InDesign freezes every few minutes, even after a clean Windows and Adobe reinstall

Hi all,

I’m hoping someone has seen this before, because I’m running out of things to try.

I’m using the latest version of InDesign on Windows 11 Pro. While working on presentations, InDesign initially behaves normally, but after several minutes it gradually starts to malfunction.

The first symptom is usually that Ctrl+Z / Undo becomes unavailable. After that, other problems begin to appear:

• Images become difficult or impossible to resize or place
• Scrolling through the document becomes intermittent
• The spinning blue Windows cursor sometimes appears
• I can usually close and save the document, although occasionally saving also fails
• InDesign itself will not close normally
• I have to force-close the application through Task Manager

There are no error messages and the application does not fully crash. It simply becomes increasingly unresponsive.

The issue happens during normal work, including selecting objects, editing text, moving items and placing or resizing images. It does not appear to be limited to one particular document.

Troubleshooting already completed

• Complete clean installation of Windows 11
• Complete reinstall of Adobe Creative Cloud and InDesign
• Reset InDesign preferences
• Cleared InDesign caches
• Disabled GPU Performance
• Disabled Preflight
• Fully updated Windows
• Fully updated Adobe applications
• Fully updated graphics drivers
• Tested files stored on both an external SanDisk SSD and the internal SSD
• Tested a packaged file with all links stored locally on the internal drive

The behaviour is identical even after the clean Windows and Adobe reinstall.

I initially suspected the SanDisk external SSD might be causing delays while InDesign accesses linked files, but the same problem occurs when the document and all linked assets are stored on the internal SSD.

System specifications

• Operating system: Windows 11 Pro, 64-bit
• Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13850HX, 2.10 GHz
• RAM: 32 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU, 8 GB
• Integrated graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
• Storage: 1 TB internal SSD, with approximately 174 GB used
• InDesign: Latest available version

Has anyone encountered this behaviour before, particularly the Undo function becoming unavailable before the rest of the interface starts failing?

I would also appreciate advice on which InDesign logs, crash reports or Windows diagnostic tools would be most useful for identifying the cause.