Can't "hide" InDesign? Here's a fix for the bug!

For most all users of Adobe InDesign CS3 since updating to OSX Leopard, using the "Hide" feature, either via the InDesign menu item, Command + H, or Option + clicking on the desktop or other application window, results in the inability to get InDesign back as the foreground application. This leaves you with no other alternative but to force quit InDesign. Thankfully there is a fix available that works on every Mac I've tried it on.

Go into your User/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign folder and move the contents to your desktop. For most, this will be a single folder called "Version 5.0" which contains several files.
Relaunch InDesign and the Hide option should work.
Once you've tested the Hide option via one of the methods above, and are satisfied that all is working normal with InDesign, delete the original "Version 5.0" folder from your desktop.

None of your InDesign preferences should have changed, so you should be good to go at this point.

Nope

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 07:22 — Websnap (not verified)

Tried it three time, the last with a restart, and no dice... as they say...

Uhm, nope.

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 07:59 — Jahnoth (not verified)

Didn't work for me at all, either. MacBook Pro, Leopard, 10.5.2, InDesign CS3.

Worked for me

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 08:12 — Dan

I deleted the entire Adobe InDesign folder inside the caches folder and it worked. I can now hide ID again. Thanks!

old problem

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 09:55 — chrononaut

I've been dealing with this for some years now. This isn't specifically an Adobe app problem.

check out this thread I started:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=79911

The hiding problem just happened the other day with Flash this time. I think it's the first time it's happened since upgrading to 10.5.2. It used to happen a few times a week.

Thanks, JD

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 10:10 — Pete

Worked just as you described. I'm on Tiger, ID version 5.02.

Now, if you could only figure out how to make that damned Acrobat 8 icon stop bouncing!!!

Work With Pete!

Bouncing icon

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 10:49 — James

Are you talking about the Acrobat icon bouncing just after you launch Acrobat? Simply bringing the app to the foreground stops the bouncing, but I can't figure out what's causing it to begin with. I've turned off virtually everything in prefs and it still does it.

Have you declined auto

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 17:26 — 3dogmama

Have you declined auto updates? Acrobat's had a lot of them lately.

ttfn
3 Dog

Not sure

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 21:02 — James

To be honest, I haven't stayed on top of updates to Acrobat in the past. But I have auto-update turned off anyway.

Didn't work for me either

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 10:55 — Mike (not verified)

Didn't work for me either until I tried Dan's approach and that's worked...for now. Pete, update your Acrobat to the latest version and the bouncing goes away.

Delete Adobe InDesign folder

Sat, 05/10/2008 - 00:35 — Retroper (not verified)

Didn´t work for me either until I tried Mike´s approach and that worked... for now.

worked after log out

Sat, 05/10/2008 - 13:42 — Kate Mc (not verified)

The missing step from the instructions is to log out and then log back in. It worked after I did that. Thanks!

Shouldn't have to log out

Mon, 05/12/2008 - 06:18 — James

I didn't log out on any of the machines I tried it on, but it's certainly worth the effort if it isn't working right off the bat.

Hold on...

Mon, 05/12/2008 - 13:22 — Mike (not verified)

Shit. No longer works for me. I also tried the log out but that didn't help. The only thing that does seem to help (with hiding and crashing through NavSvcs) is a lucky restart.

I can't believe Apple and Adobe can't figure this out. It's the only app I've had issues with since upgrading to Leopard (including other CS3 apps, Office 2008—although Entourage can be flaky, Aperture, Final Cut Studio and a variety of smaller apps).

working / not working

Thu, 05/15/2008 - 09:59 — Kate Mc (not verified)

It worked fine on my macbookpro 10.5 with cs3 but not on my macpro tower with the same OS and software. Boooo! Any more suggestions??

Unfortunately, No.

Tue, 05/20/2008 - 13:07 — James

It's a "workaround" type of fix. It works for some, but not all I guess.

Just got a new iMac 2.8ghz

Sun, 05/25/2008 - 13:18 — Manu (not verified)

Just got a new iMac 2.8ghz with the latest everything and a nice fresh clean install. Everything works perfectly but low and behold I still have the hide problem! Can't quite understand why after a year Adobe still can't fix this silly, but annoying bug. Are they getting complacent like Quark did in days gone by?

6/4/08 10.5.3 update

Wed, 06/04/2008 - 15:48 — Visitor (not verified)

It seems like the bug is gone with this 10.5.3 update. Can't get it to reproduce anymore. Finger crossed.

Worked the first time...

Tue, 06/24/2008 - 06:31 — Chris (not verified)

It worked the first time for me on 10.5.2 and now only Option + clicking on the desktop works.

Thanks for the tip though!!

Yea! it worked!! thank you,

Wed, 10/29/2008 - 13:20 — Jenny (not verified)

Yea! it worked!! thank you, James.

And has anyone tried the Quark to ID software you can
buy for $200.00!! which I think is an outrageous price but...
I have a couple of clients where I've done 2 books in Quark, and if/when they come back for any additions or changes.

Has anyone transferred a long doc into ID from Quark?

I've used it

Sun, 11/02/2008 - 09:10 — James

I've used Q2ID many times, but never on long documents. I'm not sure it would make a difference though.

In my experience, it works very well. The only time we experienced "issues" was when the Quark file didn't have its links updated to begin with. Obviously the conversion had issues when this was the case.

It worked...

Thu, 10/30/2008 - 08:54 — Bev (not verified)

I'm running OS 10.5.5 and using CS3. Your fix worked like a charm the first time. I quit the application, reopened it and it still worked. Haven't done a restart yet.

Thank you.