InDesign Panels Popping Onto Second Monitor

[damonius]

I have two monitors, and I run InDesign on the left monitor. Before updating to InDesign 2022, tool panels (Paragraph, Pages, etc.) used to pop to the left of my right-side-docked toolbar (see image; I outlined in green where the panels used to pop).

Now, they pop to the second monitor, and considerably distant from the toolbar for some reason. If I try to move the panel to the left, it removes the panel from the toolbar (what??). If I enable the application frame, it behaves as desired — except that the application frame is annoying, and I don't like it.

This happens with all of my workspaces, even the default InDesign workspaces. It used to keep all of the InDesign application UI elements on my main monitor. Now if I have a full-screen app on my right monitor, the panels can't be accessed unless I switch away from the full-screen app.

The image shows a green line that separates my two monitors as well as where the panels used to pop (green rectangle).

My InDesign version is 17.2.1 and my macOS version is 12.3.1, Apple M1 chip. (Note that I also opened InDesign with Rosetta to run it as an Intel app, and the same behavior was present.)

Further, the document header bar no longer matches the pasteboard theme (it's light, whereas the rest of the interface is dark), but that's not related to the main issue — just mentioning in case anyone else has this issue too and knows how to fix it.

[Mike Witherell]

Have you experimented with doing a reset of InDesign's preferences?

Troubleshooting

[damonius]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the response. I tried all of your helpful troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately, not even uninstalling with the CC Cleaner application fixed this issue.

However, since I was in real "fix it" mode after this, I figured I'd try to narrow down the issue.

• When I turn off my monitors and only run InDesign on my MacBook display, it works as intended — everything is on one display (probably because it has nowhere else to go). (Note that I had to restart InDesign after turning off my monitors; it still pushed the panels off the screen until then.)
• When I turn my monitors back on (with InDesign still open), the application shifts to my main screen, as expected, and the panels behave as intended — a little win!
• If I restart InDesign while the monitors are on, it puts the panel back in the odd position shown in the original post.
• I've tried opening InDesign so that it's correct, saving my workspace while it's correct, and then relaunching InDesign. Still no luck. I don't think this is necessarily a user configuration issue (workspace, preferences, etc.), especially since it's presenting after using the CC Cleaner application and reinstalling fresh.
• I also tried all of the macOS options for "Assign to ... Desktop 1, Desktop 2, etc." without any help there.

So, while I have a workaround now (launch InDesign on my MacBook while my monitors are off), it's still less than ideal. It's also especially aggravating because it's a new issue as of InDesign 2022. My same setup had been working fine for many years previously.

If you have anything else to try, I'm certainly interested. Otherwise, I'm going to chalk this up as an annoying bug and stick with the workaround until it gets fixed.

[misschris310]

I am having this same issue as of 2 days ago! Just started doing that and my top control panel keeps floating away and only docks at top of the other monitor. Going crazy over here!

[ALG32420429 · Accepted solution]

I know I'm late to the party, but I found a fix for me. I changed the UI sizing down to small on the top slider and it no longer pops onto second monitor.

[lesliew38841375 · Accepted solution]

Thank you SO much. Changing UI to small fixed it!