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[ID-4257184]InDesign 2025(v20.0) Performance issues: Delay or beach balls on basic operations

Problem: 

InDesign Performance issues: Delay or beach balls observed on basic operations on Macintosh

Steps to Reproduce:

  • We have reproduced one scenario in which the existence of the Documents Font Folder and Contextual Task bar results in some slowness.
  • Other workflows causing slowness are being investigated - No reliable reproducible steps

Impacted workflows:

  • Switching to InDesign
  • Open/Closing of Document
  • Edit/Scroll/Copy-paste/Highlight operation on Text
  • Text disappears, illustrations disappear
  • Imported or added text turns black until a style is applied.
  • Font menu highlight not following my mouse movement
  • Text will not change fonts until I click the mouse inside or outside the text box.
  • Resize a document window, the corner flies below the screen border
  • Click or Drag of the mouse
  • Switching between tools
  • "Waiting for UXP plugins to finish up remaining tasks."

Workaround:

  • Disable Contextual Task Bar or remove Documents Font Folder
  • Close the MAGNET application
  • Revert to InDesign 19.5, No performance lag is observed.
  • Restarting the machine and trashing the preferences seems to resolve the issue temporarily
  • Disabling any font manager software seems to resolve the issue. One customer confirmed that disabling "Rightfont" resolved the issue.
  • Uninstall-Reinstall seems to resolve the issue temporarily
  • Turn off Preflight seems to resolve the issue temporarily

Note:

  1. The issue seems to be specific to the MAC platform only. Impacted macOS (Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura(maybe), Monterey)
  2. The issue seems to be specific to the MAC devices
    • Apple MacBook Pro M1/M2/M3
    • Apple MacBook Air M1/M2/M3
    • Apple Max Studio M1/M2/M3
    • Apple Mac mini M1/i7 Intel
  3. The issue exists for both old and new documents

Additional information needed:

  1. Are you opening the indd documents from the folder containing the Documents Font Folder?
  2. Is the "Contextual Task bar" shown? If yes, Disable it from "Window->Contextual Task bar"
  3. Screenshot of Memory usage while the issue is observed
  4. Please follow the below steps for InDesign 20.0.1.32 and InDesign PR 20.1.066 on Macintosh
    • Open Terminal in full-screen mode
    • Drag the InDesign application on the terminal (e.g. "/Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ 2025/Adobe\ InDesign\ 2025.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe\ InDesign\ 2025")
    • Copy the logs when you start facing the slowness in a text(.txt) file. Share the file with us at sharewithID@adobe.com.
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Yvonne Hubner shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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Available in Prerelease Builds  ·  AdminRavi Kiran (Senior Lead Quality Engineer, Adobe InDesign) responded  · 

We've just posted the latest InDesign PreRelease Build (20.1.0.70) in which we have done some performance improvements. We've also got this build validated by a couple of our Pro users and we believe that the Performance issue is fixed in this build.


We would like you to verify this new PreRelease build (available from the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App) and let us know if the performance issues that you were experiencing have got resolved with this build.


If you are not part of InDesign's Prerelease program and would like to join and try out the latest Prerelease build, do the following:


* Go to https://www.adobeprerelease.com/

* Sign in with your Adobe ID (the Email ID associated with your Adobe account)

* Select ‘Available Programs’

* Find ‘InDesign Prerelease’ and click ‘Join’

* Once you’ve joined, go to the Creative Cloud Desktop Application on your machine, click on 'Apps' in the section on the left

* Select the 'Pre-release' tab – there you will find the InDesign (Prerelease) build

* To check the Build number of the Prerelease build, hover the cursor over the name – you will see the Build number 'v20.1.0.070'

* Select ‘Install’.


Please let us know what you find. Based on your positive feedback, we'll make this fix available in an upcoming Release version of InDesign.


Looking forward to hearing your feedback on this new PreRelease build.


Thanks,

Adobe InDesign team

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  • Gabriele commented  ·   ·  Report

    Updated to the official 20.1 version (20.1.0.71), everything seems to be ok.
    No lag in switching from software to finder or other softwares, I can finally use the "Document Fonts" folder again without any problems.

    Apple M1 ultra
    Sonoma 14.7.2

  • Grace Locke commented  ·   ·  Report

    Dear Adobe Support Team,

    I’m writing to report ongoing and severe glitches with InDesign 2025. Despite having sufficient space on my computer, closing/reopening the program, deleting old versions, and troubleshooting everything I can think of, the application remains incredibly unstable.

    I frequently encounter the spinning wheel or loading bar even when performing basic actions, making the program nearly unusable. This isn’t just my experience—over 10 colleagues I know who upgraded to InDesign 2025 are facing the exact same issues.

    Please address this issue urgently. Let me know if there’s a patch or solution in progress.

