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

H

Houssam37884838cxnz

Bug Confirmation: Undo History Auto-Purge During Idle State

Hello,

I can confirm experiencing the identical issue described in this thread.

System Configuration:

OS: Windows 11 25H2
InDesign versions tested: 21.x and 20.0 (issue persists across both)
Hardware: Adequate RAM allocation, >100GB free disk space

Issue Behavior: Undo stack grows normally during active editing (reaches 15-20 steps), then automatically purges after 30-90 seconds of idle time, reducing to ~8 steps (sometimes 4). This is not a static limit but an idle-triggered memory management behavior.

Troubleshooting Performed (no resolution):

Preferences reset (Ctrl+Alt+Shift on launch)
Complete InDesign uninstall/reinstall
Tested on InDesign 20.0 (downgrade from 21.x)
Verified adequate disk space (>100GB free)
Tested on new documents + local files (non-cloud storage)
Disabled InDesign Recovery folder (%LocalAppData%\Adobe\InDesign\...\InDesign Recovery)
Attempted Windows update rollback

Key Observations:

Issue onset correlates with recent timeframe (was not present months ago)
Reproducible on blank documents
Pattern: active editing → stack grows → idle period → automatic purge
Not a static memory limit but idle-state triggered behavior
Stack purge occurs at application level, not UI refresh issue (confirmed via Ctrl+Z limit)

Technical Hypothesis: Given the correlation with the December 9, 2025 Windows update (KB for 23H2/24H2/25H2) and idle-triggered behavior, this appears to be a conflict between InDesign's undo stack memory management and Windows' modified Virtual Memory Manager or memory compression policies in recent builds.

Available for providing diagnostic logs, memory dumps, or additional testing if needed.

A

Alex37515221byxi

Be careful!!! If you make critical changes that need to be undone, you may not be able to undo causing major headaches. I can only undo two steps. Also, when only selecting one character, portions of the screen/text box turn all white. I have to type blind, zoom in and out, deselect, roll the mouse wheel to get the text to reappear. IT has installed all updates, drivers, everything. Problem is still happening. I was working on a major project for a year and half and InDesign decides to short-circuit on my during the last week of the project. It took FOREVER to complete simple tasks like changing a semicolon to a comma. Please fix this ASAP!!!

J

Jessie Jess

You are not alone.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-2026-text-disappears-while-editing-text-frames-on-windows/td-p/15607922/page/2

T

tzach5C4A

Participating Frequently

Hello everyone,
Maybe the bug has been fixed? My history pane is full of commands, and the smile is back on my face!

M

michaelb36354213

Is it still working for you? It's not for me.

B

Bartattack

Participating Frequently

So, I also have 16 GB of ram... and have the problem. I asked a collegue freelancer (who doesn't have this bug) to check and he has 32 GB ram.

A

Anonymous

I also have 16GB of RAM... But I have been using InDesign with this amount of RAM for a LONG LONG time, and never had any issues before december 2025!

A

Anonymous

Same, I've had 16 RAM for years. No issues. The answer certainly can't be every one buy a new computer!!

?

????????-??????

I have this problem too. laptop with Windows 11. completely new installation. with a full disk cleanup. Windows protection is disabled. even without an internet connection, the problem appeared immediately. InDesign version 20.3.1. I'm crying!!!

T

tzach5C4A

Participating Frequently

I wonder if there are those who use the CS version who also have this bug?

O

Outdesing

Or, put another way:

Is there anyone here who works with 16 GB RAM (or less) and DOESN'T have these problems?

O

Outdesing

Is there a Windows user in this thread with MORE than 16 GB RAM computer power where the described problems occur?

T

tzach5C4A

Participating Frequently

i have 16GB too. maybe this is the "problem"?

Cheesusmice

Participating Frequently

I've noticed from users who have posted their computer specs that they are running 16GB of RAM

Is this the case for everyone with this bug?

My work laptop has 16GB and has this issue whereas my own desktop has 64 and does not.

O

Outdesing

That could actually be the cause of the problems! In our department, we have seven computers, four of which are affected by these bugs, and these four computers have "only" 16 GB RAM installed. Two computers that run smoothly have 32 GB of RAM installed! One of our computers runs on MacOS, and it has "only" 16 GB of RAM installed. However, this calculator is not affected by the bugs.

Could it be that InDesign 21.x requires MORE than 16 GB of RAM as a system requirement on Windows 10/11, but 16 GB of RAM is sufficient on macOS?

OsakaWebbie

Inspiring

Everyone writing posts just to grouse about this: Please go to the bug on UserVoice (https://adobe.ly/4jaiQSs), add a vote to the tally, and click the "Critical" button. That's the appropriate way to let Adobe know how many people are impacted by it and need it fixed. And once you've done that, UserVoice will notify you when there is a status change. I'm pretty sure the developers are already trying hard to figure out what's causing it (it's clearly a complex problem), but more votes can't hurt. Complaining here with no new info doesn't help anyone - it just fills all our email inboxes with notifications of more angry posts and wastes everyone's time reading them. (And don't just grouse in the UserVoice comment section either - if you don't have concrete info to add that might help the developers diagnose the problem, just wait.)

A

Anonymous

Oh, I was not aware of the "VOTE" and "CRITICAL" actions over there. Thanks for the instructions! DONE!

C

CZBrand_L*SH

Participant

CTRL+Z won't go more than a couple of steps, mostly only allows ONE. There isn't a limit that I could set and that's been automatically reduced to zero now, innit?

C

CZBrand_L*SH

Participant

okay, there seems to be butloads of posts about this bug already, hope they FIX it ASAP

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