Drop down menu not selecting

[ricka33429605]

Hey all,

I've been having some recent trouble with selections made from some dropdown menus in InDesign. Hover selection are not 'holding' when I make them with the input returning to the previous selection. I'm having to scroll to a given selection.

Trying to select Gotham, but when the menu collapses it will remain Scout

Trying to select 10pt but the selection will remain 18pt.

This will also happen in some of the selections in the control palette.

Also sometimes choosing from the Character palette will not change a text selection and will only work if I make a change from the Control palette

[Bill Silbert]

When you say you are making a "Hover" selection are you saying that you're expecting a selection to hold just by hovering over it? You do still have to click on the selection to make it hold. Please clarify if that is what you mean and, if it is, please verify that you are also clicking on the selection which is then not holding.

[ricka33429605]

Yes, I am clicking.

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

Then try resetting your 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.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works then great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings (you may be able to skip the previous steps with Windows 10). Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language> for any versions that you have. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create  new preference files and the program will be at its default settings. You should do this for any versions that are there. After deleting launch CC 2018, if the launch is successful, create and save a test file and then quit the program to “confirm” the preferences. It also may be a good idea to reboot your computer after this is done.

Once you relaunch the program you can begin customizing it to your liking.

After you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open), 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.

[ricka33429605]

Works so far, which doesn't makes sense. Having a dropdown menu work as expected is not a preference you can toggle. Calling it correct for now, I guess? I'm deeply disturbed and disappointed Adobe is putting out product that breaks so easily.

[Bill Silbert]

Preferences can get corrupted for a multitude of reasons most of which usually aren’t even directly related to the actual problem that is caused by it. I’ve always just been glad that there is a relatively simple fix like this to fall back on. Like I said in my instructions keep a copy of your preference folder handy in case of future problems.

[misteroncel]

Hi there, we have experienced the same problem recently in our design team (multiple installations on different macs), selections have not been taken in, either you have to navigate via keyboard arrows and confirm with enter or another fix we figured was restarting indesign and trying again.

This occured on different dropdowns througout indesign (Text settings, export settings,...), just wherever there is a dropdown, it has occured.

Seems to be a broader error, not only ricka33429605 experienced.

[Next Master]

This has been a perpetual problem since Indesign 2017. It is disingenuous to blame "other factors" for corrupting Indesign preferences. The fact is, Indesign is "buggy" and whilst lots of attention has been paid to adding "bells and whistles", the basics still do not work consistently and reliably. In this case, trashing the preferences is almost worse than leaving it as is. It is time consuming and then one has to reset all the working preferences – and the problem recurs anyway.

[jamjamesh]

I'm having to reset my ID preferences every day so that I can make basic selections like font, etc. What's the point of having preferences if I have to delete them every day? Basically I have to do this nearly every time I open a document. On a Mac OSX Sierra, ID CC 13.01.1, with no 3rd party plug-ins or extras installed.

[Bill Silbert]

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling your InDesign?

To do so:

In the app section of your Creative Cloud desktop app click on the “V” next to the app’s (InDesign) name and choose the “Uninstall” option from the pull-down menu that appears. After you’ve run the uninstall then use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems  . Then reinstall the program through the Desktop app. Before you relaunch the program, once again trash all preference files to make sure that your install is completely clean. Then launch InDesign and see if the problem persists.

[BobLevine]

First things first, update InDesign to 13.1

If that’s not it, it sounds like something on your system is causing that type of corruption, if that’s indeed what it is.

Can you be more detailed on the system? Desktop? Laptop? One monitor? Multiple monitors?

[toddt9568456]

I know it's been awhile, but I came looking for answers to this very problem. We have 3 designers in our studio, and we are all experiencing this issue with InDesign. Restarting the software fixes the problem, but I find I have to restart about 6 or 7 times per day. The drop down menus will work for awhile, then they quit allowing selections.

We are all on the latest version of InDesign on late-2012 iMac 27" 3.4Ghz i7 machines with 16gig RAM, no additional monitors. We are all running Sierra.

[liseann]

Our design team is suffering with our drop down menus not working properly too.
Say in find change you want to change your selection, to story, you can select story but it does not stick, it jumps back to whatever the original selection was.

It comes and goes, restart usually fixes it temporarily. Tried killing Indd prefs cache, working locally. removed 3rd party....

I agree with misteroncel "Seems to be a broader error"

Using the Arrow keys to scroll through the selections works for most menus but not all — not my grep searches. UGH!!!!

[pbredtag]

Same here. Prefs deleted but problem described is back sooner or later. Best workaround is restart.

[josephk68120338]

Dear Adobe,

you really have to get your head around this problem and fix it!

Almost every second day I have to go and clear the preference files to solve the dropdown-issue.

But surely that can't be the answer for a product that costs me CHF 58.30 per month!!!!

[Next Master]

I have discovered a workaround that often (but not always) solves the problem. This will save you some strife whe under time pressure and this bug (which Adobe basically deny is their issue) occurs. When you click on the drop-down menu, do NOT release the mouse (keep the finger down). Then roll over to your choice and only then let go. I find this works about half the time or even more.

All the best.

[jademacfarlane]

Thank you! This worked for me and is a quick fix to at least get my work done.

[PeterZenexus]

I have tried this but it doenst always work ... when is Adobe going to fix this problem?

[kdnon]

I am now finding that I have this issue pretty consistently in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, as well as Acrobat. The odds of a preference file corruption on all of these apps at the same time seems pretty low and resetting prefs doesn't seem to help. I never had this issue until I upgraded to CS2018. Seems a software suite issue to me.

[Helios5CEC]

This is still happening to me in a newer version of inDesign, 4 years later. How has this still not been fixed?