Participating Frequently

Answered

InDesign only allows one undo

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
January 28, 2026
11 replies
1518 views

The latest version on InDesign was not working on our Windows 11 systems: it either wouldn’t launch or when using it, text will disappear in text boxes (even though it is still there) and the Undo action only performs one or two undos. Uninstalled and went back to InDesign version 20.5.1 which appeared to work fine until today: now I am having the same undo problem. Tested in a brand new document.

It should be noted that coworkers with Macs are not having this issue.

I saw a previous post that said this could be fixed by unchecking the GPU option in preferences, but that is NOT checked in mine (it is greyed out because it says it does not detect a compatible device).

It is almost impossible to work knowing you only have one undo, please advise how to fix this!

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi @jessicah0316,

Sorry to hear you’re running into this. I understand how disruptive it can be when Undo stops working properly.

If the expert suggestion didn’t help and you’re still seeing the issue, could you please check this similar thread and confirm if the behavior matches what you’re experiencing:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-2-undo-greyed-out-and-history-panel-blank-on-macos-tahoe-and-ventura-1551926?postid=7543173#post7543173

If it does match, please note that we already have a bug logged for this and the product team is actively working on a fix. In the meantime, the following workarounds have helped some users on macOS: reverting to InDesign version 21.1.0 and restarting InDesign or the system temporarily restores the Undo functionality.

To help move this forward, it would really help if you could share the requested information in the response here:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-21-2-undo-greyed-out-and-history-panel-blank-on-macos-tahoe-and-ventura-1551926?postid=7543173#post7543173

Your help in sharing the requested details would really help us investigate this further.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

gus7777

Inspiring

I have the same problem of only one undo in Indesign 21.3 on OSX Tahoe 26.3.1 Restarting Indesign fixes it for a while - then it goes back to one undo again? Restarted the computer - comes back again eventually.

leo.r

Community Expert

Try to revert to InDesign 21.1. It helped some users who had this issue.

P4uloC4mpos

Participating Frequently

Estou tendo o MESMO problema! E estou usando a versão do Windows Pré-release 21.4.0.49 do Indesign que, após uma atualização, o problema de histórico voltou. Como isso é possível? Como a Adobe não resolve esse problema básico?

leo.r

Community Expert

do you have this issue in the released InDesign 21.3?

P4uloC4mpos

Participating Frequently

Na versão oficial não, mas na versão prerelease eu fui obrigado a atualizar para a versão 21.4 porque o software não abria mais. Detalhe que a recomendação da Adobe era que os usuários utilizassem a versão prerelease para corrigir o problema de undo das versões oficiais.
Agora até mesmo a versão prerelease está com problemas.

J

jessicah0316

Inspiring

I just encountered this problem in InD 21.2 on MacOs Tahoe 26.4.1 today.
Hopefully there is a update soon.

leo.r

Community Expert

Update to InDesign 21.3.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thank you for sharing the additional details, and I’m sorry to hear that this is still happening on macOS. I tested this on an Apple Silicon machine running macOS Tahoe 26.3 with InDesign 21.2 and was not able to reproduce the undo issue. On my end, the undo history behaved normally without dropping to zero or freezing.

To help narrow this down, could you please share a short screen recording? Please include the About InDesign window first so the exact version is visible and then record the full workflow from opening the document up to the point where the undo stops working. This will help me review the behavior more closely and take it further with the team if needed.

Additionally, please try testing the same workflow in macOS Safe Mode to rule out any third-party extensions or background processes that might be interfering. Ref: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac. After booting in Safe Mode, launch InDesign and check if the issue still occurs.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

doctorBombay

Participant

unfortunately, even the latest Beta version of inDesign doesn’t address this for those of us with surface. pro’s. which the fact that both AI and ID are still beta for surface pro’s is disheartening.

RockyEsco

Participant

Hello, I have been having the same issues with undo like many have stated here. Unfortunately my company’s IT team just installed InDesign CC 20.1, so there is nothing I can do on my end regarding installing/uninstalling. Is there anything I can do on my end with the limited access to fix this? Or would I need to contact IT to install/uninstall?

leo.r

Community Expert

IT team just installed InDesign CC 20.1

I assume you in fact were referring to InDesign 21.1? If so, then updating to InDesign 21.2 should solve the issue.

meyerkel

Participant

I just updated to 21.2 and started experiencing this problem immediately.

leo.r

Community Expert

What’s your operating system version?

meyerkel

Participant

macOS Tahoe 26.2

I

I Need My Shit

Participant

I’m using version 21.2 and I’ve just run into ZERO undos twice today. I did not have any problem with 21.1, actually. I have to quit and reopen to get it working again.

leo.r

Community Expert

I did not have any problem with 21.1, actually.

You can revert to InDesign 21.1: Creative Cloud app > InDesign > Other Versions. Will it solve the issue? This would be unusual, but let’s see if it works.

I

I Need My Shit

Participant

Thanks. I’ll give it a try if it happens again. Since I clicked “allow” to the prompt “Adobe InDesign 2026 would like to access data from other apps”, I haven’t had the problem. It might just be a coincidence, but I figure it’s worth putting out there since it’s the only variable I knowingly changed.

alyssar16802307

Participant

This worked for me! Thank you!

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @AtrocitySale and @alyssar16802307,

Thanks for flagging this, and sorry you’ve been running into it. The behavior you’re describing, including text disappearing and the limited undo history, was a known issue in InDesign 21.1. There was a bug logged for it and has been fixed in the latest InDesign 21.2 update. Please open the Creative Cloud Desktop app, go to All apps, update InDesign to the latest version, and then test again.

Once you’ve updated, please let us know if the issue is resolved.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

A

AtrocitySaleAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hahaha, not an option because the new version won’t even open which is why I removed it and went back to the previous version. But to make sure this wasn’t resolved with the newest update of InDesign 2026, I installed it again. Here is what I get when I try to launch it:

A

AtrocitySaleAuthor

Participating Frequently

And now that I tried installing the new version again, the previous version is unable to load certain fonts so I guess I’ll have to uninstall/reinstall that.

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded