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 ~
7521 results found
-
Character missing in Adobe Devanagari font
Please review the attachment.
I am unable to locate or reproduce the character after the = using the Adobe Devanagari script. Need it urgently as I am working on a book.
1 vote -
repeatedly opening a template in a loop eventually crashes at app.open
Repeatedly opening and closing a template via extendscript code (for means of batch production) causes InDesign to crash at and only at app.open(PATH).
attached file is a bare bones jsx that opens/closes the accompanying blank template either 100000 times or until it crashes (which it has done within an hour each time I have run it)
Seems to crash anywhere from 40 to 1500 iterations in.
1 voteTo identify the cause of this issue, we had started our investigation with the aim to resolve it. You might have also received email from us seeking more details to help in our investigation.
We’ve concluded our investigation and came up with the finding : Either the issue is fixed in the latest release of InDesign or the issue was intermittent in nature at the time of its reporting and is not reproducible now.
We recommend you to upgrade to the latest version of InDesign 2020.0.1 (if you’re not already on it). It contains a lot of stability fixes.
If you still face this issue even after updating to the latest version of InDesign, please submit the crash report to us. (The guidelines to submit crash are available at (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/submit-crash-reports.html)
We seek your support in our continual effort to improve InDesign.
—
Adobe InDesign Team -
adobe 2017 exporting pdfs are terrible in any colour profile. Printing and rgb pdf is fine.
no ideas - need help! Indeign is useless to me without being able to make good pdfs in both cmyk and rgb
1 vote -
Personalization of the Fontsize is not working in the Main Menu
I have issues with glasses and therefore set the fontsize of menus etc higher, however in the main menu Indesign is just ignoring me, while in the sub menu it works fine. Plus in the formats and other tool boxes it isn'T working either. Please fix, it makes working with this program harder than it should be.
1 vote -
data fields cause master elements to switch pages
Attached pdf shows problem in comments
1 vote -
Missing menu
I'm trying to insert a text variable (last page number) in my document but the menu doesn't appear.
1 vote -
Exported JPG and PNG are not recognised when trying to Insert Image in Word 2011
Indesign 12.1.0.56 on macOS Sierra 10.12.5. Exporting as jpg or png files are not recognised when I go to insert them into Word 2011 on Mac.
However, files are recognised when:
- exported from Indesign 12.1.0.56 x64 on PC and inserted into Word 2011 on Mac
- exported from Mac and inserted into Word 2010 on PC
- I had no problems when using indesign 2015 on Mac and inserting into Word 2011 on Mac.1 vote -
Issues with quick apply
Quick apply is very slow the first time that you've opened it after a while. In addition, if you switch to another document that you haven't viewed in a while and you click quick apply, InDesign crashes.
1 voteHi,
As confirmed by the user, The issue is resolved.Regards
InDesign Team -
Too slow to shut down
If you've opened a document, InDesign is very slow to shut down.
1 vote -
Increase space in "Delete Style" replacement dialog box
If I am deleting/replacing Styles that are in folders, there is not enough room to show the entire Style name in the dialog box where I am supposed to choose a replacement Style. I can only see a handful of characters in the name. If I can't see what Style is being replaced, how can I choose a replacement?
This only seems to happen if the folder name is longer than a few characters. I am running Windows 10 and CC 2017.11 vote -
InDesign does not respect the selected color space
InDesign does not respect the selected color space.
Bad current state: I have the Fogra 39 profile selected in Color Settings, but InDesign still assigns the U.S. Web Coat (SWOP) v2 profile to all newly created documents. It continues to treat this unwanted profile as Working CMYK.
Required fix: InDesign should assign the correct color profile set in Color Settings to newly created documents and also use this profile as Working CMYK in Proof Setup and Export dialog.
This confusion with profiles regularly returns with each new major InDesign update. I have reported it here in the past.
