As everyone's reported here, this update is exceedingly frustrating in how slow it works. Any fixes/workarounds only work momentarily before again running into the spinning wheel with almost every click. What I've discovered lately is that this occurs any time I click outside of the INDD window (ie to copy/paste, open a file, check an email etc). However, if I'm able to stay inside INDD it works properly with no issue. This is not a fix, and not a sustainable workflow, but if you're able to dump all your text into your INDD doc, then save/quit and reopen, you can then work uninterrupted if you stay within your doc (and not click outside of it). Again, not ideal or sustainable, but works if you're in a pinch / on deadline as most of us are. Cannot express how frustrating this update is to work with.

@Gabriele wow!! I tried, I didn't know that opening the ID file in the package folder didn't require installing the fonts! Great, I just hope they fix the bugs that slow down indesign.

I personally don't have the fonts installed in the Windows 10 Font folder, but I have a separate folder.

I don't know how it works on mac OSX, but in Windows it is possible to install the fonts as links and not directly by copying them into the system folder. So I have my D:/Fonts folder and with an external software I install the fonts as links to Windows...

I don't know if this is the same as the problem highlighted...
I don't have any slowdowns in ID, the only thing that slows down is when I go to the TEXT > FONT menu item. But already now having passed the fonts to a faster hard disk than the mechanical one it slows down less...

Anyway, yes between fonts, processors, ram and video cards, all Adobe software should improve a little on how to fully exploit these technologies, the more we go forward the slower these software are, not optimized.

@nicky When you have the “Document Fonts” folder in the same folder as the Indesign document, you don’t need to install the fonts, they are automatically recognized.
I have always used it and I find it useful because it allows me not to have too many fonts installed that can have conflicts and slow down the work (I am not a graphic designer, but an executivist).

Try not to use external font folders (even if I don’t understand how you make them available in Indesign)
At most, copy them into the “Fonts” folder that you find in the same folder where you installed Indesign.

@Michael Vinson
Let me understand one thing, probably this thing escapes me (I was not aware of it) ...

Yes I know the ID package function to export project files, images and fonts (for exchanging material with other users) ...
The thing that escapes me, what does "the slowdown problem with the font folder" have to do with it? Because if I exchange my package with another user, when he opens the indesign file he will automatically find the fonts present in the document fonts installed?
I always knew that those fonts had to be installed in the OS, I did not think they would install themselves/detect from the ID!.

Since I do not use the package often, never, I have not noticed these slowdowns. I have noticed other slowdowns on the fonts that I have already written in previous messages

@nicky
The Document Fonts folder is created whenever you Package a file in InDesign. The package puts your INDD file (files plural if packaging a Book) into a new folder along with separate Links and Document Fonts folders that said InDesign file(s) will then be linked to. These packages are what I primarily work from as I mostly work in packaged books made up of several INDD files that amount to hundreds of pages.

@Michael Vinson @Gabriele @Filip Blazek
Someone explain this "Document Fonts" folder thing to me.
Is it something only for MAC OSX or also WINDOWS 10?

I have the system fonts installed in Windows, and the fonts I use for graphics (mostly) are links to fonts that reside on another Hard Disk.
What is the post referring to here specifically?

@Gabriele @Filip Blazek
Oh my gosh! The Document Fonts folder workaround appears to work for me as well! When I remove that folder from my package the file runs as normal. Hopefully this helps the InDesign team diagnose and patch this issue.

I can confirm, total slowdown of InDesign occurs only for documents with Document fonts folder. If I delete the folder, the document does not have fonts, but the behavior of the app is quite smooth. Once I restore the Document fonts folder, working in InDesign is impossible.

@Michael Vinson
A question, do you use the "Document Fonts" folder?
If yes can you try to work without it?
I'm just asking to verify, since in my case it worked and I have no issues.

I've had this issue ever since first downloading the newest InDesign. It will work as normal for maybe a few actions to start and then rainbow wheel after rainbow wheel of lag trying to do the most basic functions (copy and pasting both inside program and from something like Acrobat or Word, scrolling, typing, drawing shapes, moving objects, etc.). The delay is usually 1-2 seconds, sometimes upwards of 5.

