Hello, is anyone able to use InDesign now ? I am experiencing a severe issue with InDesign where files are reported as corrupted, and I am unable to save them under any circumstances. When opening an older file, InDesign initially reported that some image links were missing. I relinked and updated all the images. After updating the images, the file suddenly started showing as corrupted. Attempts to repair the file failed, and I could not save the file. To troubleshoot, I tried creating a completely new document. Even in a brand new file, as soon as I add a colour block to the parent page, InDesign immediately reports that the file is corrupted and will not allow saving (while it's a brand new file ?!) I have tried multiple versions of InDesign, including 2025 and 2026/21.1, and also reinstalled the software and reset preferences, disabled GPU preferences, but the issue persists. Every time I attempt to add a certain colour block, the file becomes unsavable. I tried to open all of my previous files with InDesign (which were all perfectly fine BEFORE), now they ALL suddenly show as "corrupted". Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Is there a known workaround for this bug or a solution? Please help, I am a startup art business and all my proposals, business plans, and invitations to clients are all based on InDesign. Thank you. <Title renamed by MOD>

Answered

InDesign files corrupted and unable to save after Windows 11 update KB5074109 (January 2026)

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
January 14, 2026
89 replies
47733 views

Hello, is anyone able to use InDesign now ?

I am experiencing a severe issue with InDesign where files are reported as corrupted, and I am unable to save them under any circumstances.

When opening an older file, InDesign initially reported that some image links were missing. I relinked and updated all the images.
After updating the images, the file suddenly started showing as corrupted. Attempts to repair the file failed, and I could not save the file.
To troubleshoot, I tried creating a completely new document. Even in a brand new file, as soon as I add a colour block to the parent page, InDesign immediately reports that the file is corrupted and will not allow saving (while it's a brand new file ?!)
I have tried multiple versions of InDesign, including 2025 and 2026/21.1, and also reinstalled the software and reset preferences, disabled GPU preferences, but the issue persists.
Every time I attempt to add a certain colour block, the file becomes unsavable. I tried to open all of my previous files with InDesign (which were all perfectly fine BEFORE), now they ALL suddenly show as "corrupted".

Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Is there a known workaround for this bug or a solution? Please help, I am a startup art business and all my proposals, business plans, and invitations to clients are all based on InDesign. Thank you.

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi everyone,

Thank you again for your patience while the team investigated this issue. I wanted to share that the fix is now available in the general release version of InDesign 21.4.

This is the same issue that was being tracked in the following UserVoice report:
https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180/suggestions/50715731

If you were affected by the Times New Roman, Calibri, or related font recognition issues, please update InDesign to version 21.4 through the Creative Cloud Desktop app and test your affected documents again.

Once updated, please let us know your observations. If you still encounter the issue after updating to 21.4, feel free to share the details here, including your InDesign version, OS version, and any screenshots of the missing font behavior, and we'll be happy to investigate further.

Thanks again for all your patience, testing, and feedback throughout this process.

Abhishek

Show previous replies

A

argbanks1

A (tempotary) fix that does't require Microsoft or Adobe to do anything:

I traced my issue back to Dropbox syncing, though it may apply to other backup apps like OneDrive, etc.

- When Dropbox was running, saving files to my local Dropbox folder would produce the file error message in InDesign.
- When I tried saving files to a different local folder, like Downloads, it saved fine.
- When I shut down Dropbox (then) shut down and restart InDesign, I was able to save to my local Dropbox folder without errors
- Once I was done working, I re-starrted Dropbox and files synced as expected.

My hope is that Adobe/Microsoft/Dropbox/whoever fixes the issue soon, however in the short term this got me back up and working again.

This fix worked for someone else in this thread as well, and I hope this helps you!

SiberianSiren5

Known Participant

Any resolution yet? I have tried all suggested fixes, but haven't found anything that works. Rolling back to previous version did not work. I am now trying the 20.0 version that was suggested. UPDATE: version 20 has same issue. I followed instructions for rolling back the Windows security update KB5074109 (Start/Windows Updates/Update History/Uninstall Updates) and now everything works fine.

