Adobe InDesign: Bugs
When filing a new bug, please provide:
- Version of Adobe InDesign, InCopy or InDesign Server
- Steps to reproduce the issues
- Expected result
- Actual result
- Test file, screenshot, video or GIF capturing the issue (optional)
- or
No existing idea results
- ~ No ideas found ~
7751 results found
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Indesign freezes and Crashes when attempting to delete a row
I am having an issue where InDesign is freezing and crashing after I try to delete a table row.
I am unable to attach a DMP file even though your documentation asks for it.
Only thing that seems to mitigate it is copying the INDD file, but the issue comes back after I work for a while.
Using 21.4.1 x64 on Windows 11
1 vote -
Error 18 - Publish Online Failure
When publishing online, InDesign (latest version) is consistently giving error 18 and failing to publish. I've viewed the help center recommendations and have logged out and back in of the Creative Cloud and have changed networks with no success.
In addition, viewing pages through EPUB Interactivity Preview is met with a blank pages.
The ability to publish online is necessary to complete work tasks - a quick resolution would be very appreciated. Thank you.
1 vote -
Crash InDesign
Hello,
I have MacBook Pro M5 Pro with 48GB RAM, when I use InDesign, every time crash changing the icone of mouse, exampel import a photo che mouse is change and if I'm cancelling and going back don't work, Finally I quit InDesign, don't close, is blocked. I have force of close app and apper a error.1 vote -
Exporting interactive PDF from Adobe Cloud creates button failure
Errors when exporting to Adobe PDF (Interactive)
InDesign 21.4.1/2026
Windows 11, version 24H2We decided to move all our files from a SharePoint environment to Adobe's Creative Cloud storage. To align with accessibility regulation in many states, we've created buttons that navigate within the document to easily jump back and forth the pages. As a trial, we uploaded one file to run our process.
Upon exporting, a security warning pops up stating that the document is trying to access a link (which is a link to the document itself). Then, an information box has popped up stating that "the plug-in required by this 'GoToR' action is not available." Screenshots attached.
The action is mistakenly throwing a "GoToR" action when a "GoTo" should be the correct action as how the button has been programmed for internal navigation only.
We have recreated this in other places and do not have this issue.
Errors when exporting to Adobe PDF (Interactive)
InDesign 21.4.1/2026
Windows 11, version 24H2We decided to move all our files from a SharePoint environment to Adobe's Creative Cloud storage. To align with accessibility regulation in many states, we've created buttons that navigate within the document to easily jump back and forth the pages. As a trial, we uploaded one file to run our process.
Upon exporting, a security warning pops up stating that the document is trying to access a link (which is a link to the document itself). Then, an information box has popped up stating that "the plug-in…
1 vote -
Invisible characters left behind after applying imported PDF comments
Description:
When importing PDF comments into InDesign and applying text corrections, unwanted invisible characters are frequently left behind in the text flow.These hidden characters cause significant disruptions in our typesetting and scripting workflows:
Find/Change Failures: Because these characters are invisible, they break text strings without the user noticing. This causes standard text and GREP Find/Change queries to fail and return no results for seemingly identical text.
Sorting Script Errors: When using scripts to sort paragraphs alphabetically, if one of these invisible characters ends up at the beginning of a paragraph, the sorting algorithm misinterprets it. This usually results in the affected paragraph being incorrectly pushed to the very end of the sorted list.
Expected Behavior:
Applying imported PDF text edits should only insert the intended characters and should not leave behind invisible artifacts that break text processing.Description:
When importing PDF comments into InDesign and applying text corrections, unwanted invisible characters are frequently left behind in the text flow.These hidden characters cause significant disruptions in our typesetting and scripting workflows:
Find/Change Failures: Because these characters are invisible, they break text strings without the user noticing. This causes standard text and GREP Find/Change queries to fail and return no results for seemingly identical text.
