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Humphrey Democrat
Participant
August 31, 2017
Answered

Control bar goes missing and my tools every time I restart indesign

  • August 31, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 5565 views

Recently, every time I restart indesign, my control bar is missing and my tools bar. How do I  make this open with all of my tools and controls the way I  left them.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Lily1993

    This happened to me. What also happened was that if I opened, for example, 'Pages', then 'Swatches' would disappear. I could only have 1 floating panel at a time.

    It ALL fixed itself when I happened to change WINDOW > WORKSPACE to ADVANCED.

    Even after closing and re-opening InDesign, I find that my control panel is there and docked, as are my tools. And I can have multiple floating panels.

    Hope this helps you, too.

    4 replies

    Participant
    February 16, 2024

    This problem still occurs in the last version of InDesign (19.2) on OSX. After many years, I have understood where is the bug: the control bar disappears as soon as you close your documents and it displays the "Home screen".
    The solution is to deactivate it.
    Go to "Preferences" > "General" > "Show Home Screen When No Documents Are Open".

     
    Rishabh_Tiwari
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    February 20, 2024

    Hi,

     

    Thank you for reaching out and sharing the solution that worked for you. The design preferences should be set without any document. For information on setting preferences, please check this article

     

    Thanks

    Rishabh

    Inspiring
    August 3, 2022

    None of the solutions work. Every time I launch Indesign through double click, it gives me no workspace and I have to go and choose one. Reinstall does not work either.

    Community Expert
    August 3, 2022

    Hi @Sorontar ,

    double-click on what exactly? An InDesign document?

    The InDesign application file?

     

    If the latter, check your Preferences and disable

    Preferences > General >

    [   ] Show Homescreen When No Documents Are Open

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender
    ( Adobe Community Professional )

    Inspiring
    September 19, 2022

    It was only when double clicking on indesign document.
    Resetting preferences helped for now. I guess I accidentally kept preferences when uninstalling and reinstalling.

    Lily1993Correct answer
    Participant
    April 13, 2018

    This happened to me. What also happened was that if I opened, for example, 'Pages', then 'Swatches' would disappear. I could only have 1 floating panel at a time.

    It ALL fixed itself when I happened to change WINDOW > WORKSPACE to ADVANCED.

    Even after closing and re-opening InDesign, I find that my control panel is there and docked, as are my tools. And I can have multiple floating panels.

    Hope this helps you, too.

    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 31, 2017

    Try resetting your InDesign preferences.

    To do so:

    For Macintosh Users: With InDesign closed Launch a Finder Window in column view and click on your home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the following two files and delete them: “Adobe InDesign” and “com.adobe.InDesign.plist”. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

    After you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, it is a really good idea to create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

    For Windows Users: Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset.