Text disappears when typing in text box

[Elaine5E3A]

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

[jonr37420626]

This is still happening. Any word on a fix and not a workaround?

[ConciergeMarketing]

I'm not working on a Mac at all - I am working on a PC, which has never been an issue before this mess.  I publish books for a living - I'm NOT a computer programmer as some of these answers seem to suggest is required.  I live in fear of making a text edit in a book layout after it has been formatted, because no amount of this mumbo jumbo makes sense to me. I format books. I edit books. I publish books.  I am sure a lot of the people on this thread don't have the foggiest idea what these "workarounds" even mean.

For example, I imported a client's 360 page Word doc. In InDesign, I put in a simple a wrap-around on an image.  Now nothing after page 27 appears no matter what I do.  I even tried to set up a new document and it did the same thing. What should have taken me 6 or 7 hours took about 40.  SO RIDICULOUS!

If I'm the only one who doesn't understand these so-called workarounds, well, sorry but I'm a paying customer too and have multiple seats since 2006. This is costing me and my company not only money, but clients.  It should just work. It has always worked.  Now my company has thousands of projects that I cannot possibly just transfer over to another platform. 

How does a class-action lawsuit sound? Because we're all paying for something that doesn't deliver on the promises it makes, and it is severely hurting our businesses.  

[marilynn90461272]

Very well said. Thank you. --
Marilyn Novell

[roberteblesse]

Hi everyone—I just downloaded 17.1—with high hopes—and you know what my reward was. I created a new text document and guess what? Adios, arrivederci, type. I love the idea of a class action suit. I'd like to write to the CEO of Adobe and send him my current assessment of his company—what's this clown's name? Never in my life have I seen such incompetence from a company I have done so much business with. This is customer service at its lowest. I'd love to hear from one of the Adobe techs on the ground who is trying to solve this problem. Is it so difficult? If yes, explain, and I'm with you, but please Adobe, give us more feedback than you're doing now. I love it when I open an Adobe app and get the little questionaire asking me to rate things. I'd love to know who's reading what I say.

[Srishti Bali · Accepted solution]

Hi all, 

Sorry for the trouble this issue has caused. I understand how frustrating it is. Our engineers are working hard to fix this as soon as possible. 
It is hard to believe that the issue is not fixed even after multiple user attempts. I can definitely assure you at it's a work in progress.

@roberteblesse I will try to answer all the questions in the best possible way. This issue is completely dynamic. There are different scenarios where users are facing this issue. We have worked with multiple users on live sessions. 

• Few of them were getting this issue when the system was connected to high-resolution screens.
• In few cases, users have confirmed that turning off GPU fixed the issue.
• In some cases, we saw that closing the Discord app helps resolve this issue.
• Turning off Print Preview has also helped resolve this issue in some cases.

Even after collecting information from multiple users, we still couldn't replicate this issue on our machines. Would you mind sharing the following details so that we can attempt to reproduce it again?

• SPX file
  Click on Apple Icon > About this Mac > System Report
  This will launch the System Profiler
  Then Click File > Save > Save in Creative Cloud Files
  Then open https://assets.adobe.com/files 
  Click on three dots next to spx file > Share > Copy Link and share it with us.
• Recording of the issue.
• Those who want to help us get this fixed through a live session can send me a DM. Just click this link and click "Send a Message."

Regards,

Srishti
Note: Marking this as correct to highlight

[Marc5CCB]

I find it VERY hard to believe that you can't replicate this problem. Are you using M1 Macs?

[j4m1eb]

This is ridiculous. I already had a live seeson with an enginner and demonstrated the issue on a pre exisiting documnt and a brand new document with only a single text box. He then took copies of my pref and cache files. Yes turning on and off GPU changes it, yes zooming in and out gets it to redraw until it vanishes again. FIX THE ISSUE. I pay £50+ pre month for broken software. Being able to view and edit type is the fundemental purpose of Indesign.

[defaultm33qqjju2085]

I second this. I have been living with this issue for over a year hoping for a fix and its driving me insane. I can't stand it anymore Adobe!! I have even changed computers and processors and still the issue persists CONSTANTLY.

[j4m1eb]

How is this marked a correct answer? It doesn't solve anything.

[designer1955]

I get an error message when opening www.assets.adobe.com.  (message type error?)And i have this problem every minute, so i dont understand why you cant replicate it. And please get adobe to refund us. This is a nightmare for us.

[Srishti Bali]

@Marc5CCB Yes, we have tried it on multiple M1 machines.

@j4m1eb Thanks for sharing the details, but we could not replicate the behavior using that as well. This was marked correct so that it can be shown on the top and is visible to all. 

@designer1955 I have corrected the link. Please try again. 