1 vote -
InCopy is creating "phantom hyperlinks" in InDesign
Our InCopy editors are adding hyperlinks but they aren't showing up in InDesign. To make things worse, you can no longer add a hyperlink to the text. I discovered that InCopy is leaving phantom hyperlinks and it seems to be a bug, or at least has caused us considerable consternation. (I'm using InDesign 2026 v21.0.2 and InCopy 2026 v21.3).
Okay, I’ve gone deep into the rabbit hole and I think I’ve figured out the problem with hyperlinks not showing up, or text you can’t add a hyperlink to. It’s a lengthy, complex explanation so I’ll start with the all too easy fix and then explain why.
THE FIX: When you create a link in InCopy, you have to click the “Shared Hyperlink Destination” button.
This really only applies to multiple links that have the same destination, like how Supplemental Table 1 and Supplemental Table 2 both go to the same URL, but I don’t think it will hurt to click it for every link, just in case that URL gets repeated later on.
If you don’t click Shared Hyperlink Destination, only the first hyperlink will show up in the Hyperlinks panel, and the rest become phantom links.
And to make things worse, apparently this isn’t an issue when you make a link in InDesign. It only happens in InCopy.
If I’m right, this will fix the problem. At least, it worked when I tried it. We’ll have to see if it works all the time.
THE EXPLANATION for us InDesign nerds.
If there’s text that you can’t make into a hyperlink (the New Hyperlink option is greyed out) it’s because there’s already a link there, but for some reason it’s not showing up in the Hyperlinks panel. It’s a phantom link. However, you can still see the phantom link if you open it in Story Editor. Story Editor shows where the link is, but you can’t edit it or add a new link to the text.
The only way to fix it is to retype the text outside of the link brackets, or copy and paste the text out of the brackets (except the link sticks to the first character so you can’t copy that, which is yet another pain). After you retype the text, you can highlight the link (everything in the brackets) and delete it, and then you are able to add a hyperlink to the retyped text. You have to do this for each phantom link individually. This is an annoying and cumbersome fix, but we’ve known about it for a while.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty, I think this kind of explains what’s going on. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17490661/how-to-properly-remove-hyperlinks-from-indesign-document-using-extendscript
I made a quick script to look for the phantom hyperlinks, but all it shows me are the hyperlinks in the Hyperlinks panel, so I can’t find the phantom links that show up in the Story Editor with a script. I may explore that some more in case the issue arises again.
But in any case, it looks like the links are losing their destination URL in InCopy because the URL is already taken by another link, but the hyperlink still remains and won’t show up in the Hyperlinks panel because there’s no destination. InDesign sees an empty link and doesn’t show it on the panel. However, when you use the shared destination button, all the links just point to that one URL and share it, and it shows up in the Hyperlinks panel. I’m going to report this to InDesign as a bug.
Whew!
Our InCopy editors are adding hyperlinks but they aren't showing up in InDesign. To make things worse, you can no longer add a hyperlink to the text. I discovered that InCopy is leaving phantom hyperlinks and it seems to be a bug, or at least has caused us considerable consternation. (I'm using InDesign 2026 v21.0.2 and InCopy 2026 v21.3).
Okay, I’ve gone deep into the rabbit hole and I think I’ve figured out the problem with hyperlinks not showing up, or text you can’t add a hyperlink to. It’s a lengthy, complex explanation so I’ll start with the all too…
1 vote -
Cannot make swatches permanent in InDesign now
We have a very efficient brand template with swatch libraries created as .ai and .ase files. In InDesign and Illustrator we right-click on the swatch library and click on "Persistent". Today (April 29, w2026) my swatches libraries are missing. I've rebuilt my preferences. I've re-loaded the swatches and the option to make them persistent isn't there any more.
I read that now swatch libraries are document specific, or to make them in a template, or to use Adobe CC libraries to make our swatches. We don't choose to use CC libraries.
None of these are efficient workflows for us. Please can Adobe bring the option to make the swatches persistent back? Please compare screenshots of InDesign issue and Illustrator, Thank you.
We have a very efficient brand template with swatch libraries created as .ai and .ase files. In InDesign and Illustrator we right-click on the swatch library and click on "Persistent". Today (April 29, w2026) my swatches libraries are missing. I've rebuilt my preferences. I've re-loaded the swatches and the option to make them persistent isn't there any more.
