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Becky25617854viti
Participant
February 19, 2026

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

  • February 19, 2026
  • 12 replies
  • 779 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!

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      Abhishek Rao
      Community Manager
      Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      February 20, 2026

      Hi ​@Becky25617854viti & ​@MFParksRec,

       

      Sorry to hear InDesign has been freezing for you.

      Could you please confirm the exact InDesign version and macOS version you’re using? Also, does the freeze happen during a specific action or tool, or does it seem random?

      Please let me know whether you’re working on files saved locally or from a network location, external drive, or cloud folder, as that can sometimes affect stability.

      As a quick isolation test, try creating and logging into a new local admin user account on your Mac and check if the issue persists there. Ref: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

      Moreover, please try the suggestions in this helpx article as well and update: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html

      Please let me know what you observe.

       

      Looking forward to your update.

      Abhishek

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      Becky25617854vitiAuthor
      Participant
      February 20, 2026

      To answer your questions, it is extremely slow when starting up the app and locks up randomly.

      I am working on an HP operating system.

      I haven’t noticed any consistent action that causes it. A coworker who updated to 21.2 has had the same issues. One coworker who has not updated to 21.2 and was still using 21.0 has not had any issues. I uninstalled version 21.2 and reinstalled 21.0 and it’s been fine since.

      Sometimes I can just restart InDesign but sometimes I need to restart my computer to get ID working properly again.

      I’m saving files to an external drive.

      I probably won’t try the suggestions you shared since 21.0 is working properly. But if I have to update again and have issues I will try them then.

        Abhishek Rao
        Community Manager
        Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        February 20, 2026

        Hi ​@Becky25617854viti,

         

        Thank you for sharing the detailed update. I understand how frustrating this must be. When you’re ready to try 21.2 again, I’d recommend testing it once with files saved locally on your internal drive instead of the external drive. This will help us determine whether the storage location is contributing to the freezing.

        Please let me know if you decide to test this and how it goes, and I’ll be happy to take this further based on your update.

        Abhishek

        MFParksRec
        MFParksRec
        Participant
        February 19, 2026

        I just wanted to point out that I am having a similar issue today. I restarted the app at least 5 times now.

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