Participating Frequently

Answered

Text disappears when typing in text box

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 17, 2021
146 replies
115536 views

I'm getting this issue where when I make any changes to text within a text box, like typing within it, cutting/pasteing, editing, etc. the text disappears. Sometimes it'll come back if I click out of the text box. Sometimes it comes back if I switch between normal and preview mode.

It doesn't happen every time, but often enough to be incredibly annoying.

I'm running:

Mac OS 11.4
Macbook Air M1 2020
InDesign 16.2.1

Bug

Correct answer Rocky5D5C

Hi Sarah, updating to 17.2 fixed the text issue for my wife. She hasn't had it happen once since then, so far.

Have you updated?

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J

Joel Berggren

Participating Frequently

This is still an issue in InDesign 16.4 on M1 Macs. Makes the program nearly unisable and has nuked my workflow

F

Fearless_artist5E5A

Participating Frequently

it's a memory issue. at least for me it was. i'm sure it can be improved though but maybe that helps resolve it for you.

Scully20

Participating Frequently

What do you mean by "memory issue"?

Thanks!

R

Ronale0D4D

Participating Frequently

I have a brand new Mac (MacOS Big Sur v11.4) and am using InDesign version 16.3.2. The text in my documents disappears when I make changes or scroll up or down. It reappears if I scroll up and down. I've read other posts about this occurring, and one response said this problem was fixed with version 16.3 of InDesign. But, it happens to me constantly, and it's making my work take a LOT longer. Can you please advise?

J E L

Community Expert

@Ronale0D4D Sorry to hear about this. The newest version is 16.4, which should be rolled out everywhere by now. Can you check your CC desktop app for updates and install that version to see if the issue is fixed?

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Fearless_artist5E5A

Participating Frequently

Update to 16.4 doesn't fix the issue of disappearing text.

axelgerber

Known Participant

It takes me at least 5x longer to get anything done because it keeps deleting my text. Please help. If one can't edit text indesign, what is the point. This has been happening for months no matter the version. How does anyone accomplish anything if you constantly have to undo and reenter your text changes 5 times before it sticks? Just brutal. So frustrating. And a design killer, too. Sob. Please help? I can screen record it happening but i'm not permitted to post a video.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Have you read this thread?: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/text-disappears-when-typing-in-text-box/td-p/12121152

axelgerber

Known Participant

i hadn't and it didn't come up in my search. weird. checking it out now. thank you! 🙏

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virfortisdei

Participating Frequently

I currently have the same issue (Mac OS 11.5.2 / MacMini M1 / InDesign 16.4) but tbh this bug has been around for years on and off on countless different combinations of Mac OS & InDesign versions on 6 different Macs… sometimes it looks like it's fixed or at least occurring less frequently in one update just to come back in the next one (so it doesn't have anything to do with M1 vs. Intel etc.)

Ashutosh_Mishra

Inspiring

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience. Do you see this behavior with a specific file? Are you working on the files saved on a network drive?

I'd request you to try the suggestions given on this community post & let us know if that helps. Looking forward to your response.

Regards,

Ashutosh

V

virfortisdei

Participating Frequently

no, it's not limited to different files or file locations…

@Ashutosh_Mishra schrieb:
Hi there,
Sorry to hear about your experience. Do you see this behavior with a specific file? Are you working on the files saved on a network drive?
I'd request you to try the suggestions given on this community post & let us know if that helps. Looking forward to your response.

Regards,
Ashutosh

I've tried all usual recommendations (as in the link) countless times, it doesn't fix the issue, at least not permanently. No, it's not limited to specific files, fonts used in the files or file locations… usually my files are on external SSDs but the same happened with files on internal SSDs (and hard drives on older Macs), files on external hard drives, network drives etc.

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Fearless_artist5E5A

Participating Frequently

I am having the same issue. InDesign 16.4.

Text disappears. Unable to use your application.

Did I forget to pay my subscription fee?

Scully20

Participating Frequently

It's an InDesign issue, not a payment issue. We are all having the same problem. I upgraded to the latest version (16.4) yesterday so we'll see if they fixed anything. Highly doubt it but you never know!

F

Fearless_artist5E5A

Participating Frequently

Well it's disappointing. Adobe and M1 performance has been very bad, overall. Premiere unusable. InDesign unusable. I did realize it might be a memeory issue with the disappearing text. I have a Mac Mini M1 only 8GB RAM. Once i quit all other apps InDesign was behaving better.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi chriscutter,

what sometimes helps:

a keyboard command that enforces all stories of a document to recompose again.

Details about that at:

Force Text Reflow When InDesign Forgets to Flow the Text
by David Blatner, January 3, 2009
https://creativepro.com/force-text-reflow-when-indesign-forgets-to-flow-the-text/

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

C

chriscutter

Participating Frequently

Forcing Textreflow works fine, but this cannot be a permanent solution if I have to press a keyboard command to continue my work every 10 seconds. any other suggestions?

L

Laubender

Community Expert

"… any other suggestions?"

Sorry, no.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

C

chriscutter

Participating Frequently

Same issue here,

InDesign 16.3.2

Mac OS 11.5.1

Macbook Pro M1 - 16GB RAM

Any suggestions!?

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Scully20 said:

"Not even going to bother trying it... I need confirmation of the issue being resolved before downloading any update. "

Installing a prerelease version does not hurt. It will run side-by-side with the released version.

I'm on Windows 10 and cannot see the issue. I would sign in to InDesign Prerelease. There is a prerelease forum where you can ask all this. Also look after bug reports there or bug discussions around the problem.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

J

johng2900620

Participating Frequently

Here's a follow-up on the InDesign invisible text issue... I was working with an Apple Engineer regarding odd text issues with Text Edit. He had me reset the TextEdit prefs to default settings and then reconfigure to my liking. The TextEdit issues dissappeared. SO DID MY INDESIGN ISSUES! I routinely prep document content in TextEdit, and then copy into InDesign. I couldn't replicate my issue in InDesign with the Apple Engineer, so I turned back on GPU Performance knowing it would surely cause the issue to reappear right away, but NO it did not. So now I've been running with GPU Performance back on and for the last 24 hours everything has been working great with InDesign.

I'm running:

Mac OS 11.5
Macbook Pro M1 2020
InDesign 16.3.2 (the M1 version)

J

johng2900620

Participating Frequently

Update... sad to say the problem has reappeared today. At first there were no issues with invisible text (running with GPU Performance on!) but then after about 10 minutes it began, I turned GPU Performance off, and yet it continues and gets worse and worse. Sorry to get peoples' hopes up.

Scully20

Participating Frequently

Why am I not surprised!? Too bad... was hoping you had a solution! Maybe one day Adobe and Apple will figure this out and we can ALL get some work done. LOL

A

akogan0716

Participating Frequently

Just want to +1 this.

It's an ongoing issue for me too and it's beyond frustrating. It feels like M1 users are being punished for getting an M1 machine. InDesign is vital to my day-to-day work - what good is a new computer if it renders vital software barely usable? I've been using my 2013 MBP - it might be slow, but at least it doesn't glitch out.

All around just completely infuriating.

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