Keyboard shortcut not working in InDesign

[varun.k.Books]

Hi everyone,

Hope you're having a great day.

I'm running into a strange issue with Adobe InDesign. Every time I open a file, all keyboard shortcuts stop working. I can't use basic commands like Save (Ctrl+S), Copy (Ctrl+C), or even Close (Ctrl+W). The only shortcut that seems to respond is Alt+W, which opens the menu bar.

However, once I manually interact with the interface—like zooming in/out using the mouse or adjusting something like opacity in the control panel—the shortcuts suddenly start working normally again.

So far, I’ve tried clearing preferences and cache using Ctrl + Alt + Shift on startup, but it didn’t solve the problem. I haven’t reinstalled InDesign yet.

It's becoming quite frustrating to deal with this every time I open a file. Has anyone else experienced this or found a fix?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[Peter Spier]

Before you reinstall, which probably won't help, try doing a manual caches clearance (you'll find directions on the Reset InDesign Preferences and Other Troubleshooting page) and disable any third-party plugins you have installed in InDesign, and also try running in Safe Mode if that is also unsuccessful.

Safe mode will confirm if it's a software conflict, which would be the next most likely problem, and running in a new user would diagnose a user-specific condition.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @varun.k.Books:

In addition to Peter's recommendations, it may be worth noting that we have had numerous reports over the years of other applications interfering with InDesign shortcut keys. The difference here is that yours are temporarily disabled and then work again, and since that's a new twist, I may be off-base.

But still, it's an easy test:

• if you reboot your computer and only open InDesign, do the shortcuts work immediately?
• If not, opening in Safe Mode as Peter suggested allows you to run a basic version of Windows without any non-essential files and drivers. If the shortcuts work initially, then you might look at the apps that auto-load. 

~Barb

[varun.k.Books]

Peter & barb, thanks for replying... The issue seems to occur only on the system provided by my employer. Unfortunately, I do not have admin access to investigate it further. So for now, I’ll handle it manually.

But if somehow i get an answer of solution for that i will make sure to post it here.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @varun.k.Books,  

Thanks for sharing the update. Since the issue only happens on your work machine, it’s possible that something in the system environment (like a background app or script) is interfering with InDesign’s shortcut behavior.  

If you do happen to get access or support from your IT team, I’d recommend checking if any apps are auto-launching in the background or if there are any system-level utilities that might be affecting input behavior. Also, keep Safe Mode in mind as a quick test to rule out conflicts.

Reference: 

Windows: https://adobe.ly/4jA2qS6

macOS: https://adobe.ly/3YAsZhR

Looking forward to hearing back. 

Abhishek