I've followed my Activity Monitor when the issue occurs and the reading under "% CPU" will usually jump up somewhere between 50-85% with the rainbow wheel spins. For comparison, I also watched the Activity Monitor while working in a file in InDesign 19.5.1 (no issues), and it would stay consistently between 20-30% during all the same actions.

I've tried
-uninstall/reinstall of Indesign 20.0.1
-"Reset Preferences on Quit” under InDesign-Preferences-General,
-closed Indesign and held down cmd opt ctrl and shift at next startup to get question to reset preferences, selected “Yes” as application started up
-Renamed ~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.indesign and ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign (added “old” to the end of each as noted on Adobe Community site) and restarted application

None of these have solved this problem sadly.

Indesign 20.0.1
MacBook Pro with Apple M3 Max Chip
OS - Sequoia 15.1

@gabriele

I also noticed a slowdown when I hover over the TEXT>FONT menu.
I also have fonts managed by external software that saves them in a folder other than the Windows system folder.
This happens on Illustrator and Indesign 100%, on Photoshop I don't know, I never use the fonts there.

Let's say that on the threshold of 2025, Adobe's CC is very poor in terms of performance.

I often have slowdowns and the spinning beach ball when I open several documents and when I have to copy and paste text even from Word and Acrobat.

I almost always use the "Document Fonts" folder, but I noticed that if I remove (or rename) the "Document Fonts" folder then I no longer have slowdowns and copying the fonts I need into the "Fonts" folder inside the Adobe Indesign 2025 folder (in Applications) everything works correctly, without the spinning beach ball.

Indesign 20.0.1
MacOs Sonoma 14.7
Apple M1 Ultra

Just had to go back to Indesign 19.5.1, there is no way to work with the new version on iMac.

Indesign 20 is unusable. I've tried just about every tip and trick I could find on the web. But I still have this bug that makes the software unusable. I've reinstalled version 19.5, which works perfectly.

Please fix this. I pay an expensive subscription but I am not allowed to use the recent version, pathetic.

This issue has been driving me a bit crazy. I am not sure this will help, and I have yet to try this with more samples, but I have one test where I opened a file that would reliably cause the application to slow down while switching in and out between Indesign and any other App. I had only Finder and Indesign running, so it was those two I was switching between for this test. I have a file that has a few Paragraph style that were based on one-another and had been updated along with Indesign over the last several years. In my test, I deleted all paragraph styles and selected keep formatting on all. The slowdown still occurred, but when I closed the document quite and then restarted the app and opened that document the slowdown was improved. InDesign didc lag while opening the document, but this passed and then was gone after that intial few seconds. My next test I will be a bit more systematic and see if I can pinpoint which style is causing the issue. I have had problems in the past with things buried deep down in some style causing a strange issue (iirc, it was inability to delete a particylar color swatch).

InDesign 20.0.1 is slow to switch back to the front application when copying and pasting into InDesign 2025 is slow on my M1 Max MacBook Pro. Switching back and forth from Workfront Proof, Word, Excel, or any application is slow as InDesign takes a full 1 to 2 seconds to come to the front by clicking on the document window or using the application switcher.

Please remove this annoying delay.

Thank you.

This is truly unworkable.
Incredibly sluggish, spinning beachballs and crashes.

And as if being productive wasn't enough of a struggle, we also have to deal with the horribly annoying popups that we can't turn off and that keep coming back over and over again.

You don't wan't to know how many (unbillable) hours are wasted just staring at a spinning beachball, or resetting preferences.

Same story here. Recently upgraded to InDesign 2025, now in every document ANY action causes the beach ball with a huge pause in workflow. Totally unworkable.

2019 Macbook pro, running Sequoia 15.1

[today 4/12/24]
Since 20.0 versio , InDesign is extremely slooooowww, almost unusable. Almost every action from selecting objects, resizing objects, or moving objects comes with a really slow reaction time.