  • Georgia commented  ·   ·  Report

    InDesign 2025 on my Mac Studio has been a nightmare to use. I need to copy text from a word doc to an InDesign file and having them open side by side and flicking from Word to InDesign to paste the text in would literally give me the beach ball for up to 10 seconds... completely destroyed my workflow every time I had to click on the InDesign window! Scrolling causes freezing and glitching, keyboard shortcuts were so laggy. Files that used to have no issue opening now literally cause InDesign to be unresponsive and I have to force quit. Please fix this omg

  • Zia commented  ·   ·  Report

    Has anyone tested it? I'm not sure when I will have time to check it out? Are text functions faster now? I was experiencing a 3 - 4 second delay when just switching from the move tool to the text tool.
    aargh!

  • Robulation commented  ·   ·  Report

    I've recently updated my Mac from an M1 Max to an M4 Max, and it seems much more unresponsive when flicking between open windows, and also double-clicking to enter into a text box.

    Also, tabbing between any windows, from Word, or Safari and back to InDesign is INCREDIBLY slow and unresponsive.

    I used to be able to flick pan around using the M1 Max, but now I have to have it in 'Typical Display Performance' rather than the default 'High'.

    ALSO TO ADD: I reset prefs and the files, and it seemed initially slightly quicker, but it's sluggish again now

  • Allie Daigle commented  ·   ·  Report

    InDesign 2025 is insanely slow compared to other versions. Updating a linked image takes 3 times as long & the program borderline crashes when I open files I previously had no issues with.
    Here's an idea: stop bloating the software with stupid AI features that no one wants other than your VC investors. Interrupting workflow is a great way to lose customers, I'm already using Affinity & Clip Studio more often & may switch over completely. I pay almost $700 a year for Adobe software that keeps getting worse. Have had tons of bugs ever since the AI has ramped up in all programs.

  • mofowax commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi,

    Saving ID documents used to be a breeze on my previous Intel 2020 iMac Pro (instantaneous). Now, not so much...

    I recently upgraded to a Mac mini 2024 with an M4 Pro chip. It has 64 GB of memory and is running macOS Sequoia 15.2.

    It takes around 7-8 seconds per save and I can't quick tab (command-tab) to swap apps while doing so which is pretty frustrating, considering the processing increase of my new Mac. My documents aren't particularly complicated and as with most professional users, I need to save and swap between other apps, e.g., Word, Chrome, Photoshop, Illustrator, Finder, etc., regularly.

    I've tested the same documents on the old iMac and there are no issues, so my questions are, what could be causing this and can I fix the problem my end? This is quite a critical issue as it's slowing down my workflow and I have urgent deadlines to meet!

    Thanks so much.

  • Elizabeth commented  ·   ·  Report

    Zia, you're a lifesaver. Thank you.

  • Richard Larson commented  ·   ·  Report

    Went to Prerelease as instructed and there was no InDesign Prerelease. Only an Illustrator prerelease. Followed instructions from comment below . . . still no Indesign Prerelease update. Could it be expired and on its way for an actual update?

  • Zia commented  ·   ·  Report

    Since I didn't know how to find this - Im just going to post this info.

    You have to go to the Adobe Prerelease website and join the InDesign prerelease.

    Then it adds a "pre-release" tab in your creative cloud window.

    If you don't see InDesign there after you have done this - go to the top right corner of the creative cloud window where it says "installed apps". Click on the 3 dots and select "check for updates" and then it will appear with any other prerelease apps you may have.

    I haven't installed it yet but that how you can get it to show up in the main Creative Cloud App launch window.

    Hope this helps.

  • Zia commented  ·   ·  Report

    Is it the Indesign "Beta" version you are referring to?
    Can someone from Adobe please give us the specific steps to find this pre-release of InDesign in the creative Cloud app?

  • Zia commented  ·   ·  Report

    How do i find this pre-release to test it out?

  • Mr.Coffee News commented  ·   ·  Report

    Same here in Canada. No InDesign prerelease on the site. Only Illustrator.

  • Richard commented  ·   ·  Report

    This issue has been going on since the introduction of InDesign 2025, I believed (wrongly it seems) that Adobe would be aware. This is a very long ongoing community page and the issue effects many subscribers. More so now as not all users have the issue and are using the 2025 software, causing software compatibility issues.

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-2025-lagging-on-macbook-air-with-m3-chip/td-p/14915197

  • Anders commented  ·   ·  Report

    Go to the help menu and look for updates. That worked for me.

  • Anders commented  ·   ·  Report

    Latest preview version is 20.1.0.70 and the problems are fixed for me. I've been able to try it for two days now. I don't know if the beta 20.1 also is also working.

  • Adam Smith commented  ·   ·  Report

    The PreRelease Build (20.1.0.70) seems to have fixed the lag and beachball problem for me. I will continue to use it and advise if it recurs again.

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