Answered

InDesign Undo history clears itself without user action

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
November 21, 2025
122 replies
74678 views

Undo steps disappear automatically while working.
Undo history resets to ~3 entries without any undo action being triggered.

This happens reproducibly every ~10 seconds.

Preflight is disabled.

Reproducible in:
- new documents
- local files (no cloud documents)
- fresh installs
- multiple machines

Windows 11.
Photoshop is not affected.

please help : (

Bug

Correct answer Harshika Verma

How can you say you don't understand?
We pay for programs that must be tested as stable BEFORE being released. We don't care about constant little innovations; we want STABLE programs that work.
Try to speak like professionals, as you should be.
Please review this and other threads, as we've been working with a program that contains bugs.
We're not grumbling, we're angry.

Hi All,

Thank you for your patience. The team has released a Fix for this issue is now available in the latest InDesign Prerelease build - 21.2.0.27

Please try out this Prerelease build and let us know if it resolves the issue.

If you are not already part of InDesign's Prerelease program and would like to join and try out the latest Prerelease build, please do the following:

* Go to https://adobe.ly/4qUXgUv

* Sign in with your Adobe ID (the Email ID associated with your Adobe account)

* Select ‘Available Programs’

* Find ‘InDesign Prerelease’ and click ‘Join’

* Once you’ve joined, go to the Creative Cloud Desktop Application on your machine, click on 'Apps' in the section on the left

* Select the 'Pre-release' tab – there you will find the InDesign (Prerelease) build

* To check the Build number of the Prerelease build, hover the cursor over the name – you will see the Build number 'v_________'

* Select ‘Install’

Thanks,

Harshika

Show previous replies

D

default30681514lz4uim

Please correct undo button

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @default30681514lz4uim,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Our team is aware of the problem and is currently investigating it. Would you mind upvoting this UserVoice (https://adobe.ly/4jaiQSs) and adding your comments there? Doing this will help prioritise this, and you will be notified of any updates.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or require assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

Cheesusmice

Participating Frequently

Is this actually how bugs like this are prioritised? A uservoice post? I suspect the majority of users don't know about that forum.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience and for sharing detailed reports here. I want to reassure you that this issue is still actively being worked on by the product team. They're investigating the root cause and making progress, as this is understandably impacting workflows.

I know this has been frustrating, and I appreciate you bearing with us. As soon as I have any concrete updates or next steps to share, I'll post them here right away.

Thank you again for your patience.

Abhishek

motherbear23

We are having the same problem, my history pannel clears itself after 10 moves. This is very annoying. PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP... I would like to get an update of when this is taken care of.

M

matthiask52276233

I can confirm, that this issue only affects users with 16 GB of RAM. I've temporarily installed 32 GB RAM modules from another computer, and now everything works fine.

OsakaWebbie

Inspiring

Thanks for testing that. Your comment put me over the hump about a decision I had been considering: I just ordered new memory cards (total 32GB) for my PC. In addition to avoiding this issue, I hope it will help my PC not get weird and slow when I have many apps open. (Actually, I suspect most of the recent slowness is due to not having a dedicated GPU, which recent Adobe versions seem to expect, but it is not possible to add one to this machine, either internal or external.)

M

matthiask52276233

You're welcome! A decent GPU is definitely an improvement, especially in Photoshop. I bought an RTX 3060 with 12 GB of RAM a few months ago. The price performance ratio is great! Okay ... maybe not at the moment, as hardware-prices are out of control these days (prices for the RTX 3060 went up from 250 € to 330 €).

P

paulo_5285

Please, help! I have the same problem. I've tried to downgrade the software, but it didn't work.

It's impossible working this way...

A

Anonymous

It has been almost a month that a part of us can't work properly and lost tremendous time and, potentially, clients. I was wondering if there should be at least a monthly refund for this part of Adobe community.

markingitup-2

I finally found something that seems to be working.

Complete uninstall, complete reinstall.
THEN... I created a new workspace.
I selected/grouped panels as I wanted, set all preferences (under Edit) as I wanted
Then saved the new workspace with a new name, checking the boxes for capture to both "Panel Locations" and "Menu Customization".
So far, this is working as it should be.

I'd love to hear how this goes for others.

N

niinad22351335

Indesign has just stopped recording any actions I take and nothing is showing up in the History tab (see picture). Even if I go to Edit - Undo, it still only gives me the last action I did and nothing else. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but nothing changed. Any ideas what might be the problem?

P

paulo_5285

Please, help! I have the same problem. I've tried to downgrade the software, but it didn't work.

S

shruti_1715

Facing this same issue 😞

M

mnshaw

Searching for this issue reveals that it's an old problem going back to v. 17 or 18 but it seems to be back as a new annoyance to me.

Long and short: when editing text, occasionally (sometimes more frequently, sometimes less), all of the text in the box or frame or whatever it's called simply disappears. The only way I know of to get it back is CTRL-Z, which means that my most recent edits also go away. Sometimes this happens every time I type just a few characters, meaning that I have to remember to CTRL-S very, very, frequently.

