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Indesign incredibly slow or crashes with more than one document open

InDesign (15.0.2) becomes almost unusable with more than (1) document open. Trying to copy text or images from one document to the next or just work in one of the documents while the other is open results in minutes-long wait times (or complete crash) to even select a text box, type a character, etc.

Steps to reproduce:
Open INDD doc (either on network or desktop)
Open second INDD doc
Attempt to edit text in either doc or copy over text from one document to the next

Set-up info:
InDesign 15.0.2
Windows 10 Enterprise // 10.0.17763

Trouble-shooting included:
- Turned off all plug-ins
- Turned off all preferences related to instant rendering of image, type, previews
- Turned off pre-flight
-Turned off type previews, variable characters, etc
-Display is set to typical (although, it happens in FAST as well)

Happening across regional team of 20+ users all working on the same Windows version and similar computers (Lenovo)

26 votes

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Samantha Banowetz shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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FIXED  ·  AdminSanyam Talwar (Senior Lead Software Engineer, Adobe InDesign) responded  · 

As confirmed by a customer over the thread that the issue is fixed in InDesign 2020(v15.1.2.226).

We recommend you upgrade to either InDesign 2020(v15.1.2.226) or to the latest InDesign 2021(v16.0.0.77) for the fix.

If you are unable to see the update, go to the Creative Cloud application and click on the context menu on the top right and click on Check for App Updates.

—
Adobe InDesign Team

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  • Amrutvijaydas Sadhu commented  ·   ·  Report

    Switching between tabs takes more than 30-60 seconds, despite having a new i7 pc with high spec graphic card.
    Please give solution, as it wastes so much time and disrupts my work flow.
    The statement by your Admin ( ADMIN Sanyam Talwar (Lead Software Engineer, Adobe InDesign) responded · October 27, 2020) that this issue has been fixed is plainly not accurate.

  • Nick L commented  ·   ·  Report

    This issue just started for me when I updated to ID 2022, what the heck is going on?? Just having 2 document open with typical display quality and preflight off, takes 15-20 seconds to simply go between the documents, this is a HUGE issue Adobe, I worked at a fortune 500 company and we need this to have multiple docs open at the same time. Please update us on this issue.

  • Ryplay commented  ·   ·  Report

    the bug still exists as for 2022 17.0 version of InDesign.
    Switching preflighting doesnt change nothing.

  • Tony commented  ·   ·  Report

    Bug still exists and I'm on latest version 16.2.1. Pretty much taking 3 hours for what used to take 20 minutes. Curious why Adobe still sits on this.

  • Chris commented  ·   ·  Report

    I believe this bug still exists or a derivative exists. I've been experiencing significant slowdowns over the past year or so when working with more than one document open. I'm almost always working with more than one document open (such as in InDesign Book files with multiple chapters).
    As noted in the bug, switching between windows invokes a delay and the spinning wheel.

    I'm on a very high spec MacBook Pro with a 6-core Intel i7, 32 GB RAM, and a dedicated GPU. I've been running different creative cloud versions of InDesign on this machine and previous machines for about 5 years. I didn't notice this file/tab switching issue until sometime in 2020.

    I'm currently on InDesign 16.1 and it defintely is there. 5-8 seconds to switch a window seems like an eternity. I'm often working between similar docs creating derivative or variant versions of files and copying or editing content from one to the other so it is really slowing me down. I keep thinking this will patch out, but it's been a year so I'm adding my vote to this issue.

    I still run FrameMaker in a virtual machine (Parellels) and it is lightining fast compared to InDesign. I never thought I'd be finding FrameMaker more performant in 2021 (Windows software running in a VM on a Mac)!

    I've tried all of the suggested workarounds like turning preflight off, setting displays to Apple RGB, etc. No etc. Other than uninstalling and reinstalling, I'm not sure what else I should do.

  • Maik commented  ·   ·  Report

    ID 14.0.3
    Yes, I know it's an old version, but I use it for a specific reason: the newer versions have even more bugs and I think this one is still in there.
    Problem: when opening INDDs saved from a previous version it would convert them and if you open two of them at once, ID would always crash.

  • Rick Besserdin commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have just updated to 15.1.2 and have been able to open and work on three documents at once. Thanks InDesign team. 😊

  • Rick Besserdin commented  ·   ·  Report

    Just tested 15.1.1 and it was the same as the other versions.

  • Rick Besserdin commented  ·   ·  Report

    Just updated to InDesign 15.1 and it performed the same with multiple documents as the other two updates.
    Had to revert to 15.0.1 to restore performance.

  • Rick Besserdin commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have the same issue with both InDesign 15.0.2 & 15.0.3
    Have deleted and reset preferences a number of times. Going back to 15.0.1 resolves the issue.

    It's an older (2013) PC.
    CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.40 GHz
    Ram: 32.00 GB
    Windows: 10 Enterprise
    Version: 1809
    OS Build: 17763.1217
    Graphic Card: NVIDIA Quadro P1000 4GB

Adobe InDesign: Bugs: Performance/Usability

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