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candaceCRG
Participant
November 21, 2011
Answered

Suddenly can't drag objects... tried several potential solutions with no luck so far.

  • November 21, 2011
  • 14 replies
  • 90239 views

All of a sudden I am not able to drag objects in any InDesign document (Well, I assume it's ANY document. I've only tested a few.) I can drag handles/corners to resize an object; I can nudge an object with arrow keys; I can move objects using Object > Transform > Move; but I can't drag anything with the mouse/trackpad.

This is happening with all objects in all of the documents I've tested (both text objects and image objects). I've tried using a trackpad and a mouse. I checked to be sure that objects were not locked or anchored. I've trashed the preferences. Still no luck.

I'm using InDesign CS4 on Mac Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I have Better Touch Tool installed -- with the trackpad I do not have any actions that are specific to InDesign but with the mouse I do, to disable two-finger scrolling in the app. The trackpad is the only new thing on the computer...

Any ideas?

    Correct answer Peter Spier

    First thing I would try is uninstalling the Better Touch Tool.

    And you say you trashed the prefs, but I like to be sure that you've really done a complete job. For ID there are two files that need to be replaced, and they live in different folders, so sometimes users do only half the job. Please see Replace Your Preferences

    14 replies

    kafferlins36885329
    kafferlins36885329
    Participant
    May 12, 2025

    Yep. Happened for me too, with InDesign CS6.

     

    The culprit in my case was AIMP. It worked instantly as soon as I closed it. Seemed to work fine, though, after restarting AIMP.

    alext99517978
    alext99517978
    Participant
    May 19, 2016

    I have discovered that another cause of the issue is the program synergy - which makes sense, as it shares your mouse and keyboard between computers.

      brendonwbrown
      brendonwbrown
      Participant
      June 10, 2016

      This may indeed be the source of the problem for me. I had synergy installed on my last laptop and had this problem. I no longer have it on the new one, and everything works as expected.

        K
        Kaijol
        Participant
        March 31, 2016

        Not sure if this applies to anyone. I had recently installed the Nik collection since Google made it free. I uninstalled it for Photoshop, and my problem in InDesign resolved immediately.

        L
        LucymBonner
        Participant
        March 27, 2016

        I am a long-time user of both InDesign and Chrome, I have no Pushbullet extension, or any new extensions at all. I updated my Adobe CC and immediately I cannot move any objects in InDesign.

        I have scrapped both preferences files as suggested.

        Uninstalling Chrome is NOT a workable option, as it has the best developer tools. I have no idea how this is suddenly a problem and am very upset with Adobe's lack of support on the issue. As a professional designer, not being able to work on any of my projects is a HUGE problem.

          ABCreateCo
          ABCreateCo
          Participant
          March 30, 2016

          I am a professional designer too, and we use our work email through gmail.  I also had the dragging issue.  I've been troubleshooting it for two weeks with our IT guy.  Reset preferences worked once....restarting the computer worked for awhile.  Onyx & disk utility did nothing.  Deleted most chrome extensions (I didn't have ANY of the extensions listed here to delete). The ONLY thing that has consistently worked is deleting Chrome entirely.  It SUCKS! This is the ONLY thread that has helped me.  Something needs to be done about this.  Whatever the conflict is with Chrome, it's ridiculous.  Maybe we should be contacting Chrome instead?

            K
            kateinns
            Participant
            October 22, 2015

            I'm using Indesign 2015 and have been struggling with this issue for the last few months, too. At first, thought it was a Yosemite thing. Turns out its my preferences. Deleted those, now InDesign is working again! I do use Chrome quite often, so I'll try un-instaling to see if that helps prevent this from happening again.

            A
            ahwhatwhat00
            Participant
            October 14, 2015

            - My solution -

            I had an issue both with InDesign and Illustrator for three months not able to move objects on a Mac using a Intuos 3 tablet but now it's working. Here's what I did:

            - deleted preferences (InDesign and Illustrator)

            - deleted Chrome plugins

            - deleted all fonts in Font Book that were flagged as Caution (Yellow)

            - restarted computer

            RandyMartin
            RandyMartin
            Participant
            October 14, 2015

            I am on PC and last week had this problem with InDesign. Read all the responses and realized I'd just installed Chrome to double check a web installation while I was in the admin in FireFox. So I deleted Chrome entirely. Now it works perfectly.

            I
            isunscape
            Participant
            August 25, 2015

            I found a solution for Mac:

            -Delete inDesign Cache on ~/Library/Caches

            -Delete inDesign Preferences on ~/Library/Preferences

            -Removed a Conflicting 'Helvetica' version

            -Reset PRAM of Computer

            And that's All. Everything worked properly.

            T-zela16330860
            T-zela16330860
            Participant
            August 20, 2015

            Hi all

            has anyone found a solution to this problem, it is really stopping me from using illustrator.

            thank you

            T

            Steve Werner
            Community Expert
            Steve WernerCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            August 20, 2015

            This is not a single solution when it's a problem of conflict with other software.

            It requires carefully eliminating software one by one to find the culprit. You have to be the detective in a good mystery novel.

            KristyB80
            KristyB80
            Participant
            July 15, 2015

            I had this happen to me today after updating to the latest version of Chrome. I only had one extension enabled in Chrome which was Avast and as soon as I disabled it InDesign works fine!

            Eve Vaterlaus
            Eve Vaterlaus
            Participant
            April 14, 2015

            I have to delete preferences and restart about once daily to work. Even without Chrome (and I never had Pushbullet) I have this issue, only since installing CC. Adobe spoke to me and said it is an Apple issue, suggested I make a new user account, but others in this forum have found that does not work either. I hope this will be fixed by someone soon. Please keep us posted if you find other solutions. Nothing I have tried has worked longer that a day.

              A
              andymroz
              Participating Frequently
              April 14, 2015

              The only other thing I can suggest is what Peter Spier mentioned above. And that's rebooting your computer in Safe Mode and working in InDesign to see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, then you have a conflict between InDesign and some other software. Safe Mode keeps background software from booting. Then you'll have to figure out what's running in the background that's causing the conflict with InDesign.

              Note: Boot in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key.

              Happy hunting!

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