Most (not all) of the time it seems to be more relating to a mouse left-click than a keyboard entry. But it's very, very, annoying.

InDesign v. 21.1 on a Dell Windows 10 machine. I can provide the file if needed.

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

When all text in a frame suddenly vanishes and comes back with Undo, it’s almost always one of these:

GPU Preview / graphics driver conflict (most common)
Corrupt InDesign preferences
Input method / mouse driver issue
Live screen redraw bug triggered by selection changes
Third-party utility interfering (Wacom, Dell Optimizer, Logitech, etc.)

This is not usually caused by:

The document itself
Overset text
Styles or TOC issues

In order I'd try these fixes

Turn OFF GPU Performance (this fixes it for most people)

This is the single biggest culprit.

In InDesign:

Edit > Preferences > GPU Performance

Uncheck “GPU Performance”

Restart InDesign

If the issue stops immediately, you’ve found the cause.

Dell systems with Intel + NVIDIA hybrid graphics are especially prone to this.

Update or roll back your graphics driver

If you want to keep GPU Preview on

Go to NVIDIA / Intel, not Dell’s site

Install the Studio Driver (not Game Ready)

Or roll back one version if you recently updated

If GPU off fixes it, there’s no real downside to leaving it off for text-heavy work.

Reset InDesign Preferences

Corrupt prefs can cause redraw and selection bugs.

Quick reset:

Quit InDesign

Hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift while launching

Confirm preference deletion

OR manually delete:

C:\Users\[you]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version 21.0

Disable “Live Screen Drawing”

This is often triggered by mouse clicks and selection changes.

Edit > Preferences > Interface

Set Live Screen Drawing to Delayed or Off

Check mouse / input software

Because you mention left-click being a trigger:

Temporarily disable:
Dell Optimizer
Logitech Options / SetPoint
Wacom drivers (if installed)
Any screen overlay or “productivity” tools

Then test again.

Test in a brand-new document

This helps rule out edge cases:

New document

Type directly (no placed text)

No styles

No parent items

If it still happens > environment issue
If it doesn’t > something in that document is triggering redraw (rare, but possible)

Temporary workarounds (if it keeps happening)

Turn Preview Mode on/off (W) to force redraw
Zoom in/out slightly instead of clicking
Save before heavy text edits
Avoid clicking inside the frame while typing

Undo working confirms it’s a display/selection, not real text loss.

Summary (do these first)

Turn off GPU Performance
Reset preferences
Disable Live Screen Drawing
Check mouse/Dell utility software

If you want, tell us:

NVIDIA / Intel GPU model
Whether GPU off fixes it immediately
Whether you use Logitech or Wacom

A

Anonymous

Have the same issue here.
System is:
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Systemmodell HP ProBook 455 15.6 inch G10 Notebook PC
Prozessor AMD Ryzen 7 7730U with Radeon Graphics, 2000 MHz, 8 Kern(e), 16 logische(r) Prozessor(en)
Systemtyp x64-basierter PC

Indesign Version is:
21.1

Please help!
Or should I deinstall and go back to version 21.0.2?

Cheers Michael

B

BirgitBirgit

Known Participant

Hi alle,

ich hoffe, Ihr könnt mir helfen. Ich habe einen neuen PC installiert (Win 11) und arbeite heute das 1. Mal mit der aktuellen Version von InDesign. Manchmal, wenn ich einen Textteil markiere, wird der gesamte Absatz unsichtbar, manchmal mehr, manchmal weniger Text. Er ist vorhanden, angezeigt wird eine weiße Fläche. Wenn ich zoome, erscheint der Text vollständig. Aber es ist lästig, v.a. wenn der Text verschwindet, während ich markiere; ich weiß nicht, ob ich alle Buchstaben erwischt habe und muss erst wieder rumzoomen und von vorne beginnen.

Weiß jemand, wie ich dieses blöde Problem beheben kann?

Danke und

mit besten Grüßen, Birgit

Screenshot_unseen_text_now_visible.zip

Screenshot_unseen_text.zip

B

BirgitBirgit

Known Participant

Die Screenshots (tiff) können offenbar nicht angezeigt werden. Ich versuchs nochmal.

Screenshot_unseen_text.zip

B

BirgitBirgit

Known Participant

Der Upload funktioniert nicht. Stellt Euch ein Dokument vor, in dem der Text durch eine weiße Fläche unterbrochen ist. Der markierte Teil ist als schwarzer Balken erkennbar. 🙂

W

Will30682734q2pw

Adding my computer specs as well, sorry for the delay, hope they help narrow down the issue.

Dell Latitude 5450 laptop. Windows 11 Enterprise 23H2. Intel Core Ultra 7 165U 1.70 GHz Processor. 128 MB Intel Graphics Card. 16 GB RAM. 142 GB free storage on a 256 GB Hard Drive.

Undo/History problem was first noticed for me on Friday Decemeber 12, 2025. Was using Indesign v21.0.2. Rolled back to v20.5.1 and the issue still existed, and have updated to v21.1 and the issue still exists.

Hope this helps.

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