[Sofian230584548n63]

I had a look at the Console app while I was working. Every time text disappeared Indesign spits out this message in the console. 

Adobe Indesign 2022 [Memory 10.9 Changes]:partial purge level:3

Adobe Indesign 2022 [Memory 10.9 Changes]:Purge Stats: Pressure level=2, Free Percentage=29.00000

Adobe Indesign 2022 [Memory 10.9 Changes]:Purge Stats: VM used = 424648589312, Available Memory = 225705984

If I close some applications it looks like it switches and gives the message "... partial purge level:2..." and when it's 2, text doesn't seem to disappear. I don't know what it all means. But if it's 3 text disappears, if it's 2 not.

[Vivek12]

@Sofian230584548n63  Thank you for sharing your findings. We have shared the same with our engineering team for further investigation on this issue. 

[Marc5CCB]

This issue has been a problem for well over a year. I think Adobe needs to find some new/better engineers - if they can't solve this in a year, I can't see that they'll ever manage it. InDesign is practically useless as a professional design tool. I'm not buying the whole "we can't replicate the problem" either. This has been a known issue for over a year, and either Adobe can't, or can't be bothered, to fix it. 

[designer1955]

Adobe called me. They did a remote check of my imac. It appeared that duplicate fonts in fontbook were the cause. After that it seems to be okay for now. I do hope it will stay that way.

[adama78694864]

I've had numerous issues with indesign over the years but this specific problem only started occuring once myself and my team switched over to the new M1 iMacs. My Mac was migrated from an intel version the others were fresh installs. Could this be related to the unified memory? I've even tried reverting back to older versions of indesign which still doesnt work. I've got to be honest the performance of the adobe suite on this new iMac is poor and i wish i had never "upgraded". Friends who know Macs but don't use Adobe all that much assure me the new M1 chip is better however seeing as i use my Mac pretty much solely with Adobe software i don't see a benefit from the M1 chip whatsoever and had i known it was going to result in this many issues i would never have "upgraded". 

I am frustrated and fed up with this issue, on larger artwork files such as print brochures the software is almost unusable. I do find it hard to beleive that Adobe can't replicate this issue as multiple members of my team have the same problems and they all have fresh, independent installations of Os and Adobe suite. 

Please fix this problem soon as its been going on far too long now and for a subscription based cloud-linked software it is simply not good enough. 

[ProbeMarCom]

I found this thread because I have the same problem as of Thursday, Feb 10, 2022.

My setup:

InDesign: 17.1 (Corporate / Enterprise Yearly Subscription)

Machine: MacBook Air (M1 2020)

OS: Monterey 12.1

Screens: LG Ultra HD 4K 

I just turned off GPU and it did seem to fix the issue so far.

[Fearless_artist5E5A]

Read this thread to see how it replicates. It's a memory issue. Simple. Adobe has not managed to optimize memory usage on Apple M* chips

[nuppy_imagenta]

Turn off GPU fixed it but i can't use scrubbing zoom anymore which is still frustrating. 
How do i turn off Print Preview. Cant find it anywhere

[Fearless_artist5E5A]

This thread is going strong for 2022!!! Never give up!

[j4m1eb]

Never give up until it's fixed. I will alos being callng Adobe every 3 months for an additonal free period until it's fixed. I'm not paying for the product until such a fundemental issue is fixed.

[Christopher2346966767fz]

Hi Srishti,

I am writing regarding the "disappearing text" issue which I am unable to resolve myself. I hope this can be fixed in a live session, but I am unable to send you a PM (it says "limit reached" even though I have never sent a PM). Can you please get in touch through PM?

Thanks

Chris

[nessavay]

I'm having this same issue and it is so infuriating. It makes me want to abandon InDesign, which is impractical and heartbreaking because it's my favorite app. Please fix this problem. It definitely seems to be something related to the Apple chip. It has made working in InDesign sooooo painful! AHHH!

[Goozee1]

I wonder if I should go back to Quark Express or even Pagemaker? Been using InDesign for 20+ years. It's a DTP software package. The most basic element of that is to type text into boxes and be able to see that happening in real time. And what is the system of choice for most designers? A Mac. Yet for some reason the latest Apple processor in the newest iMac model is struggling with the most basic form of DTP? Please fix this ASAP... it's embarrassing. Love and peace to Ukraine. 

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @nessavay, @Christopher2346966767fz, @Goozee1,

I understand how much inconvenience and frustration this issue has caused. But multiple users have confirmed that the Text Disappwaring issue has been resolved for them on our Prerelease version v17.2. I would request you to install it. I have marked my reply as correct on this thread with the steps on how to enroll in our prerelease program and install the Prelease version 17.2, which has the fix for the issue.

Let me know if you need any further assistance installing it.

Regards,

Anshul Saini