Sorting Script Errors: When using scripts to sort paragraphs alphabetically, if one of these invisible characters ends up at the beginning of a paragraph, the sorting algorithm misinterprets it. This usually results in…
1 vote -
Table of Contents Generation Silently Excludes Content Despite Correct Styling
Summary
Layout > Table of Contents fails to generate entries for a specific chapter document ("1Part 1FTCIT 3RD ED.indd") within a book project, even though the target paragraph style is confirmed correctly applied, the TOC style's Include list is confirmed correct, and the issue persists after rebuilding the TOC style from scratch, rebuilding the document via IDML export/re-import, and testing with brand-new, untethered content. A control test in a brand-new, unrelated document with a brand-new paragraph style and TOC style generated correctly on the first attempt, ruling out the application installation/preferences as the cause.Environment
Application: Adobe InDesign 2026
Build: 21.4.0.74
OS: macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
Project type: InDesign Book (.indb) with 9 linked chapter documents, synchronized paragraph/character stylesExpected Behavior
Running Layout > Table of Contents with a paragraph style included in the TOC style's "Include Paragraph Styles" list should generate a TOC entry for every paragraph using that style — whether scanning a single document or, with "Include Book Documents" enabled, across every chapter in the book.Actual Behavior
When generating from the book's Front Matter/Preface document with "Include Book Documents" enabled, only two of nine chapters (Part 7 and Back Matter) produce entries. The other seven, including Part 1, are silently omitted — no error, no warning, just missing entries. This was traced down to Part 1 failing to generate any TOC entries even in complete isolation from the rest of the book.
Isolation Steps Taken (in order) and Results
Confirmed paragraph styles are synchronized and named identically across all chapter documents via the Book panel's synced-style indicator and manual inspection. (No issue found.)
Saved all chapters via "Save Book" to rule out stale/unsaved content being read by TOC generation. (No change.)
Checked Book panel status icons for broken links or "needs saving" flags on all chapters. (All normal.)
Searched for duplicate/similarly-named paragraph styles (e.g., a style nested in a group vs. a flat style of the same visible name) using Find/Change with Format-based search, scope "All Documents." Confirmed the target style ("Chapter Titles") is found correctly in every chapter, including Part 1. (No duplicate found.)
Checked layer visibility, conditional text, and master-page overrides on Part 1's chapter title frame. Layer visible, conditional text set to [Unconditional], frame is a local page item (not an un-overridden master item). (No issue found.)
Checked Book panel > Synchronize Options to confirm "TOC Style" was included in the sync categories, then re-ran Synchronize Book. (No change.)
Rebuilt the TOC style's Include Paragraph Styles list by removing and re-adding the target style fresh from the document's own current style catalog. (No change.)
Isolated Part 1 completely from the book: generated a TOC from within Part 1 alone, with "Include Book Documents" unchecked, so the scan could only read Part 1's own content. Result: empty — not even Part 1's own chapter title appeared, despite the paragraph being confirmed (via clicking into it with the Type tool) to carry the correct paragraph style, and despite Include Book Documents being off (so no other document could be responsible).
Tested a brand-new, untethered text frame inside the same document, with freshly typed text and a freshly applied instance of the same paragraph style. (Still empty — rules out frame/thread-level corruption of the original title frame, a known InDesign issue with a similar symptom.)
Rebuilt the entire chapter document via File > Export > IDML, then reopened and re-saved as .indd. Re-ran the isolated test. (Still empty — rules out low-level document corruption that an IDML round-trip would normally clear.)
Built an entirely new, independent TOC style from scratch ("New," not "Edit"), including only the target paragraph style. (Still empty — rules out corruption in the original TOC style object itself.)
Confirmed via Select All (Cmd+A) inside the empty TOC result frame that no invisible/mis-styled text was being generated — the frame is genuinely empty, not a display/formatting issue. (Confirmed empty.)
Control test: created a brand-new, completely unrelated document with a new paragraph style and new TOC style, no connection to the book project. Result: generated correctly on the first attempt. (This rules out the InDesign installation and preferences as the cause — the bug is confined to this specific project/document.)
