This is happening to me also.

InDesign 21.4 Bug – Shift-Click Deselect Not Working on Placed Graphics (macOS)

Hi Adobe Support,

I am experiencing a reproducible selection bug in InDesign 21.4 on macOS (Apple M1 Pro).

Issue:
Shift-click deselection does not work for placed/linked graphics inside rectangular frames when multiple objects are selected.

Steps to reproduce:

Create a new document.
Draw multiple objects (rectangles, text frames, etc.).
Place any linked image into a rectangular frame using the Rectangle Frame Tool.
Select multiple objects (including the image frame and other object types).
Hold Shift and click the placed image frame.

Expected result:
The placed image frame should be removed from the multi-selection.

Actual result:
Nothing happens. The selection remains unchanged. Shift-click deselection works normally for text frames and vector objects, but not for placed/linked image frames.

Additional findings:

Issue occurs in new documents.
Issue occurs with all file types (JPG, PNG, AI, PDF).
The frame is selected correctly (blue outline), not the content.
Other object types deselect correctly using Shift-click.
Problem persists across different files and placed assets.
Issue is reproducible in 21.4 but appears version-specific.

System:

macOS (Apple M1 Pro)
InDesign 21.4

This strongly suggests a regression affecting selection behavior for placed graphics in this version.

Please advise or escalate if this is a known issue or if a patch is available.

I don't want to sound like a bad person. I'm genuinely curious. Do you test the features of the Adobe products before you push an update? This isn't the first time I've updated myprograms and had bugs right off the bat. Like I said, I'm just curious.

Version of Adobe InDesign, InCopy or InDesign Server
Adobe InDesign v21.4 running on macOS Sequoia 15.7.7

Steps to reproduce the issues

Create 3 or 4 separate shape frames on a document page (leave them un-grouped).

Select the Selection Tool (V).

Click and drag a marquee selection box over all the shapes to select them all simultaneously. (Confirm all objects correctly display their active selection handles).

Place the cursor over one of the highlighted shapes, then click and immediately drag to move the collective selection.

Expected result
The entire active selection of multiple objects should move together as a single unit.

Actual result
The multi-object selection instantly breaks upon clicking. InDesign drops the selection for all other objects and only moves the single frame that was directly clicked on.

seleciono várias imagens e texto no indesign, mas, ao tentar movê-los juntos, somente uma imagem é selecionada.

I'm having this issue as well as issues with aligning Key Objects in Align. Selecting object then selecting the actual key object doesn’t work. All objects simply get de-selected except the "key object". I do not have the app called Magnet which seems to have caused previous issues.

The workaround of holding shift to move multiple objects does work for me, however I still cannot select a key object using the cursor whilst multiple objects are selected, and holding the shift key doesn't fix that.

Also in a selection with multiple objects, if I click in a graphic frame to drag, only this one is moved.

If I have a graphic frame with an image and a text frame selected, I can only set the text frame as the selection key object. If I click on the graphic frame, the selectiong changes to it (de-selecting the text frame).

The workaround with holding the Shift key does not work in combination with the Option (Mac) key if you want to copy the selection.

Can confirm, same issue.

This also applies to alignment of multiple frames. When using 'align to key object', you can select a text frame as key object, but when you select an image frame as key object, only the image frame you clicked on retains selected. The other frames all gets deselected. The function does work if the key object is a group of image frames though.