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Participant
May 8, 2026
Answered

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

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 Rao
    Abhishek RaoCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    August 17, 2026

    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

     

     

    <Marking as correct for better visibility on the thread>

    39 replies

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    May 8, 2026

    Hi @dmc-sbccd,

     

    Thanks for reaching out, and I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing this issue. 

    Could you please share the details requested by the expert, including your complete system specifications along with the exact OS version and build number?

    Also, please go through the threads below and let us know if your issue matches the behavior discussed there:

    https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-freezes-when-placing-updating-placed-files-help-1557069?postid=1557069#post1557069

    https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-3-freezes-with-endless-loading-cursor-when-placing-images-on-windows-11-1560065?postid=1560065#post1560065

    https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-semi-freezes-with-background-task-spinning-when-placing-or-replacing-images-1559909?postid=1559909#post1559909

    If the issue matches, please share the requested details in this thread as well so we can continue checking this with the product team:

    https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-3-freezes-with-endless-loading-cursor-when-placing-images-on-windows-11-1560065?postid=7553142#post7553142

     

    Please let us know your observations after reviewing the threads.

    Abhishek

     

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    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 8, 2026

    Full system specs might help, including full version and build of your operating system.

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