Notes
Because a from-scratch document reproduces correctly, this does not appear to be a universal, easily-reproducible bug — it appears to be tied to some state specific to this document or book file that we were unable to identify or clear through normal means (resaving, resyncing, style rebuilding, or IDML export/re-import).Several users have reported the same core symptom (paragraph style confirmed correct, TOC style confirmed correct, entries still silently missing, sometimes traced to text frame threading) in Adobe's own community forums, without a definitive root-cause fix:
community.adobe.com — "InDesign generates an empty table of contents" (thread 868203)
community.adobe.com — "Table of Contents missing paragraph styles" (thread 11722707)
community.adobe.com — "Adobe InDesign TOC Not Populating" (thread 13721262)
Source files (the .indb and affected chapter .indd files) are available and can be provided to Adobe engineering to aid reproduction, if requested.Impact
Blocks generation of a working, complete Table of Contents for a 9-chapter book project ready for publication.Summary
Layout > Table of Contents fails to generate entries for a specific chapter document ("1Part 1FTCIT 3RD ED.indd") within a book project, even though the target paragraph style is confirmed correctly applied, the TOC style's Include list is confirmed correct, and the issue persists after rebuilding the TOC style from scratch, rebuilding the document via IDML export/re-import, and testing with brand-new, untethered content. A control test in a brand-new, unrelated document with a brand-new paragraph style and TOC style generated correctly on the first attempt, ruling out the application installation/preferences as the cause.Environment
Application: Adobe InDesign…1 vote -
InDesign deletes alt text when updating images - STOP IT
Please stop removing alt text every time an image is updated. I worked for hours on that alt text and it has been completely deleted. More work for me now.
1 vote -
spinning wheel forever...
Observed behavior :
- Switching between tools is very slow (it takes several seconds before the selected tool becomes active).
- The application continuously displays the loading indicator (spinning wheel).
- The slowdowns occur consistently, even during simple actions such as switching tools.
- The application appears to be constantly running a background process and never returns to normal, responsive performance.
1 vote -
Save As not working again
InDesign Classic 2026 21.4.1 x64 / Win11 Home 24 H2. Good grief. It's happening again!!! ---> To successsfully use "Save As" I must save with slight file name change to get it to save with correct date/time stamp. And yes -- we just had an MS OS update. Why is this still occasionally happening!? When does this problem finally get corrected so that saving a file --- a most critical thing to do --- works properly?
1 vote -
ID (& DW & AI) do not resize window when dragging top edge
CS4 thru CS6 allowed you to resize the window dragging the top edge.
Win 11 pro (but also earlier versions of Windows)
ID 21.2
When hovering over the window's top edge, the cursor does not change to a double arrow.1 vote -
There's no way to save or load custom workspaces from a file.
I have three computers (two Windows and one Mac) that I work on. I've created a custom workspace and saved it, but there's no apparent way to save it to or load it from a drive. So copying the workspace to the other computers is a PITA that involves doing a Web search to find where InDesign squirrels the relevant file(s) away on each platform, finding it on one computer and copying it to a drive, and then dragging & dropping the file into the proper places on the other computers.
How is this considered a production-ready feature? What is the point?
And while we're on the topic, there's also no way to update an existing workspace even on your local computer. If you change the layout and want to save it, you have to pretend you're creating a new workspace, type the exact same name, and then overwrite it. Again... not production-ready. Not today. Not 20 years ago.
I have three computers (two Windows and one Mac) that I work on. I've created a custom workspace and saved it, but there's no apparent way to save it to or load it from a drive. So copying the workspace to the other computers is a PITA that involves doing a Web search to find where InDesign squirrels the relevant file(s) away on each platform, finding it on one computer and copying it to a drive, and then dragging & dropping the file into the proper places on the other computers.
How is this considered a production-ready feature? What is…
1 vote -
Bug Report: High Quality Display shows no improvement over Typical for large images (~45MP+)
Placed raster images above roughly 45-48 megapixels show zero visible difference between Typical and High Quality Display Performance; both render a blocky, low-resolution proxy instead of the full-resolution source. The same content under ~38MP renders correctly with the expected difference.
Steps to reproduce: place an RGB 8-bit image with total pixel count at or above ~45MP (e.g. 6000x8000px) at a large placed size (Effective PPI 700+). Switch between Typical and High Quality Display: no visible change. Reduce the same source to ~36-38MP (e.g. 6000px long side): renders correctly.
Size pattern observed on the same source content: 8000px long side (~48MP), broken, no difference visible. 7500px (~42MP), partial improvement but still jagged. 6000px (~36-38MP), renders correctly. Orientation was tested and ruled out (wide/short vs narrow/tall at equal pixel count both broken), pointing to total pixel count or decoded buffer size rather than a single dimension.
Environment: MacBook Pro M1, 64GB RAM, macOS 15.7.4. Reproduced identically on InDesign 21.4.1, 21.3, and 20.0.
Already ruled out: single-version regression (broken on all three versions tested); corrupted preferences/cache (full reset, Cleaner Tool, reinstall); GPU vs CPU preview (Shift+E, no difference); external monitor (tested with internal display only); zoom level (tested up to 800%); object-level display override; file corruption (image rebuilt from scratch via copy-paste-flatten in Photoshop, same result); file format (PSD, TIFF, JPEG identical); color bit depth (8-bit and 16-bit identical); document-level cache (tested in fresh blank documents). Links panel shows no warnings and correct Effective PPI throughout.
Likely area: since GPU and CPU preview modes behave identically, the limit appears to sit in the routine that decodes and caches full-resolution raster data for preview, not in the Metal/GPU renderer itself.
Placed raster images above roughly 45-48 megapixels show zero visible difference between Typical and High Quality Display Performance; both render a blocky, low-resolution proxy instead of the full-resolution source. The same content under ~38MP renders correctly with the expected difference.
Steps to reproduce: place an RGB 8-bit image with total pixel count at or above ~45MP (e.g. 6000x8000px) at a large placed size (Effective PPI 700+). Switch between Typical and High Quality Display: no visible change. Reduce the same source to ~36-38MP (e.g. 6000px long side): renders correctly.
Size pattern observed on the same source content: 8000px long side (~48MP),…
1 vote -
Issues with Indesign
I have experienced multiple stability issues with Adobe InDesign 2026.
The most serious issue has happened twice. While working normally on a document, multiple pages suddenly appear completely blank, as though all of their contents have disappeared. The pages become entirely white inside InDesign.
I first noticed the issue while exporting the document to PDF because the exported PDF also contained these blank pages.
I was not performing any unusual operations beforehand. I was simply editing the document, saving frequently, and exporting to PDF.
The linked images and assets were stored locally on my computer and were never moved, renamed, or deleted. No missing-link warnings or other error messages were displayed.
Interestingly, I was able to temporarily recover the document by using File > Save As and saving it as a new InDesign file. After doing this, all of the missing page contents reappeared. However, after continuing to work on the new file, the exact same issue occurred again.
In addition to this problem, I have experienced repeated issues when exporting PDFs. Even exporting a single page or only a few pages can take an unusually long time. During these exports, InDesign sometimes becomes completely unresponsive, forcing me to restart my computer because the application freezes.
At no point did InDesign display an error message explaining the problem.
My biggest concern is that this issue has now happened twice without any apparent cause. It makes me feel that my documents are unstable and that I could lose many hours of work even though I am following a normal workflow and saving frequently.
This has significantly affected my confidence in using InDesign for professional work. I would appreciate it if Adobe could investigate whether this is a document stability or PDF export bug.
I have experienced multiple stability issues with Adobe InDesign 2026.
The most serious issue has happened twice. While working normally on a document, multiple pages suddenly appear completely blank, as though all of their contents have disappeared. The pages become entirely white inside InDesign.
I first noticed the issue while exporting the document to PDF because the exported PDF also contained these blank pages.
I was not performing any unusual operations beforehand. I was simply editing the document, saving frequently, and exporting to PDF.
The linked images and assets were stored locally on my computer and were never moved, renamed,…
1 vote -
Ctrl+D (replace photo) causes InDesign to get hung every time
Using the simple Ctrl+D shortcut to replace a template photo causes my InDesign to get hung every single time. I have to use Task Manager to exit the program, losing all my previous work on the file. This is only ONE of MANY bugs that currently make InDesign unusable for me. Stop using AI code and fix this software!
1 vote -
variable devanagari fonts characters not composing correctly
Variable fonts in Devanagari & Gurmukhi no longer compose characters correctly. InDesign 21.3. Mac Sequoia 15.7.1.
