Pasteboard pages appear in some pages of a book.

Report · Oct 23, 2022

I am designing a book with lots of copy and images. All of sudden some of my pages have turned the color of the pasteboard, grey, and the pagination says PB rather than the next consecutive number. This is a new issue on top of all the other issues I have been having, like crashing all the time and then huge splshes of color go across my document. I"m on an iMac intel and also used a new MacBook Pro with the Apple 2chip.

Report · Oct 23, 2022

It could help if you could tell us exactly what version of InDesign you're running and what Mac OS.

I would definitely suggest restoring your preferences and caches. Here's a good description of how to do that:

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-rebuilding-preferences-cache/

Report · Oct 23, 2022

Hi Steve, I"m on OS 12.2, Mnterey and Indesign 2023. I'll check out your suggestion althohg it makes me nervous to mess with preferences and cache without a techie. Thanks for responding. I have replaced those pages that may have been corrupt. Wondering if anyone elses has had this issue.

Report · Oct 23, 2022

It's likely either what Steve suggested, or it's a corrupt file. If the latter, see https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/troubleshoot-file-issues.html. I'd go first to the section on saving as .idml:

Open the file in InDesign.
Choose File > Export.
From the Save As Type, choose InDesign Markup (CS4 and later).
Give the file a name and location, and then click Save.
In InDesign, open the exported .idml.
Save it as a new .indd file and see if the issues go away.

Note that if all else fails, you can send the file to Adobe for troubleshooting:

If no resolution works, share the affected file with us at idfile@adobe.com. We'll investigate the issue and let you know if the recovery is possible.

~Barb

Report · Oct 23, 2022

Hi Barb, Thank you with your suggestion as well. I will try that route too and possibly sending to idfile. I'm on deadline with this book, so nervous about anymore issues. But InDesign has not been stable for me for a loooooong time. It's been very frustsrating. I'm wondering if I will have the ame issue on the MacBook Pro with the M2 Chip.

Report · Oct 23, 2022

IIRC, Steve and I are both on the M1 chip, and not having issues with InDesign. If InDesign hasn't been stable for you for a while, then I think it points to his answer as the correct one. But please read the entire post he linked to before you start. It explains that you can rename (and potentially restore) the files/folder that you rebuild, if deleting them feels too frightening.

And remember that the Library folder is hidden on a Mac. In Finder, hold down the Option key and open the Go menu. Library will be listed in the menu as long as the Option key is held down.

~Barb

Report · Oct 23, 2022

Do you think it is the iMac (intel) that there is a conflict? Do you think I will have issues with the M2 chip on my new MacBook Pro? So you both think I should restore the cache and preferences and see if that works before renaming file, correct?

Report · Oct 23, 2022

Yes, I agree with Barb about that.

Report · Oct 23, 2022

Thank you!

Report · Oct 23, 2022

I also agree with @Steve Werner and @Barb Binder

If resetting the preferences or exporting to IDML is not effective then one more step might be helpful

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

Report · Oct 24, 2022

@Moonstruck2015 said: "… All of sudden some of my pages have turned the color of the pasteboard, grey, and the pagination says PB rather than the next consecutive number."

Hi @Moonstruck2015 ,

also try the following:

[1] Do a duplicate of the document's file in the file system.

[2] Open the duplicated file in InDesign.

[3] Try to add a new spread before the spread you are seeing the issue.

If you are successful with that, select all the contents on the damaged spread.

Do not use the Select All command with that, but draw out a selection marquee by using the Selection Tool.

[4] Copy the selected contents.

[5] Switch to the new spread and use the menu command for Paste in Place.

Repeat that for all your damaged spreads.

Finally save the document to a new name, remove the damaged spreads.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

Report · Oct 24, 2022

Hello Laubender. I did exactly what you suggested earlier and successfully replaced the damaged spreads except I did not rename the file. I will do that now. I do have a backup that I made.

My question is why is InDesign so unstable. Years ago I never had issues with InDesign.

Report · Oct 24, 2022

It isn't unstable for everyone. I use it every day on two Macintosh computers - a 2015 MacBook Pro (Intel) and a 2021 MacBook Pro with an Apple M1 Pro chip, and rarely have a problem.

Report · Oct 24, 2022

I wonder if it is a problem with the iMac intel (2020). I'm transferring the files to the MacBook Pro with the M2 chips. Maybe it will be more stable there.

Report · Oct 24, 2022

Hi @Moonstruck2015 ,

it's still a mystery to me why this happens.

Never experienced this with one of my projects.

Can you remember what happened before you observed the damaged spreads?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

Report · Oct 31, 2022

Update on my situation: I have moved my work to the new MacBook Pro and inDesign is more stable. Still a few issues, but at least I am not crashing and I could open my file. I am getting rid of the intel iMac.

Thnak you everyone for your quick responses.