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InDesign 20.3.1 – Extremely Slow PDF Export After Update

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
June 2, 2025
6 replies
2599 views

After the 20.3.1 update, exporting a file to a PDF from InDesign is painful. Ridiculously slow even when the document is fairly light weight, everything is linked properly etc...never mind when it's a larger, multipage document. It is so incredibly frustrating.

So far, I have tried:

Restarting multiple times just to make sure it wasn't just these few documents that had the issue

Trashing the preferences twice now

Complete reinstall

Turning off the live pre flight

Turning off the GPU

None have worked.

I am using Extensis Connect as a font manager, mostly because I have yet to find an alternative where the auto activation works as well as theirs does. If I found something else, I'd probably switch as it can be laggy sometime but I've used it in conjunction with InDesign for years and years and have NEVER had an issue like this before.

Is anyone else having this issue? If so and you resolved it, how? Taking any and all suggestions. I've never had to roll back to a previous version but would definitely consider it (provided I'm not going to have to resave everything)

Performance

Correct answer Eugene Tyson

One other option - regarding reinstalling

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

Michoco

Participant

Hello,

I have a persistent issue with Adobe InDesign on macOS where PDF export becomes painfully slow. The issue started immediately after the latest Apple macOS update. I’ve tried everything :

Reinstalled InDesign
Repaired Creative Cloud
Reset InDesign preferences
Cleared Adobe caches
Disabled GPU acceleration
Checked fonts (no issues found)
Verified Spotlight and system indexing on macOS (fixed separately)
Issue persists across multiple unrelated files

System:

MacBook Pro 16-inch 2019
Intel i7 6-core
32 GB RAM
macOS Tahoe 26.4.1
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M

I would like to know if this is a known issue, I'm at the end of my rope and it’s preventing me to work properly.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Michoco,

Sorry for the experience, and thanks for reaching out. Could you please confirm the exact version of InDesign you're using, whether it's 21.4 or another version? Also, does this happen only with a particular document, or are all files affected, including newly created and relatively small documents?

Could you please try manually resetting InDesign preferences by following the video at the bottom of this article and then test the PDF export again?
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

If the issue persists, please go through the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the following article and let us know the results:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/unable-to-export-pdf.html

If you're still seeing the same behavior after that, please try completely removing InDesign using the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool, reinstall InDesign through the Creative Cloud Desktop app, and test again:
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

Please let us know your observations after each step, and we'll be happy to investigate further if needed.

Looking forward to your update.

Thanks,
Abhishek

Michoco

Participant

Hi Abhishek,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I have already tried everything you suggested. Please see below:

Reset preferences.
Uninstalled InDesign and reinstalled it via Creative Cloud.
Uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe Creative Cloud.
Repaired Creative Cloud.
Cleared Adobe caches.
Disabled GPU acceleration.
Checked fonts. No issues were found.

Unfortunately, the issue still persists.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @MarilynR2,

Thanks again for all the info you've shared so far. I'd recommend giving the suggestions from the experts above a try, to see if that improves the performance.

In addition to that, could you also try booting your Mac in Safe Mode and testing the export process there? It helps check for any system-level conflicts. Reference: Start up your Mac in Safe Mode.

Also, try creating and testing the file in a new local admin user account to see if the issue might be related to something specific in your current user profile. Reference: Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac.

Let us know how it goes.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Abhishek

E

Eugene Tyson

Correct answer

Community Expert

One other option - regarding reinstalling

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

M

MarilynR2Author

Participating Frequently

This seems to have resolved the issue! Finally! Thank you so much for this suggestion!!!

D

Dirk Becker

Legend

I hope downgrading solved the immediate issue. If 20.3 won't do, try something earlier such as 20.2 . Documents are supposed to be compatible as long you stick to version 20.x.

If the problem persists, I'd first try whether disabling background export still works. This is not expected to solve the problem, just a preparation for the next step. You can undo it later on.

Use the Activity Monitor to see what's going on. Read that discussion, follow the steps, post a few matching screen shots. Over there it turned out font related. You also mentioned a font manager. Could be a similar cause, could be anything else. We can only tell from looking at the activity report.

D

Dirk Becker

Legend

Please also look at the recent discussion which suggested Extensis tweaks.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

What happens if disable Extensis and any other plugins? Use the Document Fonts folder if you don't want to add the fonts to your system.

Since you mentioned the GPU, I'm assuming you are on a Mac. Can you give some details about your system: OS version, RAM, processor, drive space, etc.?

(I tested some documents on my Windows system and saw no delay.)

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

M

MarilynR2Author

Participating Frequently

Oh, yes...sorry - forgot to mention that I am on a Mac.

I tried disabling Extensis and it still did the same thing. I don't believe I have any other plug ins installed but I'll check.

System is a Mac Studio with an M2 Max chip, 32 GB of memory. 500 GB SSD HD (with 60 GB free at the moment) Running Sequoia 15.0.

Everything was working perfectly fine and was pretty fast to export files - the ONLY thing that changed was updating to 20.3.1.

leo.r

Community Expert

Running Sequoia 15.0.
By @MarilynR2

In addition to other suggestions, also update your Sequoia (even if it's unlikely to affect your particular issue).

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @MarilynR2 , Does it happen if you create a new document with text only—no links?

M

MarilynR2Author

Participating Frequently

Yes. I did try that also early on to see if it was a font issue. It also happens if I create a new document with just an image, and even if I create a completely BLANK document with no images or text at all on it.

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