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lydiah10152283
New Participant
January 3, 2020
Answered

Disappearing Footnotes

  • January 3, 2020
  • 11 replies
  • 7020 views

For a while now footnotes have been disappearing from my documents--just the actual footnote, not the reference. When enough disappear that text reflows I receive the "Overset Text" error, but recently one disappeared and text should have reflown but did not, and I received no error warning. This was only caught by chance before sending it to the printer. 

 

I have seen others on forums struggling with issues like this, but there are never any answers, from Adobe or from other clever typesetters. This is a very concerning problem. Please let me know if there's any way to at least make sure I am notified if footnotes disappear!

    Correct answer Barb Binder

    The fix for this issue is now available in the latest update of InDesign—version 16.1

    Please update to this version to get the fix. To prevent problem on existing documents and see the footnotes again, you will have to force recompose the stories. To force recompose stories, you can use the shortcut Command-Option-/ (slash) on Mac or Ctrl-Alt-slash on Windows.

     

    —InDesign Team

    11 replies

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    Linnea36924387zpp6
    New Participant
    April 21, 2025

    Hey,

    I had problem with disappearing foototes while transfering text from Word to InDesign. I converted my Word-document to RTF-format (just Save as and rtf), and then I placed the file to InDesign, and got text with foodnotes.

     

    Barb Binder
    Barb BinderCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 3, 2021

    The fix for this issue is now available in the latest update of InDesign—version 16.1

    Please update to this version to get the fix. To prevent problem on existing documents and see the footnotes again, you will have to force recompose the stories. To force recompose stories, you can use the shortcut Command-Option-/ (slash) on Mac or Ctrl-Alt-slash on Windows.

     

    —InDesign Team

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    J
    Joseph-C
    Known Participant
    January 29, 2022

    I have tried all the suggestions here but I still can't get my endnotes and references to reappear. Every time I try to work with the Endnote options the file crashes. I'm using InDesign 17.0.1 for Mac, running OS Big Sur 11.6.2.

     

    Exporting the .indd file to .idml format stops the crashing, but all the references are replaced with <?>. Adobe support suggested changing the font to force them to reappear but that didn't work. 

     

    I also tried the Recompose command+option+/ (slash) and that didn't work.

     

    I unsuccessfully tried exporting the text to various formats hoping the endnotes would show up and I could at least copy and paste the text.

     

    Any and all suggestions welcome!

    T
    Todd Halvorsen
    New Participant
    January 17, 2021

    I've found that if I open "Document Footnote Options" from the Type Menu and change the numbering style the footnotes reappear. I keep the Preview box checked and make a change ... footnotes reappear, and I then click Cancel or change the setting back. There's no need to implement the change. Typically I check the "Restart Numbering Every" checkbox, the footnotes reappear, then I uncheck the box, and close the options window. It's very annoying but seems to occur in files that are part of a book that has had pagination changes elsewhere in the book.

      valt38212216
      valt38212216
      New Participant
      March 1, 2023

      Thank you Todd!   That fixed my problem. 

      C
      Caerus @ Bookery
      New Participant
      January 15, 2021

      It's January 2021 and I'm also having this problem. Adobe, you've got thousands of my dollars at this point. Fix it.

        W
        whippety
        New Participant
        January 15, 2021
        To those of us frustrated with the disappearing footnote issue, may I
        suggest that we start asking Adobe for a partial refund for what we are
        paying for InDesign as part of Creative Cloud. The footnote issue can't be
        that hard to fix. When Adobe starts taking a financial hit perhaps they
        will prioritize this issue.
          carenflo
          carenflo
          Participating Frequently
          January 16, 2021

          That's an excellent idea. 

           

          carenflo
          carenflo
          Participating Frequently
          December 17, 2020

          It's now the end of 2020 and this bug is still severely affecting my work. Random footnotes disappear when using the Book export function. It means that my workflow is slowed down to a crawl while I re-check files that have been edited and approved multiple times. It's a serious bug and severely undermining my confidence in InDesign. I use Indesign 15.1.2 with Mac High Sierra 10.13.6. 

            carenflo
            carenflo
            Participating Frequently
            December 17, 2020

            The best work-around is to export as separate files, but that is a backwards step when working with publishing houses. 

            ~
            ~BarbaraT
            Inspiring
            September 24, 2020

            I'm so glad to have found this tip! The footnotes have appeared. (It partially solved my problem of references showing as "?" and no footnote.) I voted for this bug in hopes they will keep working on a fix.

              J
              jessk09
              New Participant
              July 23, 2020

              I JUST had this problem start today--months after the OP, and I use Indesign almost every day! While the work around suggested above about the footnote color works (thank you!), has Adobe not fixed this or a settings solution found? I'm running the latest version, which is 15.1.1. No overset text message either. So frusterating as I now need to check everything.

               

                K
                khalid_alajaji
                New Participant
                April 15, 2020

                My own workaround to this problem while working on a 1000 page document:
                Firstly, I only know of the problem when updating the TOC. It gives a warning of overset text, but no indication of where it is.
                The solution is to do a global format change of all superscript characters (footnotes reference format) to be changed to color black, which is already the color of the footnotes references. I use black in my document, and actually nothing changes, but this will make all footnotes appear again. You can check this first on individual occurrences.

                  L
                  luis29
                  New Participant
                  June 5, 2020

                  hey,

                  i do not understand your workaround. can you elaborate?

                  My english is not that good, sorry. I tried to change the paragraph format, but it didnt change anything.

                   

                   

                  K
                  khalid_alajaji
                  New Participant
                  June 7, 2020

                    W
                    whippety
                    New Participant
                    January 31, 2020

                    I am on Indesign 14.0.3, Mac OS 10.15.3. I have had same issue with footnotes going to overset text with no warning. This was just discovered in a 19-chapter, 660-page book that is about to go to printer. I had to go through every chapter finding the footnote number reference in the text, then make sure the footnote itself is not hidden. I found 6 instances out of hundreds of footnotes. This was discovered AFTER the book went to the indexer, so page breaks could not be changed. This is serious!

                    Steve Werner
                    Steve Werner
                    Community Expert
                    January 3, 2020

                    It would help a lot if you would add to your report: Please tell us what operating system (exactly) you're running. Please tell us (exactly) what InDesign version you're using.

                    L
                    lydiah10152283Author
                    New Participant
                    January 3, 2020

                    Right, sorry! I am using 15.0.1 on a Mac desktop computer.

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