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
364 results found
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map Word lists to InDesign lists and paragraph styles
As the InDesign help documentation notes (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/map-export-manage-styles.html), "Text styles with bullet or number lists may not be copied or exported to a different application with the bullets or numbers intact." The suggested workflow is extremely time-consuming for a long document where every paragraph is assigned to a hierarchical outline structure in Word, since each paragraph has to be manually assigned to the correct paragraph style and the Word outline numbering that was converted to text needs to be manually deleted. In addition, when placing the document, it creates a separate new "imported list" style from each Word list, resulting in hundreds of unused list styles that need to be individually deleted in another tedious process (why isn't there any way to delete all unused Lists? or at least allow me to select multiple for deletion in the Define Lists dialog.)
A much faster workflow would be the following: in the place Word doc import options, add a section for mapping numbered/lettered lists in Word to InDesign lists and paragraph styles. Allow me to map each Word list hierarchy level to a corresponding InDesign list Level, assigned to a single InDesign list (this is a many-to-one reassignment). Also allow me to map each Word list hierarchy level to a corresponding InDesign paragraph style (this is a one-to-many reassignment, since Word allows multiple list levels in a single list Style).
As the InDesign help documentation notes (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/map-export-manage-styles.html), "Text styles with bullet or number lists may not be copied or exported to a different application with the bullets or numbers intact." The suggested workflow is extremely time-consuming for a long document where every paragraph is assigned to a hierarchical outline structure in Word, since each paragraph has to be manually assigned to the correct paragraph style and the Word outline numbering that was converted to text needs to be manually deleted. In addition, when placing the document, it creates a separate new "imported list" style from each Word list,…
1 vote -
Suggestion -book (choice of layers)
I produce several multi-language books & brochures that consists of up to 114 separate documents linked via a Book file. Each language has its' own layer with the same name in all documents while other layers are exclusive to, or only exist in some documents. Currently when I have to Print or create a PDF of a specific language I have to open every single document to activate the layers I want visible, save, and then proceed to output the entire book.
I would like to propose that Indesign incorporate an additional tab in its' print/pdf dialog boxes that lists ALL layers across all documents selected and allows the user to choose via a checkbox which layers are to be output.
Furthermore I'd like to suggest layers with the same name work similar to how the Links dialog works where I could select the top-most label to output all layers with the same name -OR- have a drop down that lists the documents that layer name is found in & allows me to select which ones I want output or not.
This would save a tremendous amount of time & effort especially when a change occurs across all languages requiring I output the entire book for each language. Currently having to open, activate/deactivate layers, & re-save every document for each language I need to output is extremely time consuming & ridiculous.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. I truly hope you will choose to implement this suggestion.
Respectfully,
Len ZiganteI produce several multi-language books & brochures that consists of up to 114 separate documents linked via a Book file. Each language has its' own layer with the same name in all documents while other layers are exclusive to, or only exist in some documents. Currently when I have to Print or create a PDF of a specific language I have to open every single document to activate the layers I want visible, save, and then proceed to output the entire book.
I would like to propose that Indesign incorporate an additional tab in its' print/pdf dialog boxes that lists…
1 vote -
Creating a new cross reference instance and/or changing the para style of existing X-ref hangs Indesign
INDESIGN 2025 V. 20.3.1.73
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STEPS TO REPRODUCE THE X_REF BUG WHICH HANGS INDESIGN
2.1 Show the Cross-References panel (choose Window > Type & Tables > Cross-References)
2.2 Either a) double click on an exisiting Cross-reference in the Cross Reference Palette to edit it in the (modal) "Edit Cross-Reference" dialogue panel.
2.3 OR b) Click the Create New Cross-Reference button in the panel.
2.4 Click on the Reference Format drop down menu .
EXPECTED RESULT
Show the Cross Reference Format drop down menu, allowing user to select of one of the items in the list of current Formatting styles. This new format will then be invoked in the document layout view. (See screen shot with filename "HANG BUG when x-ref style menu is invoked.png").
Clicking the "Ok" button confirms the choices made in this dialogue and ends the model window session (which prevents other editing of document(s) to take place during the generation of a new/edited X-ref in the text.ACTUAL RESULT
Frequently these steps results in a hang.ADDITIONAL LEVELS OF DETAIL, TESTING & LOGICAL ANALYSIS
Seem like clicking on the Cross Reference Format Style menu is always trigger for the Hanging, not any of the previous steps, Though this does not mean that clicking on this menu ALWAYS results in a Hang. Changes to the X-Ref format style are sometimes possible (even on a X-ref that previously hung InDesign) and the operation will in this case always succeed when "ok" button is clicked.
In trying to determine the subtle cause of intermittent hanging during these operations, it would sometimes appear that this seems to be related to generating a text for the reference that is longer the the remaining white space on the line where the cross reference is being inserted.
Under normal circumstances, changing a X-ref style is may cause the line of text with the new or previewed edit to X-ref to be overset (the screenshot file called "red dot for overset text.png")
But in many cases the existing style is not causing overset text, but even clicking on the menu (rather than clicking then releasing on a new formatting Style item in the list) results in the hang. And at other times it's only after a different formatting style is selected the hang occurs.
.6. CONCLUSIONS
So its seems to be that the Hang bug trigger is orthogonal to the actual variations in the formatting style settings themselves, and more likely to be the code which executes the menu or the screen redraws for menu changes that is at fault. But given Adobe's woefully buggy code for InDesign and Illustrator, who rightly knows at this point after 15 years of the codebase seeming becoming repeatedly refactored with bad design choices that only make a buggy application worse with each release in terms of application stability with respect to existing Indesign features and functions (many of which have been in the app for over a decade, although possibly enhanced, reworked for the cross-platform JS based UI framework refactored or rewritten entirely).
.7. FURTHER NOTES FOR ADOBE TO READ AND TO PLEASE TAKE SERIOUSLY
I demonstrated this hanging behaviour during a live screen-sharing session with an Adobe support worker using their Adobe's in-house screen sharing application. I asked this person to log this as a bug. The poor technical support employee of Adobe was unable to confirm or deny if this bug is known or new to their developers and obvious no idea if a fix was in the works. He suggested opening the files in Adobe InDesign 2024. I have not attempted this at this point, if there is feature parity with the new cloud based InDesign Review system (which new feature logs seem to indicate is the case) and all the other INDD features I'm using then I'll consider doing so and report back on success or failure of this.
I note that bugs on User Voice forums in relation to previous iterations of InDesign and it's Cross Referencing set of functions seem to litter this forum. So any linkages with these might be worth investigating.
Might I add that i resent wasting hours of time on buggy INDESIGN applications for over a decades now and then getting so frustrated I have to spend an hour or more of my time documenting the bug as precisely as possible in the (vain) hope of the bug being fixed before the current project I'm working on is completed. I've laboured under this bug for a couple of months now for a project I dont work on every day, it's a long multi-document report using the InDesign Book to combine the Indesign files for TOC, X-refs and page numbering functions with a total number of pages which will be in the 100s.
INDESIGN 2025 V. 20.3.1.73
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STEPS TO REPRODUCE THE X_REF BUG WHICH HANGS INDESIGN
2.1 Show the Cross-References panel (choose Window > Type & Tables > Cross-References)
2.2 Either a) double click on an exisiting Cross-reference in the Cross Reference Palette to edit it in the (modal) "Edit Cross-Reference" dialogue panel.
2.3 OR b) Click the Create New Cross-Reference button in the panel.
2.4 Click on the Reference Format drop down menu .
EXPECTED RESULT
Show the Cross Reference Format drop down menu, allowing user to select of one of the items in the list of current Formatting styles. This new…
1 vote -
InDesign 18.4 crashes/fails during PDF export for documents containing placed indd with HEIC images
I've tried exporting every INDD separately with HEIC images in and it exports fine. The file that contains the INDD with HEIC images in always hangs and eventually crashes.
0 votes
7082 results found
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Disappearing footnotes on export
Since updating to the latest major release of InDesign (14), we have been experiencing issues in one of our templates where footnotes have been disappearing from chapters (documents) in a Book when exporting the Book as a PDF.
This was not an issue in previous versions of InDesign and the template has not changed.
Is this perhaps a bug?
12 votesThanks for reporting. We are reviewing the bug
-InDesign Team
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Weight remains on text when exported to pdf even if changed to zero.
I am using InDesign CC 2019 14.01 x64.
Once a stroke weight has been added, if you then change the stroke weight back to zero, then when you export to pdf the pdf will have a stroke weight added to the text, even though the indesign document looks correct. It may not have the original amount of weight that was added, but it will definitely have what looks to be around a .2 weight added.
However, if you were to start a new document, then add stroke weight, then click edit - undo stroke weight, then it would export to pdf just fine. However if you saved the document with the stroke weight added, and then re-opened and changed the weight to zero, then when you export to pdf it will have a stroke weight still added (around .2, same as above).
So once you have saved a document with the stroke weight added, then no matter what you do the document will not print without the added weight.
If ANYBODY has any idea how to fix this then PLEASE let me know :) I was on chat for 4 hours but no luck. I'm really not trying to redo this 600 page book.
I am using InDesign CC 2019 14.01 x64.
Once a stroke weight has been added, if you then change the stroke weight back to zero, then when you export to pdf the pdf will have a stroke weight added to the text, even though the indesign document looks correct. It may not have the original amount of weight that was added, but it will definitely have what looks to be around a .2 weight added.
However, if you were to start a new document, then add stroke weight, then click edit - undo stroke weight, then it would export to…
12 votesThanks for reporting the issue. We are looking into it
-Aman
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Conditional text is not applied correctly after line break in IDMLs
If Unconditional text follows a line break where another Paragraph Style is applied with Conditional text, making an IDML out of the document will change the Unconditional text to Conditional.
Please see example screenshots.
12 votesThanks for reporting the issue, we are looking into it
-Aman
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Incopy 2019 cannot open icap file created by ID 2019
.icap files created with ID 2019 cannot be opened with IC 2019 with error message „An error occured while opening the file.“ Tested on Mac OS X 10.12.6.
12 votesThe fix for this issue is now available in the latest update 14.0.2 of InDesign 2019.
If you are unable to see the update notification yet, open the menu (three dots) from the top-right of Creative Cloud desktop application and click on ‘Check For App Updates’.
Once the update button is shown against InDesign, click on the button to update to Id 14.0.2.If you face any problems with the new update, do let us know in the comments.
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html -
InDesign performance issue: Slow on documents present on server
it's not an idea, but a problem. Indesign creates problems on the network and is very slow with server documents, as never before. The media told me to work locally, but I ask Adobe to solve the problem. Windows 10 64 bit - Intel processor 32 GB of ram.
12 votesThis issue has been fixed in one of the updates made to InDesign. Please update to the latest version of InDesign.
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Adobe InDesign team -
Extension option missing
Extension option is missing in Window menu. So, i can't the see my added extensions.
12 votes -
InDesign performance issue: Slow interface
The new document window is painfully slow. The pallets such as the background task pallet take some visible time to initialise themselves. As a whole the UI is always lagging.
I'm on a new iMac Pro and this is completely unacceptable. It feels as though the interface is getting in the way instead of making work easier.
12 votes -
When setting the frame grid with the shortcut key, it becomes an unintended font display
InDesign Ver.13.0.1 x64(CC 2018) Japanese Edition
Windows- make new document
- make new frame grid
- select frame grid
- press key "Ctrl+B", and open dialog
A font that starts with "B" installed in the system is displayed in the font setting of the dialog.
Should be displayed is the default "Kozuka Mincho Pr6 N".CC 2017 and older versions are no problem.
12 votesThanks for reporting the issue. We will look into this
-Aman
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Unable to change fonts
I am unable to change fonts.
Changing weights seems to work, but changing fonts does not work.
12 votesHello All,
Thank you for reporting the issue to us.
We have fixed the issue in the latest version of InDesign, Id 15.0Please upgrade your InDesign application to the latest version to try out the fix.
If you face any problems with the new update, do let us know in the comments.
You may also follow the below given link for the list of all fixed issues in Id 15.0
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html-InDesign Team
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Import XLSX spreadsheet to an InDesign table: the "-1" problem
InDesign CS4 - CC2017
Generate an Excel spreadsheet that contains at least one cell with the value "-1". Save as XLSX. Import/place (cmd-d) this file as "unformatted table".
the cells with the value "-1" should still have this value.
the cells are empty. All other values seem to show up correctly.
Additional information: Working regularly on Annual Reports with 100+ tables, our choice is to import as „unformatted table“ and to do all formatting in InDesign. After changes in Excel, all we have to do is updating the linked tables via the link panel. Table contents change, formatting stays. Perfect. But we are dependent on our clients still willing to use the outdated XLS format.
Please have a look at this problem! Thank you in advance.
Best regards
InDesign CS4 - CC2017
Generate an Excel spreadsheet that contains at least one cell with the value "-1". Save as XLSX. Import/place (cmd-d) this file as "unformatted table".
the cells with the value "-1" should still have this value.
the cells are empty. All other values seem to show up correctly.