P

Paul22519508f4zv

Participating Frequently

Discovered a workaround on this, thanks to the help of our support company Air IT Group. On opening the file, make a change in the document (e.g add a cyan square to pasteboard), rather than 'save', click 'save as' and save as over the existing file name > then close the file > reopen the file again and 'save' function should now work without falling over, erroring or crashing out. Each time you open it for the first time, you'll need to do the 'save as' each time over existing file name for it to work. It's a frustrating workaround but at least you'll be able to work on the documents.

W

WhitmyreArt

Participating Frequently

Doesn't work for me. It worked once, then when I tried it again, all the 'damaged' errors occurred again.

B

Blaaze

I have the issues as OP. Here are the error codes I get. It doesn't matter whether the file is newly created or old.

1

12winters

For several days no, ID won't let me save a document because it's "damaged" - yet sometimes it does save the docment anyway. What is going on? How do I resolve this issue? I've tried several things already.

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Just this file or all files?
If just this file try File>Export and choose IDML - open that and see if the problem persists.

If it's all files

Try resetting your preferences:

InDesign 19.3 and newer go to Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart.

Or
Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.

More in-depth cleanse of preferences

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

orendesigns

Participant

That does not fix the problem. I tried that many times.

L

Lucas358050549yat

The last several days, I have been experiencing the same problems. Files that were fine are now suddenly corrupted or damaged. InDesign won't let me save and abrubtly shuts down. I'm reall at a loss right now, so I fel your frustration. I was going to attempt to get someone from Adobe on the phone for help, because I have many files in InDesign myself.

James

SiberianSiren5

Known Participant

Apparently Adobe does not offer phone support on the weekends. I did manage to chat with someone from Adobe, but he couldn't help and all other support is suspended over the weekend.

sergio-cz

Participating Frequently

The problem also occurs on Windows 10 after the last January update (2026-01) KB5073724. I uninstalled it and now everything seems to be ok. The problem also affected older versions of InDesign, e.g. CC 2019.

A

andzik92441960

Participant

Maybe it’s time for Adobe to finally release a Linux version of Creative Cloud. I’d drop Windows for good.
Since the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has turned it into a never-ending work in progress - bug after bug.

A

argbanks1

I ran into this yesterday.
A temporary fix for me has been to close Dropbox. Once I did that and re-opened InDesign, I was able to save files to my local Dropbox folder normally.

I'm going to try rolling back the Windows update like people mentioned while the issue is being resolved.

M

Martin37254816uw1a

Hi

I deleted the latest security update for Windows 11 and it is working again now on version 20, although I have lost all my latest files, template sizes and anything I had stored on the cloud has disappeared, fortunately I stored most work on my hard drive. Anyone know how to recover files from Icloud? I have tried but the files just don't appear to be there.

Harshika Verma

Community Manager

Thanks for trying the suggestion. However, to recover files from iCloud, one of the customers shared the suggestion here. You may try and let us know if that helps.

Thanks,

Harshika

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience and for continuing to share your findings.

I have an update from the product team. A fix related to memory handling is available in the latest InDesign Pre-release build 21.2.0.27. Please install this build and test the same save workflow to see if the issue is resolved on your system. Your feedback will help the team validate the fix and move it forward.

If you don't currently have access to the Pre-release program, you can enroll using the links below:
https://adobe.ly/4bwH7A8
https://adobe.ly/49THjYZ
https://adobe.ly/4sHM3Zb

If the latest pre-release build does not resolve the issue, one additional note from internal testing: in some cases, users don't see an option to uninstall the Windows update KB5074109. On those systems, InDesign 20.5 works as expected, and the issue appears to affect InDesign 2026 specifically(confirmation on this statement would be helpful).

Please let us know your results after testing the pre-release build. I'll keep the thread updated as we learn more.

Abhishek