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InDesign 21.3 - I randomly continue to get the blue spinning wheel, then InDesign semi-freezes.

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I am using InDesign 21.3, working on a simple 2 page file, I go to place a logo and the blue thinking wheel pops up and doesn’t go away. I can click and move things around but none of it is being “saved”. I close the file and click to close the program and it just sits there still open. I then have to force quit the program. When I relaunch the file opens with the software and everything I did while the wheel was spinning was not saved.

It’s done this several times since the update and there is no pattern to why. I’m finding it randomly acting up. It’s really frustrating, especially when I’m not working on anything complicated.

Abhishek RaoCorrect answer

Community Manager

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

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J

Jeya35918077rcth

Participant

yes, happening in 21.5 too

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J

JesseRDay

Participating Frequently

It’s fixed for me. Running Windows 11 version 25H2.

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J

Jeya35918077rcth

Participant

Same Windows version, but not fixed. Very furstrating for past one month

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D

dmc-sbccdAuthor

Participant

VERSION 21.5.1

went to place an image and got the frozen spinning cursor. I will be force closing the app, relaunching and disabling the generative AI option.

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J

Jeya35918077rcth

Participant

yes, I have too have same problem

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V

Vanessa35074924yfqs

Participant

I've been having this issue as well. I find if you open InDesign with the 'Run as Administrator' option it has temporarily fixed the issue for me.

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C

cecyfernandes

Known Participant

Link 14 years odd? It’s fun!

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erin_6346

Participant

This issue just started for me yesterday. The blue spinning wheel won’t go away. I can still move things, but it does freeze at times and I have to go to task manager to quit. It’s very frustrating. I went to Preferences>Generative AI and unchecked the Alt text boxes. That doesn’t fix the issue. Are there other AI options I can turn off?

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TrishJar

Participant

I am constantly having this issue!! It is so frustrating - happened before the update and it is still happening. Spinning wheel and will not let me shut down. I have to go to task manager to quit.

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S

sohier_ns

Participant

This is happening to me now too, nothing is actually frozen, I can still edit and move things, but instead of a pointer or I beam I have a blue spinning wheel and I cannot quite InDesign, Task Manager is the only way of closing it).

This is a fresh install (fun CC uninstall and reinstall on Friday, July 25th after the latest Windows update) of InDesign 21.4.1 x86 running on Windows 11 25H2 26200.8893. Disabling Generative AI does not fix these issues.

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Dan Greyhound

Inspiring

I have the same thing. Turning off AI worked

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J

JesseRDay

Participating Frequently

Thank you. This seems to have worked for me too. I’m so tired of the AI features getting shoved down our throats when all they do is make things worse!

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Abhishek Rao

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

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Francine5FF8

Participant

This did work when I experienced the same issue. However, the issue reappeared when InDesign at some point reactivated the generative AI options (possibly during an update, but the issue reappeared a while after the last update).

So, if anyone from Adobe reads this: please do not reactivate your AI options when they have been deliberately disabled. There is a reason people don’t want them running.

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Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Are you seeing the Background Tasks spinning?

I wonder if this still works in this aging helpx:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/pdf-export-background-task-hangs.html

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Mike Witherell

leo.r

Community Expert

A possible solution for this particular issue (which is mentioned in the threads posted by @Abhishek Rao) is to disable the new Generative AI options in Preferences.

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T

Tuuluuwag

Inspiring

Its a band-aid. It’s not a solution. It always comes back.

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