They did work previously, and if I open an old file the fonts still appear correctly until I change something.
Font is Anek Devanagari/Gurmukhi, or Noto Sans. Static versions work file.I don't see this bug in the list of things fixed in the latest update, has it been corrected?
1 vote -
grab transparent frames
Product: Adobe InDesign 21.4.1
Platform: macOSSince updating to InDesign 21.4.1, transparent text frames are no longer draggable from their empty interior.
Steps to reproduce:
Create a new document.
Draw a text frame.
Set the stroke to any visible color and weight.
Set the fill to None.
Try to drag the text frame by clicking anywhere inside the empty area.
Expected result:
The text frame should be selectable and draggable from anywhere inside the frame, as in previous versions of InDesign.
Actual result:
Only the frame border is clickable/draggable. Clicking or dragging inside the transparent area does nothing.
Additional observation:
If a fill color is applied (any color), the frame immediately becomes draggable from anywhere inside the frame.
If the frame contains text, it can only be dragged by clicking directly on the text, not on the empty transparent area.
This behavior is reproducible in a brand-new document.
At least two users in our company experience the same issue on macOS with InDesign 21.4.1.
This appears to be a regression in the hit-testing or selection behavior of transparent text frames.Product: Adobe InDesign 21.4.1
Platform: macOSSince updating to InDesign 21.4.1, transparent text frames are no longer draggable from their empty interior.
Steps to reproduce:
Create a new document.
Draw a text frame.
Set the stroke to any visible color and weight.
Set the fill to None.
Try to drag the text frame by clicking anywhere inside the empty area.
Expected result:
The text frame should be selectable and draggable from anywhere inside the frame, as in previous versions of InDesign.
Actual result:
Only the frame border is clickable/draggable. Clicking or dragging inside the transparent area does nothing.
Additional observation:…1 vote -
PDF export bug – Unicode character "ł" (U+0142) corrupts text encoding of the entire PDF
I have found a reproducible issue in Adobe InDesign affecting PDF export.
Environment
Adobe InDesign 2026
Mac OS Tahoe 26.1
Font: Univers Next Pro Condensed (locally installed, licensed version)Description
When exporting a PDF from InDesign, the presence of a single Polish lowercase letter ł (Unicode U+0142) causes the text encoding of the entire PDF to become corrupted.The document displays and prints correctly, but copying text from the exported PDF no longer works correctly:
accented characters such as é, è, à, ê, ç, etc. are copied as periods (".") or incorrect characters;
the problem affects the entire PDF, not only the word containing ł.Steps to reproduce
Create a new InDesign document.
Use Univers Next Pro Condensed.
Type the following text:
Libellułe
aeiéàè
Export the document as a PDF using the standard PDF export settings.
Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Copy and paste the text into a text editor.Expected result
The copied text should exactly match the original text, including all accented characters and the Polish character ł.Actual result
The presence of the single character ł causes the PDF text encoding to become corrupted. Accented characters throughout the PDF are no longer copied correctly and are replaced by periods or incorrect characters.I have found a reproducible issue in Adobe InDesign affecting PDF export.
Environment
Adobe InDesign 2026
Mac OS Tahoe 26.1
Font: Univers Next Pro Condensed (locally installed, licensed version)Description
When exporting a PDF from InDesign, the presence of a single Polish lowercase letter ł (Unicode U+0142) causes the text encoding of the entire PDF to become corrupted.The document displays and prints correctly, but copying text from the exported PDF no longer works correctly:
accented characters such as é, è, à, ê, ç, etc. are copied as periods (".") or incorrect characters;
the problem affects the entire PDF, not…1 vote -
Microsoft Surface Laptop vergrößert alle Bedienelemente von InDesign weil InDesign denkt, es wäre ein Tablet (wegen dem Touch Panel)
Ich benutze ein Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 mit Qualcomm Plus ARM-Prozessor und die BETA-Version von InDesign. Beim Starten geht InDesign sofort in eine Touch-Oberfläche, weil es das Surface Laptop, das auch ein Touch-Display hat, fälschlicherweise als Tablet interpretiert. Dadurch sind alle Elemente um den Faktor ca. 500 vergrößert, so dass man keine Bedienelemente mehr erreichen kann und das lässt sich auch nicht abschalten. Ich habe eine KI gefragt, wie man das lösen könnte, aber alle Versuche scheiterten leider. Aus diesem Grund kann ich InDesign auf meinem neuen Surface Laptop nicht nutzen, obwohl ich es mir genau dafür für unterwegs gekauft hatte.
Könnten Sie bitte die Beta-Version von Indesign auch an das Surface Laptop von Microsoft anpassen, so dass es damit als ganz normales Laptop per Maus nutzbar ist?
Am besten wäre noch, wenn aus der Beta-version eine richtige Version für ARM-Prozessoren werden könnte.Vielen Dank und viele Grüße
Ich benutze ein Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 mit Qualcomm Plus ARM-Prozessor und die BETA-Version von InDesign. Beim Starten geht InDesign sofort in eine Touch-Oberfläche, weil es das Surface Laptop, das auch ein Touch-Display hat, fälschlicherweise als Tablet interpretiert. Dadurch sind alle Elemente um den Faktor ca. 500 vergrößert, so dass man keine Bedienelemente mehr erreichen kann und das lässt sich auch nicht abschalten. Ich habe eine KI gefragt, wie man das lösen könnte, aber alle Versuche scheiterten leider. Aus diesem Grund kann ich InDesign auf meinem neuen Surface Laptop nicht nutzen, obwohl ich es mir genau dafür für unterwegs gekauft…
1 vote -
Problème d'assemblage de polices : police National 2 + Monotype Connect
Problème d'assemblage sous Windows 11 : police National 2 + Monotype Connect
Configuration informatique (système et logiciels) :- InDesign 2026 v21.4.1
- Windows 11 24h2 Entreprise
- Monotype Connect 28.1.4
Reproduction du problème :
1 fichier InDesign utilisant des polices de la collection National 2 activées avec Monotype Connect, sous Windows.
Pas de problème sous macOS.Description du problème :
Quand on lance un assemblage en demandant la copie des polices, InDesign signale que les polices National 2 sont "incomplètes" et ne les regroupe pas dans l'assemblage final.
Le problème ne se produit que dans ces conditions :
- Pour l'assemblage InDesign uniquement. Sinon il n'y a aucun problème avec les autres fonctions d'InDesign (imprimer, générer un PDF ou exporter en général).
- Activation de la police National 2 avec Monotype Connect.
- Sous Windows uniquement.
Notes :
Si les polices sont activées sans Monotype Connect - installées sur le système ou placées dans un dossier "Document fonts" dans le même dossier que le fichier InDesign - aucun problème à l'assemblage.
Illustrator rencontre le même problème.
J'ai longuement dialogué avec le support Monotype. Nous avons fait plusieurs tests. Comme le problème ne concerne que l'assemblage d'InDesign et qu'il ne se produit que sous Windows, pour eux le problème ne vient pas de Connect mais de la version Windows d'InDesign.Je joins un fichier InDesign mais je ne peux déposer des fichiers zip ou des polices.
Problème d'assemblage sous Windows 11 : police National 2 + Monotype Connect
Configuration informatique (système et logiciels) :- InDesign 2026 v21.4.1
- Windows 11 24h2 Entreprise
- Monotype Connect 28.1.4
Reproduction du problème :
1 fichier InDesign utilisant des polices de la collection National 2 activées avec Monotype Connect, sous Windows.
Pas de problème sous macOS.Description du problème :
Quand on lance un assemblage en demandant la copie des polices, InDesign signale que les polices National 2 sont "incomplètes" et ne les regroupe pas dans l'assemblage final.
Le problème ne se produit que dans ces conditions :
- Pour l'assemblage InDesign uniquement.…
1 vote -
Export to interactive pdf option to view pdf greyed out in mac
I noticed yesterday 7/8/26 that the menu for export to interactive pdf has "view pdf after export" greyed out. It does work when I switch to the print pdf menu, so it's not a problem with acrobat or my Finder trying to use preview instead of acrobat.
1 vote
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