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>

Question

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

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
January 14, 2026
87 replies
47571 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.

Show previous replies

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defaultk4aatvkk2px3

What helped me was uninstalling all Windows updates since January 13 and disabling automatic updates. It's easy to do, and the problem is solved immediately after restarting! https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/how-to-uninstall-a-windows-update-c77b8f9b-e4dc-4e9f-a803-fdec12e59fb0.

Y

YUN-FEI5C68Author

So it's the classic updating problem that has been ongoing for years and years... I just uninstalled the latest update, and so far it seems to be back to normal.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @YUN-FEI5C68, @defaultk4aatvkk2px3,

I'm glad to hear you were able to resolve the issue. Could you share more details about the specific Windows update that caused this problem, so we can investigate this further with the team?

Looking forward to your response.
Anubhav

Peter Spier

Community Expert

@YUN-FEI5C68 and @j.w.32115637rwuz you both mentioned a Windows 11 update...

There has been an ongoing problem with updating InDesign on Windows that requires the repair of the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable file packages (you need to be an admin to do this). While this seems to have been an issue with launching the program, you may want to give that a try.

See https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-v21-not-starting-after-update-win-11/td-p/15564509?profile.language=en

Peter Spier

Community Expert

There have also been a lot of reports of problems with file corruption when files are stored in the cloud. Turning off file synching has been the solution for that, I believe.

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YUN-FEI5C68Author

Oh nope, for this, I always save my file locally, I never save my file on cloud.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

I just did a win11 update today, and afterwards, my install of InDesign 26.1 is working about as well as before. I have not been able to provoke the posted problem (yet). Really not sure what might be troubling the OP.

Mike Witherell

Y

YUN-FEI5C68Author

I don't know if it's because of the image? I'm working on the art portfolio, about 90 pages, there are tons of HD photos and colour blocks, and the other person who replied seems to be working on the same type of documents.
If it's one file corrupted, that could possibly be my part, but with ALL PREVIOUS FILES corrupted, and even a BRAND NEW file is corrupted (with no edited page, only adding colour to the parent page), then I doubt it's a bug from my part...

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Can you run any tests on the health of the hard drive?

Mike Witherell

Y

YUN-FEI5C68Author

I'm in the loop of asking me to save the file- not possible to save because the file is damaged- not possible to proceed actions- ask me to resave a new file- ...etc. It's impossible to work with it now :

Capture d'écran 2026-01-14 174357.png

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j.w.32115637rwuz

WhatsApp Image 2026-01-14 at 18.34.55 (1).jpegI have the same trouble. Indesign has become unworkable.WhatsApp Image 2026-01-14 at 18.34.55.jpeg

Y

YUN-FEI5C68Author

Yap...that's the same issue... I'm trying to "edit" it without saving, to see if I can export to to pdf later, as we all are working with InDesign for work reasons, it's not possible to stop and wait of them to resolve the issue...

J

j.w.32115637rwuz

Hi i have exactly the same problem it started this morning after updating to version 21.1.

I wasted the whole afternoon trying to solve the problem. Switched computers, Rebuilt the document in a fresh Indd and deleted and resetted the preference files.
Problem keeps persisting no matter how i try to adjust. Horrible. I hope the come with a quick fix.
Im using Indesign since its inception( for 25 yrs). Never had such a trouble.

Y

YUN-FEI5C68Author

Me too! I was using it 2 days ago, and the problem occurred suddenly today. I don't know if this is the issue with WIN 11 updates? Because mine got updated this morning.

I thought it may be because I need to update to InDesign 2026, too; sometimes it happens because companies want to force their users to update, but apparently not in this case... I really don't need those fancy updates in InDesign... I only need it to be stable...

J

j.w.32115637rwuz

O ya I forgot My computers all got the windows update this morning. Could that be the reason ?
Its very clear to me that the adobe Help function doesnt offer solutions!

Y

YUN-FEI5C68Author

When saving, it will first show this message :

Capture d'écran 2026-01-14 171008.png

and then, after clicking "OK", no matter what action I took, it kept popping up this message, even if I was just trying to scroll up and down.

Capture d'écran 2026-01-14 171038.png

M

Milán Farkas

Indesign continously crashing and can't save nor export any files since last Windows update.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @MilánFarkas,

Thanks for reaching out. I am sorry you are running into this after the Windows update.

To help move this forward, could you please confirm your exact Windows build by sharing a screenshot of msinfo32? You can do this by typing 'msinfo32' in the Start search box and taking a screenshot of the System Summary screen. Please also share the exact InDesign version you are using. Additionally, let me know if you see the Adobe Crash Reporter when InDesign closes. If you do, please submit the crash report and share the email address used via DM so I can check the logs. For reference: https://adobe.ly/49PJvAJ. I already checked using your community email address, but could not find any submitted reports, so I am looking forward to your submission. Also, please confirm whether this happens with all files or even with a brand-new blank document.

As a quick test, please try launching InDesign in Windows Safe Mode to rule out any third-party interference. Ref: https://adobe.ly/4aUrzWH. I would also recommend trying the suggestions shared in this help article: https://adobe.ly/4aY0LF5.

One more thing to check is GPU Performance in InDesign preferences. If the option is available and currently turned off, please try enabling it and test again. This option can be unavailable or greyed out depending on your monitor resolution, for example if it is below 2K. You can find more details here: https://adobe.ly/4aTejS9.

Let me know how it goes, and please share the details above, so I can check this further.

Abhishek

M

Milán Farkas

Hi and thanks for the help. Sorry for the few information.

Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Ver 10.0.26200 build 26200

Rendszer gyártója Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Rendszer modellje H610M H V3 DDR4
Rendszer típusa x64-based PC
Processzor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12400F, 2500 Mhz, 6 mag, 12 logikai processzor
Telepített fizikai memória (RAM) 32,0 GB
Complete physical memory 31,8 GB
Complete virtual memory 37,8 GB
Pagefile size 6,00 GB

I reinstalled Indy. The new blank files are working correctly, save and exprot too. The other earlier files not working. They are not corrupted, I tested with more files. Export is working, save isn't.

"Indesign is unable to perform the requested operation."

My files are in OneDrive cloud folder, synchronized into the harddrive.

There wasn't crash reporter.

I attached the crashlogs.

Other problem since a year continously: My desktop computer is a year old, the Indesign and Illustrator is very-very slow. I can't work if Indy+Illu are open, if I run only Illustrator it is slow, but I can work. I tried reinstall and set NVIDIA performance and everything, but wasn't help.

crWinLog_851870fd-b705-4be3-8d31-19d6e92d5790_Illustrator_30-1-0_136.txt

crWinLog_851870fd-b705-4be3-8d31-19d6e92d5790_InDesign_21-1-0_21-1-0-56.txt

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