The InDesign Application Frame gets stuck outside the screen area/behind menu bar

[mag-man]

Every so often, since working on my current iMac (2017), my Application Frame in InDesign gets stuck on my second 32" Benq monitor. The top bar area sits just behind the menu bar. Once it's there, it's there. The accessibility to reposition the frame is now not possible. Even switching the Application Bar, the background frame is still stuck and cannot be moved.

Surely, there must be a limit from stopping the Application Frame from running off behind the menu and off the top of the screen, or at least allow an interactive method in a dropdown menu to reset the Application Frame back within the frame of the monitor.

For the moment, the only way I have found to resolve this would be to 'Delete InDesign Preference file' (Shift+Control+Option+Command) on start-up and reapply my personal settings and workspaces.

After resetting, this crucial part of the frame is now visible.

I'm running MacOS Mojave Version 10.14.3, on an iMac 27-inch 4.2Ghz Intel Core i7 running a second 32" Benq screen.
Currently affecting InDesign version 14.0.1 but it also occurred with previous versions too.

[Troy32670543b9wd]

Thank you! This has been driving me nuts.

[danielas26551740]

Thank you very much I saw videos, other answers on adobe forum and in 2024 it happens still. I try to asign to all desktops but in my dock icon not display. Thank you very much for your reply.

[Michelle linocut York]

Thank you! 

[katrinaS]

The only thing that worked for me was to disconnect my second display. I was then able to resize my InDesign window, then plug in my secondary display again.

[shera555]

Worked! Just had to disconnect the second display, then was able to click and drag my tools lower -- reconnected -- fixed. THANK YOU. (OMG these are the things that make me want to fling my computer out the window...) 

[marketing-team-524364]

Thank you! This worked for me.

[Susanne Clark]

Same. So glad I found this. 10 min of terror.. haha

[pirn44679962]

Thank you this solved my problem

[empired]

Something so simple but so frustrating. Thank you so much for your answer! All fixed.

[terin1]

I'm having this same problem but none of the suggested solutions are working. My InDesign application window is stuck to the top of my screen, whether I'm using two monitors or one, I've tried resetting the workspace, oriented the other monitor "below" the primary monitor, restarting InDesign, nothing is working. I will try deleting the InDesign Preference File. I'm using a MacBook Pro with Mojave 10.14.6 and Id CC 2020.

Follow-up: I deleted the InDesign Application Preference file and restarted. When I opened Id again, it was just a pile of dismembered toolbars and control panels, even after resetting the workspace. I finally went to Window > Application Frame and selected it (so it is checked) and then everything was restored. Super disruptive and tedious.

[BryCas]

Same problem here using a 3 monitor configuration (ViewSonic + Asus running on my 10.14.6 MBP). Only remedy is to drag the top monitor down and to the left (as mentioned earlier). Once this is done, I can regain control of the ID frame and move to the middle of my main display. Finally, I arrange the displays back to my preferred config. Strange but this only happens w/ ID (2020 and 2021).

[Jeff Topping]

any way to fix this? so i cant position my second monitor above my laptop? or this will always happen?

jeff

[rachel.l.courtney]

THANKYOU! disconnecting second monitor, fixing and connecting monitor again worked. I'm in hour one of having 2 monitors and broke my most used program. thank you

[defaultbi2f1zab07p0]

Tried the solutions before this and nothing worked. Can't believe that all i had to do was click the application frame.... what a horrible setup that they just never changed! Thank you so much for the (two year old) answer.

[SueHud]

Thank you for sharing this info! 

[NorreneGodfrey]

Thank you mag-man, that worked!

[Macivi]

What happened to me is this:

I had 2 monitors connected to my MacBook Pro using Indesign 2021. I disconnected the monitors, took my Mac on a 4 week trip with no other monitors availabe. Now i cant use InDesign because it don show on my MacBook.

How to fix this?

[staceys5116346]

Thank you a million times over!!!

[James22443790n8ig]

Was having the same problem however none of the suggestions were working.

So I was thinking it was at the OS level.

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver*.plist

I moved it to my desktop and added OLD in the filename 

Then restarted the machine and it worked. It seems to me that the external monitor settings got stuck

I hope that this helps

[terin1]

I'm having this same problem, I have two screens and have aligned them in the Systems Prefs so they are side-by-side as mag-man suggests then closed and reopened InDesign but it's still off the screen. This solution doesn't work. Mac os 12.2.1

[JimAustin]

I know this is an old post, but the problem persists, and I just found a simple solution; at least it worked in my case. 

First, note that I work with my large external monitor positioned above my laptop screen. I'd guess that this is a pretty common arrangement, and it's inconsistent with the "correct answer" below.

Many people (on various sites) suggested turning off and on the Application Frame. That didn't help me: with or without the frame, before and after, I still had the same problem. 

But then I simply closed InDesign and reopened it again--still the same problem. But THEN, when I turned the Application Frame off and back on again, the frame was freed up from its anchored position and I was able to move it around at will. 

[Anne25151407jyxb]

However - I have a user this happening to, and she's never used a monitor. She is opening files locally and off the network that may have been access to coworkers using dual displays.

I've gon through all the steps listed - and the issue persists.

Mac Os 10.14.6, Indesign 2021 ( 16.4)

any other ideas?

[John27171569z07k]

This issue has just happened to me and I found a solution that works. I haven't seen this answer in any of the replies above, so apologies if it's duplicated.

I have 3 screens, and InDesign was stuck on the laptop screen.

So, here goes:
Go to InDesign > Preferences > User Interface Scaling.

My settings were on small so I scaled it to large and clicked OK, it will come up with a message saying "Changes to your UI scaling settings will take effect after you restart InDesign", I clicked 'restart now' and it automatically reopened InDesign and was 'moveable' again, and I just went back into UI scaling again and repeated the steps above changing back from large to small and everything is back to normal.

Phew (panic over)

Current InDesign version: 18.0

Current MACOS: Ventura 13.0.1

God Bless

[scottc65287965]

I ran into this as well. I'm running two external monitors on an M1 macbook pro. It happened when InDesign launched on the MacBook screen. My solution was to go into Apple>System Preferences>Displays and drag the menu bar (transparent white bar on the top of one of the displays in the display arrangement view) to my large primary monitor. InDesign launches with the correct view now on my main screen.

[PERRY28728769fwc7]

I also found a workaround to the glitch - Put your doc into Presentation mode, then back out again to normal mode and the App is now able to be moved and scaled as normal. Clearly a programming glitch. None of the fixes above worked for me. The app is automatically opening as if it's been maximised and nothing would get the green/yellow/red circles to appear, until I put it in Presentation Mode and then back out again. Having been through this many times with Mac M1 chips and Adobe apps not working well together, I've come to expect problems. At least this works for now - until the programmers "fix the fix" and leave us with an unusable app again! They seem very diligent about fixing the fix's but never fixing the problems.