Pasting Text Box Turns Into Image

[John Neumann]

Mac Mojave 10.14.X (latest version) - No recent changes

iMac (maxed out for 2013) 24gb RAM / 3.5 ghz I7 - No recent changes

InDesign CC 2019 (with whatever updates it self loads)

Issue 1: I am moving elements (text boxes and images) from one ID file to another. First noticed when I pick 2 elements (image and text box) from document A and copy into document B, the text box and image will become 1 object. Objects cannot be separated. Effects (drop shadow, etc.) are still in place but are not editable. Further attempts continue to frustrate as even pasting into another page on doc. A will have the same behavior. Pasting onto the same page however, does not.

Issue 2: Same issue but results are not changed even when pasting ONLY a text box. Text becomes an image and not affected by attempts to edit as a text object.

Attempts at self-correcting: I've read up today on this problem that has been asked in this forum previously. I've attempted to delete the Saved Data file in Preferences and Cache but unless I am failing at that, the behavior of InDesign isn't changing for me. I've suffered through this before but I do not recall what I did to rectify previously. It happens rarely but when it does it is devastating to my workflow.

So this morning, after an unsuccessful attempt at deleting the preference and cache files, I restarted the iMac. Immediately ran my monthly Onyx maintenance and started up again with no changes in response from InDesign. Everything else runs normally. Ps and Ai have never had this issue. At the end of an especially heavy workweek it may slow down overall but a quick reboot has always solved that. InDesign is the only program I see this behavior from.

• I can physically drag the objects across to another operating window (as suggested in a previous thread) and paste with everything intact. This is not ideal but a cludgy workaround that I will use until this issue is corrected.

• I have the same version of Adobe CC operating on my 2017 MBP (16gb RAM / 3.1 ghz I7) but I do NOT get the issue on this machine.

• I know, I know, just do the work on my laptop, but that is not my point. I can go months without this happening and its not an ancient machine gasping for RAM.

Expected outcome: I know there are several threads with similar issues as this on this forum. Maybe we can gather the last, best procedure and document it here in this one. Some of those threads are many years old and run many pages long with non-helpful or dated replies.

Message was edited by: John Neumann Additional info added / edit autofill

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

Do you have any third party plug-ins installed with your InDesign?

[John Neumann]

None that I know of.

[John Neumann]

Hold on. You may have been correct.

I have a Copy/Paste app in my menu bar (Copy'em Paste) that stores the last X number of copied items for later recall. I closed out of it and copy/pasted new objects successfully with InDesign. Turned it back on and behavior resumed. I don't see anything in its preferences that would allow me to turn off this behavior. And I have no idea why this might apply to only ID and not other Adobe programs.

But it looks like I am back to operating correctly for now.

Thank you for suggesting that. Its never given me an issue before and I've been using this copy/paste program for 2-3 years now. So something between ID and Copy'em Paste has a disconnect but I can investigate that down the road.

So, as much as I'd love to blame something complicated for this, I'll settle for a quick and easy solution today.

Thank you.

[Bill Silbert]

You're Welcome. I was putting together my second post at the same time as the problem got solved. When I clicked on "Add Reply" it was a nice surprise to see that everything was already fixed.

[Bill Silbert]

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling in the following manner?:

In the app section of your Creative Cloud desktop app click on the “V” next to the app’s (InDesign) name and choose the “Uninstall” option from the pull-down menu that appears. After you’ve run the uninstall then use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems  . Then reinstall the program through the Desktop app. Before you reinstall, try once again trashing all preference files and cache files (in the manner described below) to make sure that your install is completely clean. Then launch InDesign and see if the problem persists.

Trashing preferences on a Mac:

The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files in this manner is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

I would also suggest completely trashing your InDesign cache files (not just the Saved Data file).

Trashing Cache files:

To access the cache folder, once again make sure that InDesign is closed and again click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N).With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the “Caches” folder. Within the Caches folder find and delete the entire folder “Adobe InDesign”. I find that deleting the InDesign cache folder completely leads to a lasting change.

[John Neumann]

I'll do this the next time I have some time to do such a cleaning. Thanks again.

I've dug around the Copy/Paste app and it allowed me to turn off certain programs. So I have blacklisted ID from it and I can copy/paste ID objects as normal while retaining its usefulness. I have no clue what Copy'em Paste is doing to the object but I have disabled that part of it for now.

[Bill Silbert]

Glad it all worked out.