Layout Elements Appearing / Disappearing at Random

[laurendoes]

Hello, I am working on a large catalog file and on various pages, elements are appearing/disappearing at random. Sometimes I can still see their bounding boxes, sometimes not. Sometimes I can select them, sometimes not. Nothing is locked, none of these things are on master pages, nothing is in hidden or locked in layers. I can't figure out what is triggering it and it's driving me crazy! 

Restarting doesn't help. I've done the export as IDML to try and clear any bugs and that seems to help for a little while, but eventually it starts happening again. My app is up to date. The only plugin I have running is EasyCatalog.

I attached a quick screen recording for reference. Please help!! 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Can you share your INDD file? 

You can click my nickname if you prefer to send it privately to me. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Another spam account? There is a link at the end of the message... 

[BobLevine]

Yes, a spammer and now gone.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@laurendoes 

Your document is completely "broken"... 

You have  A LOT of phantom objects...

After using my tool - I've deselected all objects "avilable" on the page - and those are your phantoms:

They are there - but you can't select them... And they are not on the Parent / Mastter page either...

After performing the above - and then trying to move them - zonk:

There are two lines on the right page - 21 - with the height "0":

But removing them - doesn't solve the problem...

[laurendoes]

@Robert at ID-Tasker 

Oh wow, ok! I inherited this file from a previous colleague, so I have no idea how it got this mucked up. I was trying to avoid having to start new, but it seems like that must be the easiest answer at this point. So it goes.

Thanks so much for your time & assistance, I really appreciate it! 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

You're welcome - but it's extremely easy to fix it 😉 

Create a new document - with the same page size - then use Move Pages option and move all the pages from your current document to the new one - best if you select "before first page" option.

That's it 😄 

[Olivier Beltrami]

@laurendoes When we receive an INDD from outside we always create a new blank document and manually select the objects of the page (make sure to check the "paste remembers layers" setting) and paste them into the new document.

We do not often have the issue of phantom-objects, but what our process does is to get rid of all the un-used swatches (colors) and styles.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Olivier Beltrami

The same effect would be if you move all/some pages - only used colors/swatches, styles, etc. will be transferred to a new document together with the objects.

Unless you need to move only some objects.