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chris_1528
Participant
May 3, 2026
Question

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

  • May 3, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 73 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

    4 replies

    C
    chris_1528Author
    Participant
    May 5, 2026

    Hi, yes it was happening with all images, however... thank thanks to Leo.r.. turning off both Generative AI options seems to have resolved the issue :)

    Thanks for all you help! 

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 4, 2026

    Does this happen with any image? All images?

    Mike Witherell
    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 4, 2026

    Hi ​@chris_1528,

     

    Thanks for reaching out, and sorry you’re running into this. I can imagine how frustrating it must be when it blocks your workflow like this.

    Adding to the suggestions already shared, could you try resetting InDesign preferences manually by following the video at the bottom of this article: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html and check if that helps. Also, try disabling GPU Performance from InDesign Preferences and see if the behavior changes.

    It would be helpful to test this in a new document and confirm whether the issue occurs there as well, or only with specific files. Also, please let me know if your files are stored on a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox, a network location, or an external drive. If so, try moving them to your local drive and check if the issue still occurs.

    You can also try running your system in Safe Mode to rule out any interference from third party applications. You can follow the steps here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

    If the issue persists after this, I’d like to take it further with the product team. It would really help if you could share a short screen recording showing the issue in action.

     

    Looking forward to update. 

    Abhishek

      Abhishek Rao
      Community Manager
      Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      May 5, 2026

      Hi ​@chris_1528, 

       

      Thank you for your patience while we checked this with the product team. To continue the investigation, we’ll need a bit more diagnostic data from systems where the issue is occurring.

      Could you please share the following:

      • A short screen recording showing the exact steps leading to the freeze (while placing or updating files)

      • A sample file/package (File > Package) where the issue can be reproduced

      • A stack dump or crash dump captured at the time of the freeze. You can follow the steps in this article: Submit a crash report for InDesign

      Once we have this information from a few affected users, it will help the team better understand the root cause and move toward a fix.

       

      Thanks again for your support. I’ll keep you posted as soon as we have more updates.

      Abhishek

      leo.r
      Community Expert
      leo.rCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 3, 2026

      Some other reported similar issues recently.

       

      Do you have the new Generative AI options enabled in Preferences? Some users suspect that these settings are responsible for the delays and freezes that happen when placing images.

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