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kspond
Participant
January 13, 2015
Question

Workspace Panels Disappearing and/or not opening

  • January 13, 2015
  • 56 replies
  • 126302 views

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.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    56 replies

    S
    scotts55118436
    Participating Frequently
    June 24, 2021

    Deleting caches fixed for me- specifically the whole folder 'com.adobe.InDesign' in ~Library/Cashes/. I deleted the folder 'Adobe InDesign' as well. Anytime InDesign would crash on me, the panels never open until several restarts.

    roelverberk
    roelverberk
    Participant
    March 13, 2019

    I had the same problem...

    The solution (for my specific scenario):

    The right side of my window was extended beyond my display.

    Therefore I could not see any differences when I selected the layer-window or not.

    When I pressed the green maximize-button in the mac os window ()

    the layer window appeared again.

    P
    posineg3137159
    Inspiring
    May 7, 2020

    I have this issue as well. I have a preset workspace.

     

    I have noticed it only happens after a crash of some sorts.

     

    The solution I have worked out is to sellect a preset workspace. Quit Illustrator. Launch Illustrator. Change Workspace.

     

    You will have to quit one more time because Illustrator does not save workspace settings until application quit.

     

    Launch Illustrator. Should be back to normal.

     

    This gets to the issue that the settings file for the workspace becomes corrupt because it does not save often or has a partial save during a kernal panic.

    J
    Joshua5C9D
    Participant
    October 22, 2020

    I've been having this issue too, and got all of my workspaces back after doing essentially the same process, but I had to take an extra step first.

     

    The extra step was first changing to "Touch Workspace" (I have a touchscreen Win 10 computer) and then changed back out of Touch Workspace to one of the default preset workspaces. Then, to be able to switch between workspaces on the fly (like normal), I quit Illustrator on one of the defaults and restarted. It now works (hopefully it will stay like that).

    Teknigraf
    Teknigraf
    Participant
    December 9, 2017

    You can try this,

    i solved this issue on Yosemite by checking "reduire la transparence" or something like "reduce transparency" in english… in accessibility of your system preferences.

    P
    pgielzak
    Participant
    December 4, 2017

    CC 2018
    Window > Control

    C
    Cloyd
    Participating Frequently
    December 4, 2017

    Ah, yes -- one of a long series of hopeful workarounds, trying to fix an issue that's been a big pain in the a** for something like 10 years now. Sure would be nice if Adobe would really work on fixing this, rather than just raking in our subscription money and ignoring it. Really gotta love their complete lack of concern for those of us who pay them money every day.

    AshutoshChaturvedi
    Community Manager
    AshutoshChaturvediCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    December 5, 2017

    Please get in touch with us at sharewithai@adobe.com  or any of the other support channels - https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html . Please give a reference to this post so that we can identify you.

    Since this is not a generic issue that we can reproduce at our end, we will need someone to look into your machine to figure out what is going on here.

    Warm Regards,

    Ashutosh Chaturvedi | Sr. Quality Engineering Manager – Illustrator

    C
    chrisc33981802
    Participant
    April 21, 2017

    I'm also having this same issue. The workaround works. But, ITS A WORKAROUND!

    Adobe... solutions please?! This thread was started versions ago, and yet the same issues persist. Pretty sure all these users are paying customers. Whats the deal?

    S
    shoobe01
    Participant
    June 28, 2017

    Same as everyone else, no clean workaround. InDesign latest CC download always. Only on one computer here, weirdly.

    Periodic, no reason it appears. Mostly getting the menus-won't-open vs no menus, but they will open when you drag out and have one button only. Or, work with the Application Frame on but who wants that.

    Resetting tends to cause the app to crash. Restarting a bunch of times seems to bring it back, but it may only seem to. No clear action fixes it.

    b3achouse
    b3achouse
    Inspiring
    March 21, 2017

    I had this problem at some point. This worked for me:

    Window > Workspace > Reset [your saved workspace]

    i had to do it each time I opened up Illustrator for a while. Something fixed it. I had the same problem with IND too.

    D
    dirias
    Participant
    February 15, 2017

    Same issue here, I experience panels not loading intermittently in InDesign and Illustrator since CC 2014. We’re now on CC 2017 and the issue still persists. I don’t think the OS is the issue as it has happened on the past 4 iterations of MacOS 10 (now on 10.11.6) and on 2 different iMacs.

    Adobe please, please, please fix the bugs that don’t load your apps correctly. This has been going on for years!

    T
    trackhorse
    Participant
    April 2, 2017

    I agree! Suddenly, InDesign CC will not remember windows or toolbar, etc.—even after saving. I've also lost the thumbnail images of the last 20 files which has been replaced by a blank gray screen. And I could never get the thumbnail screen to appear in Illustrator from the outset.

    Suggestions? Thanks.

    A
    anlícnes
    Participant
    January 11, 2017

    I am having this problem too - the side panels disappearing - with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC 2017 on an iMac running OS X El Capitan (version 10.11.6). Please resolve this bug, Adobe. Right now the only fix seems to be to close and reopen the application which, needless to say, is a big waste of time (and very frustrating).

    Convergnt
    Convergnt
    Inspiring
    December 19, 2016

    I am having this problem described by Op, others, with CC 2017 apps.

    First photoshop, then Indesign, then Illustrator cards stopped responding over the course of a couple weeks. Thank you to thread participants as I've tried many of the suggestions posted here from the past year. Alas, I'm no closer to a permanent fix and like so many of you the 'application frame' gives me tunnel-vision. That and, Illustrator CC 2017 crashes after i toggle the frame off again.

    Dropping Photoshop back to 2015 and recovering my preferences from Time Machine worked for that app; but Indesign and Illustrator lack the backwards compatibility to ditch the 2017 versions. Hoping this bug receives some attention as it is an on-going issue in new apps.

    Fine Art P
    Fine Art P
    Inspiring
    October 30, 2016

    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.

    C
    Cloyd
    Participating Frequently
    October 30, 2016

    Another interesting workaround, but then again I can find a half-dozen ways of getting their buggy software to work -- software that I'm being charged for for every month. Let's not forget that IT IS ADOBE'S RESPONSIBILITY TO FIX THIS PROBLEM once and for all. I'm tired of paying money for Adobe's software, and then having to do continual, frustrating (and potentially highly costly to me and my design business) workarounds for a problem that they're quite aware of -- but don't care enough about to fix.

    I mean, really -- look back through the comments on this forum, and tell me if this is the way we as end users should have to contort ourselves to get their software to work?

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