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Answered

InDesign 21.2 Freezing and Becoming Unresponsive During Normal Workflows (Opening Files, Placing Images, Exporting PDFs) on Windows and macOS

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
February 19, 2026
66 replies
3781 views

I’ve been having major issues with InDesign locking up ever since this update. It doesn’t crash so it doesn’t send a report either. At least two times every day, I need to either force quit the app or restart. It is very frustrating!

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for all the reports and testing shared in this thread.

To help with the ongoing investigation, could anyone who previously experienced the spinning cursor/freezing while placing or updating files please confirm whether the issue still occurs in InDesign 21.5 or later?

If you can still reproduce it, please try the workaround mentioned earlier: go to InDesign Preferences via the Edit menu, disable the Generative AI options, and test the workflow again to see if that prevents the freeze.

Please share your results here. In the meantime, I’ll continue to keep this thread updated with any further information from the product team.

Thanks,
Abhishek

S

staceym42219281

Participant

This keeps happening to me. So frustrating. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program several times now. still glitching and locking up. what is going on??

leo.r

Community Expert

Try resetting preferences and caches:
https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-rebuilding-preferences-cache/

Also, if on Mac, make sure Full Disk Access is granted in System Settings > Privacy & Security.

What are your InDesign and operating system versions?

G

graphic designr9873315

Participant

This is happening to mine too! It’s extremely irritating having to force quit the program 5-6 times per day. Please fix this glitch. I have disabled the Generative AI settings already so that is not the issue. I have also had this issue with Premiere Pro to the point that I am using the 2025 version. There is something seriously wrong with this years’ versions.

JWEx

Participant

Like others, InDesign has been freezing on me. I have disabled Generative Ai settings in Preferences. InDesign remains active, but the menu bar along the top disappears, so I cannot access FILE, EDIT, LAYOUT, etc. I can save the file using keystrokes, although the program seems totally unresponsive. Certain other features are not accessible, such as the Tint Slider in Swatches. I must Force Quit the program and restart numerous times.

I do not have any issues with Photoshop or Acrobat. I am using InDesign v. 21.4.1.

Mac OS Tahoe 26.5.2.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @JWEx,

Thanks for sharing the details, and I'm sorry you're experiencing this issue.

Since you've already disabled the Generative AI options and the behavior still persists, it looks like you may be encountering a different issue than the one currently being tracked in this thread.

Could you please let us know whether this behavior occurs with all documents or only specific ones? Also, when the menu bar disappears, does it happen after performing a particular action (such as placing images, opening files, exporting, or editing text), or does it occur seemingly at random?

Additionally, could you please try launching InDesign from a new macOS administrator account and let us know if you observe the same behavior there? It would also be helpful if you could share a short screen recording showing the workflow from launching InDesign until the menu bar disappears and the application becomes unresponsive.

Looking forward to your update so we can investigate this further.

Abhishek

JWEx

Participant

Thanks for your response. The problem exists with a number of different documents, and seems to be random, both in the documents it occurs and the timing of occurrence. Sometimes the program works fine, with no interruptions. I have not responded until now, as I have been trying to determine if a pattern exists.

I did launch InDesign in a new macOS administrator, and did not have any issues while using the program, but since there are no support files to import into the new InDesign file, I could not test it properly.

Below is a screenshot of InDesign when the menu bar disappeared and I had access to only the Finder menu bar. Luckily I have been able to save all files, and have only lost menu bar activities.

One other strange behavior is that at times, while in use, the InDesign file will move behind other program windows I have open (e.g., Chrome). I will try to pay more attention to when this happens.

Thanks for your help.

MHilmershausen

Participant

STILL having to force quit InDesign because of it freezing at least twice a day. Sometimes when placing an image—AI or not—the program gets stuck and I have a loading spinner, can’t click on anything, and the program shuts down. Sometimes my work autosaves, and sometimes I lose it entirely. Other coworkers are complaining about how slow it is and how much it freezes as well.

B

Beth_Weeks

Participant

any fixes? can’t export a simple PDF!!

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Beth_Weeks,

Sorry to hear you're running into this issue.

Could you please let us know if you've already tried disabling the Generative AI options in InDesign Preferences, as mentioned earlier in this thread? For many users here, that has helped resolve the freezing issue while placing images and exporting.