Additional information: Working regularly on Annual Reports with 100+ tables, our choice is to import as „unformatted table“ and to do all formatting in InDesign. After changes in Excel, all we have to do is updating the linked tables via the link panel. Table contents change, formatting stays. Perfect.…
12 votesFix for this issue is now available in the latest release of InDesign 2022 - that is, InDesign 17.4 version.
Please update to this version to get the fix.
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Adobe InDesign team
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[ID-4262670][ERROR(RSC-005) in EPUB Checker]InDesign 20.3 creates target attributes to every link in EPUB
The latest InDesign version (20.3) creates target="_blank" attributes to every link when exported as EPUB. Doesn't matter if the link contains URL or it's a link from a text anchor. The latest EPUB Check version (5.2.1) gives an error with every link that doesn't have href attribute which means every text anchor is invalid.
For example:
<h1 id="_idParaDest-1" class="Header-1"><a id="_idTextAnchor000" target="_blank"></a>Foreword</h1>In EPUB Check this is an error:
ERROR(RSC-005): Error while parsing file: element "a" missing required attribute "href"11 votesFix for this issue is now available in the latest InDesign Release – InDesign 20.4 Release.
Please update to the latest InDesign Release via CCD app to get the fix.
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Adobe InDesign team
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IDML export breaks structure when there is a tagged single row table at the start of a story
When exporting an InDesign document to IDML and re-opening it, a specific set of conditions causes the tag applied to a table to be incorrectly reordered in the XML structure, and an extraneous <Table> tag to be inserted.
This issue occurs when the table is a single-row table and is the very first element in the story (no preceding text or content). This bug disrupts the intended tag hierarchy, breaking workflows that depend on accurate XML structure.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Create a new InDesign document.
- Create a text frame on the page.
- Within the text frame, insert a table.
- a. Ensure the table is the very first element in the story (before any other text or content).
- b. Set the table to have only one row.
- Apply a tag to the table (in my example CustomTable).
- Export to IDML
- Open the IDML
- Open the Structure Panel and examine the structure. You will observe the following:
- a. The "CustomTable" tag now appears before a <Table> tag representing the table. The expected order is the <CustomTable> tag encapsulating, the cells.
- b. The "CustomTable" tag is before the actual table in the story, without any content inside of it.
Expected Result:
The structure of the document should be maintained after exporting to IDML and re-opening.Actual Result:
The custom tag appears before the table and a <Table> tag is added to the structure, disrupting the intended structure of the XML.Environment:
InDesign 2024 (19.5)
InDesign 2025 (20.1)
Windows 11When exporting an InDesign document to IDML and re-opening it, a specific set of conditions causes the tag applied to a table to be incorrectly reordered in the XML structure, and an extraneous <Table> tag to be inserted.
This issue occurs when the table is a single-row table and is the very first element in the story (no preceding text or content). This bug disrupts the intended tag hierarchy, breaking workflows that depend on accurate XML structure.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Create a new InDesign document.
- Create a text frame on the page.
- Within the text frame, insert a table.
- a.…
11 votes -
2025 InDesign (v20.0) Frequent Crashing on MacOS 15.0.1 Sequoia
Ever since the 2025 version of InDesign released earlier this month, I have had constant crashing issues while working on multiple files. I have been using MacOS 15 Sequoia since it released in September. At first it seemed to crash at random every 5-30 minutes while going between open indd tabs. I think I can more consistently trigger it now by trying to open/navigate around a .indt file. I have a screen recording attached of me clicking around with a 2025 .indt file, a 2025 .indd file, and a 2024 .indd file. Within this minute long recording, InDesign crashes twice, both times when going between/opening the .indt file to the regular 2025 .indd file.
Ever since the 2025 version of InDesign released earlier this month, I have had constant crashing issues while working on multiple files. I have been using MacOS 15 Sequoia since it released in September. At first it seemed to crash at random every 5-30 minutes while going between open indd tabs. I think I can more consistently trigger it now by trying to open/navigate around a .indt file. I have a screen recording attached of me clicking around with a 2025 .indt file, a 2025 .indd file, and a 2024 .indd file. Within this minute long recording, InDesign crashes twice,…
11 votesWe have released InDesign 2025(v20.2.0.036) with many stability fixes. We recommend you upgrade to the latest version (if you’re not already on it) as it is more robust.
