InDesign freezes when placing/updating placed files. Help

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
April 9, 2026
11 replies
413 views

For the past month or two, any time I try to Place a file or update a Placed file, InDesign usually freezes. The cursor turns into the spinning circle. I can close and save the files after this, but cannot close the InDesign app. I try various ways to place the files. File > Place or Ctrl D or copy and paste the placed file from another InDesign file. The files I use are typically on my Google Drive and I’ve installed the Drive app on my machine.

This is REALLY getting annoying. Adobe used to be so good with bugs. Any ideas? I’ve read a few posts that say they thought version 21.3 fixed this issue but I’ve still got it.

I’ve reset preferences, cleared old versions of InDesign, reinstalled InDesign.

InDesign 21.3
Core i9 processor
Windows 11 home
64 GB RAM
500+ GB hard drive space

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

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