I read that now swatch libraries are document specific, or to make them in a template, or to use Adobe CC libraries to make our swatches. We don't choose to use CC libraries.
None of these are efficient workflows for us. Please…
1 vote -
make guides
I want to make angled guides but I can't find a solution? The only thing I could find online isn't available for some reason even though I have the most updated version of Indesign. The solution people posted was to right click and there should be an option to 'make guides' out of a shape but that option does not exist. super frustrating and this always seems to happen where there is this made up easy fix that I apparently don't have access to.
1 vote -
I'm paying monthly fee for InDesign. Am on new computer and need app download don't have password. Spent hours trying to solve problem
Should be something to make this easy to do
1 vote -
Rolling cursor in InDesign
I completely get how incredibly irritating that is, especially when you have a strict deadline to hit and the software is just stuck spinning. The constant rolling cursor in InDesign is usually caused by the program getting trapped in a loop, trying to calculate or locate something in the background over and over again.
Here are the fastest ways to force InDesign to stop lagging so you can
finish and submit your work:1 vote -
Change to Text Conditions show/print status not saved
Text Conditions are not saved, unless you do some other changes to the document.
- Change the show/print status to the text conditions in the relevant palette.
- Save the document.
The status of text conditions is not saved.
If you do some other changes afterward, it is saved.
1 vote -
My version is the latest, but I still can't use scripts "multipage importer". When I click on the script, the in-design program stops. I
My version is the latest, but I still can't use scripts "multipage importer". When I click on the script, the in-design program stops.
0 votes -
Cross-references Feature is Not Fit For Purpose
Cross-references are by their very nature linked with long documents. Adobe claims InDesign has "…powerful features for creating longer documents" but, as long as the cross-references feature remains so painfully slow, that statement does not stand up to scrutiny.
Just opening a cross-reference in a long document (2,000 pages) is taking four hours on a Mac Studio with 64 GB memory. How long it takes to actually edit it is, as yet, unknown – I gave up after 90 minutes watching the spinning beachball of death to work on another project.
As it stands, the cross-references feature is bordering on unusable. Pure and simply, it is not fit for purpose and needs to be rewritten from the ground up.
Cross-references are by their very nature linked with long documents. Adobe claims InDesign has "…powerful features for creating longer documents" but, as long as the cross-references feature remains so painfully slow, that statement does not stand up to scrutiny.
Just opening a cross-reference in a long document (2,000 pages) is taking four hours on a Mac Studio with 64 GB memory. How long it takes to actually edit it is, as yet, unknown – I gave up after 90 minutes watching the spinning beachball of death to work on another project.
As it stands, the cross-references feature is bordering on…
0 votes -
Packaging with Include PDF (Print) selected doesn't properly render .ai images
I have never been able to successfully use the "Include PDF" option when packaging files. I usually package, then export the pdf using my presets, then combine the files in the finder because the pdfs never come out correctly. It seems the problem is only with how it renders ai files. Color mode doesn't matter. The same thing happens whether or not I choose High Quality Print, Press Quality, PDFx1a, etc. Any solutions for this yet? It has been the case since the "Include PDF" feature was first released. Example has exported pdf on the left, and package generated pdf on the right. Screenshots of preflights show the pdf exported using package files shows all .ai files are now low res vectors using exact same preset. Using Adobe Indesign 18.5 but have had this problem in every version since the "include pdf" feature was released.
I have never been able to successfully use the "Include PDF" option when packaging files. I usually package, then export the pdf using my presets, then combine the files in the finder because the pdfs never come out correctly. It seems the problem is only with how it renders ai files. Color mode doesn't matter. The same thing happens whether or not I choose High Quality Print, Press Quality, PDFx1a, etc. Any solutions for this yet? It has been the case since the "Include PDF" feature was first released. Example has exported pdf on the left, and package generated pdf…
0 votes
.png){kind=link}
- Don't see your idea?