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InDesign 2026 (21.2) Performance Issues: Undo Not Working, Slow Quit, and Import Lag

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I’ve cleared preferences through library, and when starting indesign.

It has several bugs randomly appearing.

eg. Suddenly can’t undo, takes ages to quit, there’s a slight delay importing images...

Abhishek RaoCorrect answer

Community Manager

Hi @Mrinalini26,

Sorry to hear that you’re also experiencing this issue and sorry for the delay.

Could you please go through the discussion shared below and confirm whether the behavior you’re seeing matches what’s described there?
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-3-i-randomly-continue-to-get-the-blue-spinning-wheel-then-indesign-semi-freezes-1560843?postid=7555457#post7555457

As a workaround, please try disabling all Generative AI-related options/checkboxes from InDesign Preferences and then test the workflow again to see if it improves the behavior.

Additionally, it would really help if you could share the requested details mentioned in this thread:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-3-freezes-with-endless-loading-cursor-when-placing-images-on-windows-11-1560065?postid=7553142#post7553142

Those details will help us investigate this further with the product team.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

H

Henry Brewer

Inspiring

Adobe, are you f.ing kidding me?

After two years, I finally updated InDesign because I had been constantly waiting for you to fix the incredibly annoying pop-ups promoting “new features,” and I immediately run into another unbelievably annoying bug? One that still hasn’t been fixed after several months?

Do you seriously think I need some f.ing AI features? I need to work, and I need Undo to f.ing work!

What the hell are you guys doing over there? Stop wasting your time on pointless crap and make stable software!

I’m not happy!

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leo.r

Community Expert

@Henry Brewer Yes, we regularly hear from users who are upset with this bug, even if it doesn’t affect the majority of the users and circumstances can be different. What’s your operating system version and are you running the latest InDesign 21.6?

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Henry Brewer

Inspiring

Mac mini M1 with Max OS 15.7.9 and Indesign 21.6. But I don’t know how useful this information will be, because Adobe doesn’t fix bugs. Take this one, for example — I’ve just noticed that it’s been around for more than six months. I should have stayed with version 19, which was the last stable version. I’ll probably have to downgrade again. I need to work, not test whether a new version is actually usable for real work. And personally, I think Undo is one of the basic things that simply has to work. I tried turning off all the AI features, which I don’t need at all, and I’ll see if that helps in the long run. For now, Undo is working. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m extremely dissatisfied with the kinds of unbelievable bugs that make it through testing. I guess there’s no time for proper testing because someone has to come up with ways to promote new features to users (hello, pop-ups again) that nobody actually needs. And yes, Quit also didn’t work.

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Emma_A

Participant

Hi, I have the same issue. I’m using ID 2026 (21.4.1) I have disabled Generative AI in preferences and this seems to have sorted the issue out. Although still a bug that needs addressing.

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Mrinalini26

Participant

I am facing the same issue with INDD 2026--my cursor sets to ‘busy’ cursor, doesnt let me undo, crashes, and doesnt let me type.

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Mrinalini26

Participant

I am using a windows pc

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Abhishek Rao

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi @Mrinalini26,

Sorry to hear that you’re also experiencing this issue and sorry for the delay.

Could you please go through the discussion shared below and confirm whether the behavior you’re seeing matches what’s described there?
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-3-i-randomly-continue-to-get-the-blue-spinning-wheel-then-indesign-semi-freezes-1560843?postid=7555457#post7555457

As a workaround, please try disabling all Generative AI-related options/checkboxes from InDesign Preferences and then test the workflow again to see if it improves the behavior.

Additionally, it would really help if you could share the requested details mentioned in this thread:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-3-freezes-with-endless-loading-cursor-when-placing-images-on-windows-11-1560065?postid=7553142#post7553142

Those details will help us investigate this further with the product team.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

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Ileana136

Participant

I’m having the same issues with this updated 2026 version:

Can’t undo
Sometimes switching tools doesn’t reflect on cursor
Slow performance

MacBook Pro

MacOS Sonoma Version 14.7

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pollyc92925991

Participant

I’ve been having the same issue with 21.2 and now installed the updated 21.3 Indesign and I still have the same issue:
– Undo stops working completely and cursor changes to a different tool and Quit doesn't work.
– I then have to force quit and then re-open Indesign.

I am running on a Mac Studio with OS 15.7.3 (24G419)

If I ditch the prefs this doesn’t make a difference.

Any ideas?

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Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thank you for continuing to share your observations and details around this issue, and sorry to hear you’re experiencing this.

I wanted to let you know that I’ve logged a bug for this behavior with the product team, and they are currently investigating it further.

For reference, this also appears related to a similar discussion here:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-2-undo-greyed-out-and-history-panel-blank-on-macos-tahoe-and-ventura-1551926?postid=7514324#post7514324

To assist with the investigation, it would be really helpful if you could share a short screen recording demonstrating the issue in action (undo not working, slow quit, import lag, etc.). This will help the team better understand the behavior and narrow down the root cause.

The team is actively working on identifying the cause and a possible fix. I’ll keep this thread updated as soon as I have more information.

Thank you for your patience while we look into this.

Abhishek

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Henry Brewer

Inspiring

I’m sure they’re working overtime on it, considering that even after five months, it still hasn’t been fixed in version 21.6. Maybe it’s related to Generative AI Alt Text, since the problem disappears when I disable this completely useless feature in the settings. Maybe you could add another popup that keeps reappearing, telling users that this feature needs to be disabled for InDesign to work properly.

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cesoo

Participant

I’m having the same issues with this updated 2026 version:

Can’t undo
Sometimes switching tools doesn’t reflect on cursor
Slow performance
Crashing
Slow PreFlight checking

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leo.r

Community Expert

What’s your operating system version and are you running InDesign 21.2?

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cesoo

Participant

Yes

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default1m0ezxi52hgv

Participant

Well I have the latest OS, the latest InDesign version, aparently Adobe is now adding alt-text in documents without my approval, and undo doesn’t work!

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leo.r

Community Expert

What’s your operating system version? Also, you can disable alt text in Preferences > Generative AI.

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Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Rob29557400wpqk,

I’m sorry to hear that InDesign has been behaving like this. In line with the expert’s suggestion, could you please share your full system details, including the exact OS version you’re using?

Also, could you please describe the undo issue in a bit more detail? For example, does it stop working completely, skip steps, or show any error? If possible, a short screen recording demonstrating all the three issues would be really helpful so I can review this more closely.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

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