If you've already tried that and the problem still persists, then it may be a different issue that we'll need to isolate. Could you please confirm your exact InDesign version and operating system details? Also, when you try to export the PDF, what exactly happens? Do you receive an error message, does InDesign freeze, or does the export complete with an incorrect output?

Looking forward to your update so we can investigate this further.

Thanks,
Abhishek

A

alexanderk37969147

Participant

I’m having similar issues. When placing and image or drag it from Windows Explorer onto an InDesign document, the mouse cursor changes to the loading cursor and Indesign becomes unresponsive. I need to shut down InDesign from the task manager and then start it again. It works fine until I need to place images. This happens on all documents, both new and old. This is on version 21.3.

leo.r

Community Expert

Did you try to disable Generative AI options in preferences, as mentioned earlier in this thread?

A

alexanderk37969147

Participant

Yeah, that seemed to actually have helped. I had no idea that there’s an “Auto-generate Alt Text when placing images” setting. But, yeah, that seemed to have been the cause of the issue I experienced.

Erin INTREC Mgt

Participant

Hello,

Reporting that our organisation has been having this issue consistently across 21.3, 21.2, 21.1.

It crashes when opening files, saving files. It will crash upon launching the program because it gets stuck in a Recovery loop where it won’t close the recovering menu.

It is starting to impact us operationally severely as our team cannot work on documents that are due by middle of this week.

We have had no luck or support from Adobe with this and when escalating it, are told that the support team is on a holiday. Hoping any other users have had similar issues and found a resolution internally they could suggest.

Completely second the previous user asking if we will be refunded for being unable to use the software.

Thanks

E

elfelm

Known Participant

Does this have a fix yet? It’s been happening for MONTHS. No relief. HELP!

Images in InDesign is a NIGHTMARE now. Having to place images and then having it crash, and then have to force close it to open it AGAIN for me to place 1 or 2 more images, then repeat repeat repeat.

This is slowing my workflow down exponentially. Will we be refunded for this complete inability to use the software? Looking for solutions, not just “we’re working on it”. It has been months… Too expensive to be dealing with this constant headache that is losing me money.

leo.r

Community Expert

What are your InDesign and operating system versions? Did you try any of the workarounds mentioned here? This info can help troubleshoot your case further. It’s understandable that having this kind of issues for months is maddening.

A

alexanderk37969147

Participant

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Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thanks for sharing all the details here, and sorry about the experience. I’m checking this with the product team and will keep you posted as soon as I have an update.

In the meantime, I’d recommend trying a few quick isolation steps. Please test the issue after restarting your machine and make sure it hasn’t been running for a long session before launching Adobe InDesign again.

It would also help to check the behavior in Safe Mode on both Windows and macOS, and from a new local admin user account (Win / macOS), to rule out any third-party interference or account-related issues.

Additionally, please try disabling the Generative AI options in InDesign preferences, then restart the app and check if that improves the behavior.
In addition, please try the troubleshooting mentioned in these helpx articles as well:
Fix crash issues when launching InDesign

Improve InDesign performance on Windows and macOS

Slow performance in InDesign

If the issue persists, please share the following details so we can take this further with the product team:
1. On macOS, a screenshot of your system details would help.
2. On Windows, please share the msinfo32 system summary by saving it from the File menu. Also, please provide the IDSniffer file from this location:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version 20.0\en_US\Caches\GPULog\IDSniffer
3. Screen recording demonstrating the workflow and the issue in action.

Please let me know if any of these steps help. I’ll keep you posted with updates from the product team.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

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V

vcimperm

Inspiring

Adobe InDesign 2026 will not run or open launch on my Windows 11 computer!!!!! I recently had an Adobe tech log in remotely and install InDesign for me. It worked for about a week than quit. I have been going back and forth between the new and old versions of InDesign to be able to do my job!

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @vcimperm,

I’m really sorry you’re running into this. I understand how disruptive it is when InDesign won’t even launch, especially when it was working fine earlier.

Could you please confirm if you see any error message when launching, or if InDesign simply doesn’t open at all?

In the meantime, I’d recommend going through the troubleshooting steps in this article:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html#unexpected

Please focus on the section that talks about miscellaneous issues related to corrupt VCRuntime files, as this is a common cause for launch failures on Windows and aligns closely with what you’re experiencing. Let me know if that helps.

If the issue still persists after that, please try launching your system in Safe Mode using the steps here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

This will help isolate whether any third-party apps or services might be interfering with InDesign.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek