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Answered

InDesign 21.3 freezes with endless loading cursor when placing images on Windows 11

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
May 3, 2026
30 replies
2006 views

Hi

Each time I import an image into Indesign, the image loads okay, but I get the blue swirling ‘loading’ icon that never stops. I can save my document, and the menus still work but I can’t work on the actual page, and the only way I can clear it it to Force quit Indesign using Task Manager.

This started about 2 weeks ago, and was fine before and I haven’t made any changes to my PC. I thought maybe it started after an update of Indesign, so I tried reverting to an older version, but still had the same problem.

I have tried re-installing Indesign. (version21.3) I use Windows 11.

I really hope you can help please?

Thanks Chris

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience and for sharing all the detailed observations and troubleshooting steps. I’ve now logged this as a bug with the product team, and the issue is currently being investigated. I’ll continue to keep this thread posted as soon as I receive further updates from the team.

In the meantime, the current workaround is the one already mentioned earlier in the thread: please try disabling the Generative AI options in InDesign Preferences via the Edit menu and then test the workflow again to see if that helps prevent the freeze while placing or updating files.

Please let me know if disabling those options improves the behavior on your system, as that information will also help with the investigation.

Thanks again for your support and patience while we work through this.

Abhishek

R

robertod68086048

Known Participant

Same issue here. Plus, when it happens, InDesign will only close by shutting it down via the TaskManager (Windows 11).

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @robertod68086048,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing the same issue.

As a workaround, please try disabling both Generative AI options under Edit > Preferences > Generative AI, then restart InDesign and check if the issue improves.

Please note that this issue is already being tracked, and the product team is actively working on a fix.

Thank you for your patience, and please let us know whether the workaround helps on your system.

Abhishek

graphics_4075

Inspiring

A feature that is on by default for every user AND that also causes major freezing issues is absurd, as is the fact that it is unsolved after 2 months (let alone all the other issues GenAI in InDesign has caused.)

Wouldn’t it be logical to make these OFF by default like so many users have been requesting? This would avoid possibly degrading the performance of your program for up to 100% of your users… All for a feature that was destructively broken on release.

What an absolute disaster of a feature implementation and a poor example of Adobe’s priorities.

Cheers

K

kaitlin_9423

Participant

Just started having the same issue today.

leo.r

Community Expert

Just started having the same issue today.

Did you disable Generative AI options in preferences?

M

michelle.pendergrass2712036

Participant

Just adding that I have the same issue, at this point, I’m just using illustrator instead.

janej15867342

Participant

We consider InDesign unusable at this point and have rolled back to 21.2 to get back into production. We just upgraded two 6-year-old workstations, where we did not have a problem, both the new systems exhibit the problem. Both have identical hardware and almost identical software configurations. This is a summary I used AI to make concise:

Regression: InDesign 21.4 intermittent spinning cursor on Windows 11 after hardware upgrade

Stable on 21.2
Reproducible on 21.4
Two identical workstations
Intel i7-14700F
RTX 5060 Ti
Windows 11
Commercial print workflow
Linked PDFs
Files on Synology NAS
Clean reinstall performed
Generative AI disabled (no improvement)
Rolling back to 21.2 completely resolves issue

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @janej15867342,

Thanks for reaching out, and sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. If disabling the Generative AI options didn't help, it's possible you're running into a different issue than the one being discussed in this thread.

To isolate it further, could you please try copying one of the affected INDD files and its linked PDFs to a local SSD (outside the Synology NAS) and check whether the freeze still occurs? This will help determine whether the issue is related to the NAS or network I/O. Also, please open Window > Utilities > Background Tasks and check whether any task remains stuck when the spinning cursor appears.

It would also be helpful to test with a new blank document, a locally stored PDF, and both a small and a large PDF to see whether the issue depends on the linked asset.

If the issue persists even with local files, please share the affected INDD (preferably packaged: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/preflighting-files-handoff.html#package_files), one of the affected linked PDFs, and a short screen recording showing the freeze. If the files are confidential, feel free to send them via DM using Google Drive, Dropbox, or another cloud-sharing service.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

janej15867342

Participant

Thanks for the response.

I did the test on my PC and older model that also shows the problem, I took a small project and moved it to my SSD (including any links) and the problem went away. If I did not move the links off the network, the problems persisted.

Our production environment is that we share all files via a Synology NAS. So it does seem to be related to network file access. This still appears to be a regression issue as reverting to 21.2 does resolve the problem and this configuration has been working well for us for years.

Agenturaxact

Known Participant

Randomly, when inserting a PDF or an image into an InDesign document, the image freezes. It becomes impossible to work with it, and InDesign cannot be closed normally—you have to force quit it through Task Manager.

Thank you for the new version...

K

Katharina31174304k4dd

Participant

Same problem here

leo.r

Community Expert

@Katharina31174304k4dd Did you disable Generative AI in preferences as discussed earlier in this thread?

K

Katharina31174304k4dd

Participant

Hi Leo, yes, I did.

S

Shane372185470i9z

Participant

Hey Adobe, instead of cranking out unnecessary updates on every program once a week, why don’t you guys spend a little bit more time debugging the updates before you release them and force them on us?

F

FVAlison

Participant

I’ve also had the exact same issue, and turning off the Gen AI also fixed it for me.

P

PWS Katie O

Participant

Had this exact same issue. Turning off the generative AI fixed it for me too.
What a pain! So much time wasted trying to fix a problem with something I didn’t even use or want.

Abhishek Rao

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience and for sharing all the detailed observations and troubleshooting steps. I’ve now logged this as a bug with the product team, and the issue is currently being investigated. I’ll continue to keep this thread posted as soon as I receive further updates from the team.

In the meantime, the current workaround is the one already mentioned earlier in the thread: please try disabling the Generative AI options in InDesign Preferences via the Edit menu and then test the workflow again to see if that helps prevent the freeze while placing or updating files.

Please let me know if disabling those options improves the behavior on your system, as that information will also help with the investigation.

Thanks again for your support and patience while we work through this.

Abhishek