesign, if you just grab an older version of the .xml file and replace the most current version.

How do I import my custom InDesign workspace to a new computer? - Graphic Design Stack Exchange

[taskagitm64261693]

Window -- workspace -- clicking on essentials worked for me.

[GPGW]

Had this just happen with Muse CC 2015.2.

The panels didn't appear on start-up, applied App Frame (yuk! ) and they appeared, but clicking on them yields no response.

Doesn't look like Muse has a Workspace feature, FWIW.

[graphicd1993542]

I've been having the same problem with flyouts not working in InDesign CC 2015 for the past few days.

A solution for me was just dettaching the panel from the top bar. You can still snap it back into the right hand corner without merging it into the top bar. You'll know it's dettached if it has an 'x' at the top. Flyouts have continued to work for me from this setup.

Hope this helps.

[Cloyd]

I've been having this problem intermittently with InDesign CC 2015 for nearly 9 months now. It shows up many days in a row, then ID works fine for a week, or a month, and then it's back again. Re-installed ID, no help. Checked for corrupted fonts, repaired permissions, etc., etc. -- all to no avail. Also, it doesn't seem to be a corrupted preferences file. I've fixed those a couple of times, and the problem still persists.

However (and if Adobe is listening, this might be a clue for you, assuming you ever want to fix this bug!): if I delete my ID caches (~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version 11.0), everything works just fine for that session. I can work all day with no problems. It really appears that the caches, when ID closes and writes them to disk, are the source of the problem.

Any thoughts or feedback from anyone else about what you've discovered? What could be the source of the corrupted cache files? (especially since I've literally had a full month without this problem, in the middle of 9 months of otherwise pretty much continuous frustration).

[Guest]

Here is the solution >>> How to recover toolbars/tool pallets/missing panels in Adobe Illustrator CC/Adobe Photoshop CC - You...

[kate_paullin]

I appreciate the attempt at help but the sound quality on that is horrible; combine that with his thick accent and I can't understand what's being said, which makes it not very helpful.

[Monika Gause]

kate.paullin schrieb:

I appreciate the attempt at help but the sound quality on that is horrible; combine that with his thick accent and I can't understand what's being said, which makes it not very helpful.

It just tells you how to reset the workspace, that's all.

[Fine Art P]

One  work around to corrupted InDesign workspaces: Next time you have Indesign working stably, save your workspace several times (me1, me2, me3, me4, and so on.) I suggest you save about ten of them. In a few days, when the workspace begins behaving erratically again, you would normally delete your preferences and start over. Just move to the next saved workspace me2. This should keep you going for about a month before you need to delete all 10 workspaces and start over.