Problem with swatch pallette

[franks65267173]

I've lost the ability to select colors in the swatch pallette. Is anyone else have the same problem? 

[Admirable_Spirit1987]

I don't doubt it... Appreciate you biting the bullet and trying the clean sweep before I did it myself!

[franks65267173]

My guess is it's affecting only certain Mac users. Kinda worried unless it's a widespeard problem they won't fix it. 

[franks65267173]

Have you tried unistalling your current version of InDesign and installing an older version of it? 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Maybe problem is with the latest 20.0.1 update? 

[Admirable_Spirit1987]

I was having the problem all day BEFORE the update. I installed the updated hoping it would fix the issue... super weird, as ID was fine yesterday and nothing else has changed since then.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Admirable_Spirit1987

Have you tried resetting preferences? 

[Admirable_Spirit1987]

Not yet. Work to be done in other places to wrap up the week. I will this weekend...

[franks65267173]

Yep. Me too. I uninstalled the latest version, downloaded an older one and still have the same problem. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Yep. Me too. I uninstalled the latest version, downloaded an older one and still have the same problem. 

By @franks65267173

Have you tried "nuclear option" - CC Cleaner? 

[franks65267173]

Well... I deleted every CC file I could find. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Well... I deleted every CC file I could find. 

By @franks65267173

It's not about finding them and deleting manually - but using CC Cleaner tool. 

[franks65267173]

Just tried using the cleaner tool. Didn't fix the issue. This is clearly some sort of bug. 

[BobLevine]

If it were a bug it would be easily reproduceable. I won't eliminate anything out of hand but I would bet on it being something unique to your computer and configuration.

[stever59145829]

I'm having the EXACT same issue in InDesign 2025, and I see it's also been written up over on InDesign's UserVoice page. When clicking a swatch, it highlights momentarily and then nothing happens. I have this problem occurring when applying swatches to both shapes and text. It happens in last year's Adobe InDesign 2024 as well. I should add I uninstalled every Adobe app, including CC app, and then ran Adobe's CC Cleaner utility. The issue is there as soon as I reinstall. For what it's worth, I'm on an M2 MacBook Air, 16Gb RAM, and running macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 (the latest release version). It was fine this morning and then BOOM this afternoon. 

★ I should add that, at the same time the swatches ceased functioning, so too did my ability to apply a new font to a text box. I select the text box, then proceed to any of the various flavours of font selection dropdowns. I am able to hover my mouse down through the font list and I see the live preview of the font in my selected text box… however, I'm unable to click and apply the font. I have, on a few occasions, been able to click furiously about 10–12x and had it apply, but it's almost never the font I wanted to apply, because I can't click that fast without shaking the cursor somewhat, which inadvertently chooses a different typeface. All of these swatch and font clicking issues exist both with my mouse connected and using the built-in trackpad. There is no problem in Illustrator or Photoshop.

In general, I've noticed InDesign has slowed down quite a bit this afternoon, which might be a coincidence, but probably not. I'm not sure what happened here, but something is very off.

Thanks,

Steve

[franks65267173]

I've done everything you've said, too. InDesign still doesn't work correctly. 

If you drag a color out of the swatches pallette onto whatever it is you're trying to add the color too it will work—but not on type—it will fill the text box with the color. 

[stever59145829]

Frank,

It's quite frustrating, and I feel your pain. I'm curious, are you encountering the same inability to choose a font from the dropdown to apply to a text box?

[franks65267173]

Yep. Same problem with the font menu. Thought it could be a problem with the trackpad, but I've tried two different trackpads as well as a mouse. No luck. 

[franks65267173]

Do you use an Apple trackpad or mouse?

[franks65267173]

"I have, on a few occasions, been able to click furiously about 10–12x and had it apply..."

Me too!

[leo.r]

Is anyone of those who have this issue using an enlarged UI?

[franks65267173]

I've switched between the two and still have the same problem. 

[leo.r]

Ok I see. I saw issues where some InDesign elements didn't respond to clicks under enlarged UI, but I guess it's a different problem then. 

[stever59145829]

Hey Leo, I've tested with different UI scales and seen no difference—the critical bug is still there for me as well. 

[franks65267173]

I switched between the trackpad on my laptop, a second trackpad and a mouse and still had the same problem. 

[EricFV]

Hi Franck.
Same issue here in France. And it started yesterday too.
And before any Updates… Very strange and very frustrating !
Updating OS or Indesign doesn't fix anything - cleaning and deleting cache or prefs doesn't either.
Correcting old files is painfull and quite IMPOSSIBLE to create new ones.