InDesign Stuck in "Touch" Workspace on First Launch, Unable to Click or Use Shortcuts

[Léonard Roussel]

Hello. Brand new laptop (HP Zbook with touchscreen, Windows 10), just installed InDesign and open for the first time, I get this unfriendly "touch" screen (see screenshot) but cannot click (or touch) anything, or press any keyboard shortcut. I also tried what's described here without success (this is the first time I open InDesign on this computer). I'm running out of ideas, please help, thanks!

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[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. To disable the touch workspace, please try the suggestions shared in this similar discussion, and feel free to update the discussion if you need further assistance.

Thanks

Rishabh

[Rod35193707c7l0]

Hi all. So I have the same issue however I am on a Desktop system with laptop hooked up to dual monitors. My none of my screens are touch. I have shut Indesign, restarted computer, then opened existing Indd file (before launching Indd) but with same issue, still stuck on this screen? Help!

[Martha M.]

Rod, after I rebooted and opened InDesign again, I was able to click on the dropdown next to "Touch" and select "Essentials Classic" instead of Touch (any of the choices in that list should work, though!). Good luck--I hope that resolves the issue for you!

[Rod35193707c7l0]

Thank you for your reply Martha. For some reason I have come back after lunch and it now works. Odd but I will take it. Thanks again.

[Martha M.]

Stranger things...! Glad to hear it. 

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Glad to hear it works now. In case anyone experiences this, please try the suggestions shared in this discussion. 

Thanks

Rishabh

[JCedric]

Hi,

Same problem for me.
I simply closed the InDesign window and relaunched InDesign.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing the solution that worked for you. If anyone experiences this, even after restarting, please try the suggestions shared in this discussion. 

Thanks

Rishabh

[Raymond26965993n8ct]

April 2024 and this bug still exists. My Dell computer does not have a touchscreen, yet software defaulted to the touchscreen demo with no visible means to dismiss it.  However the software makes the determination to do this, it goofs up. Best to change the install or start-up to ASK if the user wants to start in touchscreen mode. My first impression of Adobe is not good.

[Sawood Pearce]

May 2024 and this bug still persists. A fresh install of InDesign opens in Touch mode with ridiculous scaling and no buttons (including the Workspace selection) work with touch or cursor. This thread should not be marked as 'Solved' by Adobe because the solution given is a workaround with intermittent results. The solution is to fix the bug permanently and advise which version has this resolved.

[Chris E OKC]

May, 2024 and I too am still experiencing this on a new install. In the past, opening InDesign by double-clicking an existing .indd file has worked. However, that does not work this time. It *looks* like it's going to. I see the file in touch mode, then after a few seconds, the "tutorial" pops up, locking me out of anything other than closing InDesign via Task Manager. I've spent the last three hours trying the solutions mentioned in this discussion, in the discussion posted by the Adobe employees, and various combinations of the recommendations, but alas, here I am, still without a version of Adobe I can use for more than just staring at a locked touch tutorial screen. It's a bit silly that this issue has persisted for more than half a decade, and still has not been fixed.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi there,

We understand it could be frustrating for you. Would you mind trying the steps suggested in this article: https://adobe.ly/45u0m8r and let us know if that helps?

Thanks,

Harshika

[JPatGP]

July 2024, just ran into this for the first time as well after reinstalling windows. Making it even more interesting is it is opening on a non-touch secondary display (though the primary laptop screen is a touchscreen). Opening an existing indd file did the trick. Still kind of an irritating bug.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi @JPatGP, 

We understand it could be frustrating. However, the touch screen on Windows can be disabled by following the steps mentioned on this page by Microsoft:

https://adobe.ly/4bYUGoo

Please try and let us know if that solves the issue.

Thanks,

Harshika

[JPatGP]

lol. I appreciate your wanting to help, but I'd read the other comments in this thread before responding further. I think you might be missing the point.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

So, what is the point?

[Kristi25080141geqv]

Thank you for this information - i just installed InDesign onto my computer with Windows 11 and was frantically trying to uninstall and reinstall versions when i stumbled across this article (17 January, 2025) version 20.0.1 and my touch enabled laptop is stuck on the screen (many screen shots of my experience in previous reports) with no way to close or minimize or ESC. The only option was to launch the task manager and force quit ID.
Opening an already existing .indd file DID work. This is just to report that this is an ongoing issue and HAS NOT BEEN resolved. Thank you ~k

[MelissaNM]

Just a quick note that this is STILL happening in Jan 2025 on startup.

[Holeycow]

This is causing me some real frustration as well. Surely it's not hard to have an option in preferences to switch off the touch option.
Every file I open opens as the touch option.

[Susanna248990881sgi]

I just wanted to give an update that I noticed at least one significant improvement has been made on this bug. Previously, if my Cintiq tablet was attached & turned on and I opened InDesign, it opened with the Touch interface even if it opened on a regular monitor. 

Today I forgot to turn off my tablet before opening InDesign, and InDesign opened normally anyway! It opened on my primary (laptop) monitor with the normal, non-touch interface. I'm using the Windows version of InDesign 20.1.

Progress!

[Peter334996763wkv]

Same thing happened to me on a touch-screen laptop and attached (non-touch screen) monitor. I had to close Indesign, than shut my laptop so it reopened on the external monitor. Then I could switch to Essentails workspace. Fngers corossed this doesn't happen on subsequent loads.

Version 20.0.2 x64

[Johanna30517285kafz]

Same happened to me until I noticed that you had to go through the little tutorial (click next on the button) and then click Lets start (or something like it) After that you can use the cursor to switch Workspaces.

[aideno13530731]

Hi, still experiencing this problem. None of the solutions listed here have worked.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @aideno13530731,

Would you mind trying to manually reset InDesign's preferences and checking if it helps:

For macOS

• Close all Adobe applications.

• Go to the following locations

• ~/Library/Caches

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe

• ~/Library/Preferences

• Rename Adobe InDesign, com.adobe.indesign and Adobe InDesign 20 Settings folders to Adobe InDesign.old, com.adobe.indesign.old and Adobe InDesign 20 Settings.old

• Launch InDesign from the Creative Cloud.

Note: Location starting with this "~" sign indicates the User Library, which is hidden. So, you need to copy & paste the exact path in spotlight search or from Finder Menu > Go > Go to Folder > Paste the location in the dialog box like this:

For Windows

- Close all Adobe applications.

- Go to Location C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe

- Rename Adobe InDesign and Adobe InDesign 20 Settings folders to Adobe InDesign.old and Adobe InDesign 20 Settings.old

- Relaunch InDesign from Creative Cloud

Disclaimer: Please note that renaming preferences folders will remove all the custom settings, and InDesign will launch with default settings. You can also save a backup of the folders in case you want to. The location is mentioned above.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

[aideno13530731]

This worked, thank you!