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Constant Spinning Wheel After Actions in InDesign 2025 Update

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
October 15, 2024
6 replies
2152 views

This new udpate gives me a contstant spinning wheel almost after each action I try to make. Select an item, move an item, open a panel, open a menu, anything really—each interactions causes the wheel to appear for 1-2sec. My productivity has been completely obliterated. Anyone else having this issue?

MacBook Pro 2023

M2 Max

32 GB

Sequoia 15.0.1

bug

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience and for sharing all the detailed observations and troubleshooting steps. I’ve now logged this as a bug with the product team, and the issue is currently being investigated. I’ll continue to keep this thread posted as soon as I receive further updates from the team.

In the meantime, the current workaround is the one already mentioned earlier in the thread: please try disabling the Generative AI options in InDesign Preferences via the Edit menu and then test the workflow again to see if that helps prevent the freeze while placing or updating files.

Please let me know if disabling those options improves the behavior on your system, as that information will also help with the investigation.

Thanks again for your support and patience while we work through this.

Abhishek

D

davida58128891

Participating Frequently

SAME ISSUE WHEN PLACING IMAGES IN INDESIGN (has happened with all files types from different sources) I have had Adobe Agents remote access my computer 3 times - first two agents fixed it for less than half a day and last agent seems to have it fixed, but after a couple of weeks, it has come back again.WTF ADOBE!!!
I have reset preferences numerous times, completely wiped not only InDesign, but the whole Adobe Creative Could (including remove all preferences and workspaces, etc) and nothing seems to work.

ADOBE….FIX YOUR BUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS GETTING TO THE POINT THE PROGRAMME IS BECOMING UNUSABLE!!!

As well as the wheel not disappearing, you cannot save files with using “save as”, quite a few menu items stop working (including tools). You have to force quit InDesign as it won’t close down. It is really affecting my workflow and pissing me off.

leo.r

Community Expert

SAME ISSUE WHEN PLACING IMAGES IN INDESIGN

Disable the new Generative AI options in Preferences — this fixed similar issues with placing images for many users.

If the options are unavailable for you (grayed out) due to another bug with this feature, you can run a script to disable them. This is for Mac (if you’re on Windows, I’m sure someone can post a JS version):

tell application "Adobe InDesign 2026"
	set add AI tag to alt text of general preferences to false
	set auto generate alt text of general preferences to false
end tell

D

davida58128891

Participating Frequently

Thanks, giving this a go! It sounds like it might have potential to fix it!

sandyj17034844

Participant

After a complete rebuild, reinstalling all Adobe programs, the spinning wheel cam back within a week. It almost seems to be linked with placing images from Photoshop — .psds, .jpegs and .pngs. It happens randomly and on some days it will happen everytime I restart and place an image. It does seem to happen if I have Photoshop and Illustrator open too, but sometimes only when InDesign is active. Maybe this little bit will help.

Ababatunde

Participant

exactly the same problem. and my previous preference fix, did’nt work either problem came right back in a matter of mins. quite depressing if you ask me.

sandyj17034844

Participant

I’m having the same issue . Have saved under a new name, dumped preferences, restarted, re-installed InDesign and went as far as wiping my entire computer. The spinning ball is back. I can still work, a little, but this is a pain and it has really cut my productivity.

Going to try opening using the IDML version and see if this works.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @sandyj17034844,

I’m really sorry to hear you’re experiencing this, I understand how frustrating it can be.

Could you please confirm the exact version of InDesign you’re currently using along with your OS details? Also, could you please let me know if this happens with a particular file or across all files? If it’s limited to a specific file, the IDML workflow can be used to check if it helps resolve a file-based issue. Please update me on how it went.

In the meantime, please try resetting the InDesign preferences manually by following the video at the bottom of this guide and then test the behavior again:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

Additionally, it would be helpful to test this in Safe Mode and also in a new user admin account. This helps isolate whether any third-party applications or user profile settings might be contributing to the issue. You can refer to these steps based on your system:
Windows Safe Mode: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234
macOS Safe Mode: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac
New user on macOS: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh15191/mac
New user on Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/manage-user-accounts-in-windows-104dc19f-6430-4b49-6a2b-e4dbd1dcdf32

Please try these steps and let me know how it goes on your end.

Abhishek

Ababatunde

Participant

happen to be going through similar problem, and I have updated indesign to the current and latest version, rebuilt my Pc i will try resetting the Preferences but it been really unreliable at the moment. as others within my orgabization are also complaining about the same thing.Indesign Version is 21.3 I will give a follow up update about the Preferences reset.

M

makusvdw

Participating Frequently

I'm having this issue with version 20.3.1.

I don't see a pattern or reason. Sometimes it bombs out while I'm relinking images. Sometimes it bombs out while I'm creating or updating style sheets. It just happens in the middle of any task I perform. It's not time related. I can sometimes work for 10+ minutes before it happens and other times it bombs out in seconds of me opening the same file.

Super frustrating. Where I am right now I'm about to start taking my files over to Affinity Publisher, becuase it's more stable than InDesign.

I teach InDesign and whenever a new course starts (which was 2 weeks ago) I reset my preferences to show students who to set up. So its not a preference thing. I don't currently have any Adobe fonts activated (because I want the freedom to be able to move to Affinity and any non-Adobe platform if I so wish without being tied down by Adobe). I use a font manager, so I don't have a million active fonts on the system. Computer is restarted. All the software is up to date.

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Hello @makusvdw

I installed 20.3.1 on my Windows 10 8gb machine and it works fine, slow to load up but once it's loaded it works as expected.

I suspect something else going on for you.

I have never encountered these issues you're encountering or anyone else has on the forums - InDesign has always run smoothly for me.

For the best part I typically use 2022 - I have not moved to 2023 but plan to once I complete some tests between files.

============

In recent months we've noticed third-party apps - especially on Macs can interfere, how Apple let other apps override other app settings is a mystery.

If you have Typeface, Magnet, WebRoot, or other third party software. you should try disabling them and see if things improve - things like VPNs Firewalls and all that stuff.

===========

One quick way to test if it's a third party app is to start in safe mode, see if InDesign behaves as expected. Then you will know - works on Mac and Windows.

=========

Sometimes it's a user profile permissions issue (sounds strange) but if you setup a new user profile on your computer Windows or Mac doesn't matter - then see if it behaves normally.

=========

You can always rollback to a previous version of Indesign

Rollback to a previous InDeisgn version

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html#:~:text=Open%20the%20Creative%20Cloud%20desktop,down%20list%2C%20select%20Other%20Versions.

But for the most part sometimes old files act weird with new software - files created in previous versions of the software opening in a new version.

If a document is not behaving well then try

File>Export

Choose IDML

Open the IDML in InDesign
Save the file as a new InDesign file with a new name
See if the issue persists.

====

Try resetting your preferences:

InDesign 19.3 and newer go to Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart.

Or
Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.

More in-depth cleanse of preferences

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

=====

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

===

On a side note - I was a beta tester for Affinity and I didn't really notice any performance improvements or stability enhancements, both work with ease. However, I did find that Affinity lacks a lot of features I require so I ended up not continuing with it. And bringing these up with Affinity was met with rejection that the idea was not required which was strange to submit feedback and be met with a wall. Now it's taken over by Canva, I'm not sure what path it will take.

But whatever works.

I don't use Adobe fonts either, I prefer to keep the version the same, and use font managers etc. like you do.

M

makusvdw

Participating Frequently

Hi Eugene,

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I've been using InDesign since 1999, and before that QuarkXPRess and PageMaker. I have also not experienced issues like this. I've always bragged that InDesign is one of the most stable apps I use.

I do not have Typeface, Magnet or WebRoot on my computer. No VPN running, I only have VPN when I need to grab something off the server at the college, but when I do that then I'm not using any of my design software.

The only thing that changed is the InDesign update.

I agree, Affinity Publisher does not have all the features I need for the work that I do, but at least its stable and it doesn't crash on me every 2 minutes. Then I'd rather find a workaround instead of having to force quit whenever the Spinning Rainbow of Death comes up and retrace my last few steps on the recovery file.

Currenly I'm saving my document after every two steps I make, because I'm done with losing work. 🤯

M

Mark38123569umxc

Participant

Has there been any solution to this issue. I'm constantly plagued with the same thing. I've reset my preferences numerous times without any change.

leo.r

Community Expert

Has there been any solution to this issue. I'm constantly plagued with the same thing. I've reset my preferences numerous times without any change.

By @Mark38123569umxc

did you update to InDesign 20.1?

leo.r

Community Expert

try general troubleshooting steps first:

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-rebuilding-preferences-cache/

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hello @mabela001,

Thank you for reaching out! I completely understand how frustrating this must be, especially when it's impacting your productivity. In addition to the troubleshooting steps suggested by leo.r, if possible, a screen recording of the issue would help us further diagnose it. You can also try resetting your preferences following this guide: Setting Preferences in InDesign.

Additionally, could you let us know if this issue is specific to a particular file or if it happens with all files? Are you facing similar performance issues with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications, or is it just InDesign?

Looking forward to your response so we can assist you better!

Thanks,

Abhishek Rao

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