Known Participant

Question

InDesign 20.5 – Paragraph and Character Styles Lag/Freeze Issue

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
August 7, 2025
4 replies
807 views

Hello everyone,

I've noticed an issue in the latest two InDesign updates — whenever I try to add or edit paragraph or character styles, the program becomes extremely slow or unresponsive.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Could this be a bug, or is there a known workaround?

Thanks in advance!

Others

Halit010203

Participant

Hello there, I've got the same issue with the app. When I open a document there's no issue but when I try to make changes the app freezes. While using color picker the app gets crazy. I removed the app and reinstaled it. but no solution for the issue.

leo.r

Community Expert

Hello there, I've got the same issue with the app. When I open a document there's no issue but when I try to make changes the app freezes. While using color picker the app gets crazy. I removed the app and reinstaled it. but no solution for the issue.

By @Halit010203

What are your InDesign and operating system versions?

Also, try these general troubleshooting steps:

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

Will it make a difference?

D

Dhorsfall3@gmail.com

Participating Frequently

Hi there! If you're working with a large document, that could definitely be the problem. What helped was breaking the text frames into several stories. Since then, I haven't experienced any lag.

Hope that helps!

G

G.FaresAuthor

Known Participant

Hi,

I understand most of the problems, but this one is unclear.

All new documents, have same issue.

I am using the English version of InDesign with Arabic support

D

Dhorsfall3@gmail.com

Participating Frequently

Hi, I have the Arabic/Hebrew version as well.

I experienced the lag issue, even with previous versions. I found it does it with large documents. To resolve it, I split the text frames into multiple stories—and the problem disappeared. For comparison, I reattached the frames into a single story, and the lag returned.

Take it easy

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

Do you have any third party plug-ins installed with your InDesign? If so, try disabling them and see if the problem persists. If doing this solves the problem then make sure that any plug-ins that you're using have been updated for full compatibility with the latest InDesign.

G

G.FaresAuthor

Known Participant

Hi Bill Silbert,
No, there aren’t any third-party plug-ins installed.

leo.r

Community Expert

Does this help:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/paragraph-and-character-styles-very-slow-when-making-changes-to-an-existing-style-help/td-p/15291929

G

G.FaresAuthor

Known Participant

Hi leo.r,
No, it doesn’t.
I’ve also tried uninstalling and reinstalling version 20.5 several times, but it didn’t help. In InDesign 18, everything works flawlessly.

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