If you still face this issue even after updating, please submit the crash report to us. (Guidelines to submit crash are available at (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/submit-crash-reports.html )
Also, please send the following information to santalwa@adobe.com :
- Reproducible Steps – What were you doing when InDesign crashed?
- Video recording of the crash
- Is(Are) the issue related to a specific document(s)/asset(s)? If yes, could you provide us with the document(s)/asset(s)? Please package the entire document (To package the document, choose File → Package…)
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Adobe InDesign Team
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"Visual Cursor Movement" not working in Arabic in ID 19/19.01
On previous versions of ID with Arabic support, I could press left arrow to move cursor left, right arrow to move right. In versions 19 and 19.01, the cursor goes to the beginning or next line of Arabic text. So I have to select 'Logical Cursor Movement' under settings but now cursor move the opposite way: left arrow moves cursor right.
11 votes -
Hanging drop cap has wrong indents in 2023 v18
In v18 (2023), when a paragraph has both a drop cap and a hanging indent (negative first line indent), the indent gets messed up on subsequent lines.
This came from a bug report by Lut Van Nooten on the InDesign Secrets LinkedIn group:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7006264075831648258/The solution is to disable the new Composition Preference: "Honor Text Indents in addition to Text Wrap"
However, in this case, this is clearly a bug because there is no text wrap!
11 votesThis issue was fixed in one of the recent updates (18.2) of ID2023 release.
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Adobe InDesign team
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Workspace Disappears on open - InDesign 18.0
Workspace Disappears on open - InDesign 18.0. Only shows when I go to Window>Workspace>Reset [workspace name]
iMac OS Ventura 13.0
11 votes -
Type on a Path Tool interrupter flow text
When there is a story (on parent page) with some 'text on a path' above:
You can't use 'Flow text automatically' to exist pages (by alt\opt+shift) - because it moves the text in the next stories TO THE PATH!
Note: 'Smart text reflow' *to new pages works well
11 votes -
Share for Review - Critical Scrolling Bug with Large Documents
Indesign Version 17.0
When scrolling in large documents (200-500 pages) the browser-window of Share for Review the screen hops between 3-5 different screens multiple times a second. This bug makes the feature basically unusable. Sometimes it snaps back (maybe after rendering correctly?), sometimes it just doen't.
The bigger the document, the faster the error seems to occur. Working on my 200 page-document with my team is essentially impossible right now.
There is a post about this over here with a video: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/share-for-review-scrolling-bug-with-large-document/m-p/12516079#M452898
Our team has this problem on Mac, Windows - and on Safari, Chrome and Firefox (didn't check other browsers yet). We tested this on 7 different devices, all crashed equally.
Indesign Version 17.0
When scrolling in large documents (200-500 pages) the browser-window of Share for Review the screen hops between 3-5 different screens multiple times a second. This bug makes the feature basically unusable. Sometimes it snaps back (maybe after rendering correctly?), sometimes it just doen't.
The bigger the document, the faster the error seems to occur. Working on my 200 page-document with my team is essentially impossible right now.
There is a post about this over here with a video: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/share-for-review-scrolling-bug-with-large-document/m-p/12516079#M452898
Our team has this problem on Mac, Windows - and on Safari, Chrome and Firefox (didn't check other…
11 votesThis issue has been fixed in the latest InDesign version - InDesign 2023.
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Adobe InDesign team
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Text box disappears, styling not displayed in real time
I am using the latest Indesign update for M1, 16.3.2 (Big Sur 11.4)
I am now having problems where the text box that I am styling disappears. I either have to zoom in or out, flip pages, or now go as far as closing the file and opening it, because Indesign is either not displaying the changes made, or the text disappears. Placing a cursor within text is also not accurate, and either a character to the left or right.
These are new issues, please advise.11 votesThis issue was fixed in one of the updates to InDesign 2022 version.
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Adobe InDesign team
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Type 1 Fonts
Preflight has the ability to flag Type 1 fonts. This is a great way to see if you are using fonts in a document that will not be supported in the future. The problem is there are OpenType Type 1 fonts and PostScript Type 1 fonts. In Preflight, when you click on Type 1 fonts not allowed, it also flags OpenType Type 1 fonts.
Would be very important to identify exactly what fonts will not be supported in the future.
11 votesThis issue has been fixed in the latest version of InDesign - 18.2 and later.
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Adobe InDesign team
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