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gosia
Participating Frequently
Oct 30, 2025 1:07 AM UTC
Answered

Times New Roman TTF replaced with OTF in InDesign 21.0, causing missing font errors

All my books (several hundred) are formatted using the Times New Roman TTF font. The new version of InDesign 21.0 changes that to Times New Roman OTF.
Fortunately, version 20.0 is still installed. I know from experience that strange things can happen in updates.. However, the problem with the latest update has also been introduced in that version.
OTF is only available with a licence, which I do not have. 
I would appreciate some help.
Cor van Wijgerden

 

 

<Title renamed by MOD>

    Abhishek Rao
    Abhishek RaoCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    May 13, 2026 4:41 PM UTC

    Hi everyone,

     

    Thank you all again for your patience while the team investigated this issue. I wanted to share that the fix for this issue is now available in the InDesign PreRelease build v21.4.0.068 and above. This is the same issue being tracked in the following UserVoice report:
    https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180/suggestions/50715731

    Could you please install/update to the latest InDesign PreRelease build from Creative Cloud under the “Prerelease” category and check whether the issue is now resolved on your end?

    If you do not currently have access to the InDesign PreRelease builds, you can apply here:
    https://www.adobeprerelease.com/beta/C6DFA254-C40C-4EEB-8F6D-F4AEDA2E6171

    Once updated, please test your affected documents and let us know your observations. If you still encounter the issue, please feel free to share the details here or reach out to sharewithID@adobe.com.

     

    Thanks again for all your patience and support.

    Abhishek


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    River7567
    River7567
    Participating Frequently
    Nov 21, 2025 1:18 AM UTC

    And can we not mark this as "resolved" because the issue isn't resolved, at least not yet. Seems a bit premature...

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      gosiaAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      Feb 1, 2026 11:43 AM UTC

      The problem is far from solved; in fact, it's even worse. After the latest updates to Windows and InDesign, repaired files work, but suddenly a message appears saying that there is a conflict with Calibri Bold.
      It has been exactly three months since I reported this issue with TNR. 

      What a sadness, isn't it?

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        Mike Witherell
        Community Expert
        Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        Nov 20, 2025 2:40 PM UTC

        As of today, Nov 20, my win11 machine shows that windows patch installed on the 11th of November. Running Windows Update shows nothing newer yet as of today.

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        Mike Witherell
        davidz1290389
        Participant
        Nov 20, 2025 1:57 PM UTC

        From what I've gathered, Windows has updated Times New Roman from v7.05 to v7.10 and either InDesign isn't recognizing OpenType or the new font is bugged and has lost OpenType.

         

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          River7567
          River7567
          Participating Frequently
          Nov 20, 2025 6:14 PM UTC

          The plot thickens. Thank you for sharing this info! Still not sure which company, Microsoft or Adobe, needs to deploy a fix... I could see this going either way.

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          John231158799or7
          Participant
          Nov 19, 2025 7:33 PM UTC

          Uninstalling Microsoft Security Update KB5068861 made everything all better for me. Not ideal I guess for security reasons, but oh well.

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            Mike Witherell
            Community Expert
            Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            Nov 19, 2025 1:34 PM UTC

            Anyone have an idea what specific patch version of Windows may be causing this font problem?

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            Mike Witherell
            River7567
            River7567
            Participating Frequently
            Nov 19, 2025 2:58 PM UTC

            It was the KB5068861 Windows Update for me that caused the problem.

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              kitsune_1982
              Participant
              Nov 19, 2025 1:13 AM UTC

              I had the same issue and tried various things. I eventually found that placing older Times New Roman font files (created when packaging another document) into the Document fonts folder at the same level as the INDD file resolved the problem. Hope this helps.

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              luxfoundry2
              luxfoundry2
              Participant
              Nov 18, 2025 9:45 PM UTC

              This exact same thing happened to me suddenly but with Segoe UI font.  Every one of my indesign files suddenly changed the font to Segoe UI (OTF).  I have tried several things to resolve this like clearing font caches, reinstalling fonts., but nothing is working.  I have been manually replacing the font in each document, but sometimes a few days later, the file that i updated changes back to OTF.  it's rather frustrating and I can't tell if this is a windows or Indesign issue.  Adobe wasn't very helpful, i don't think they understood what I was trying to explain that the OTF suddenly appeared.  Would love to know  if you resolved this.  

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                Dmytro301376413pen
                Participant
                Nov 18, 2025 10:57 AM UTC

                The same issue with my InDesign 20.5 / Windows 11. I installed Times New Roman from Adobe (https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/times-new-roman) and replaced the font in the document. It works perfectly now.

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                  River7567
                  River7567
                  Participating Frequently
                  Nov 19, 2025 1:16 AM UTC

                  Not everyone can install Times New Roman from the Adobe Fonts Library to solve this. Some folks, including myself, get a vague error that says Times New Roman can't be installed. As far as I can tell, there's not actual issue with the font file(s) itself. Something is creating a disconnect between InDesign and the font files in question, which is throwing the error in InDesign. And, after installing and uninstalling the Windows update mentioned in this thread, I can confirm that specific Windows Update is the catalyst. So, not sure if it's Microsoft or Adobe (or both?) that needs to fix this.

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                    hk92340272
                    Participant
                    Nov 19, 2025 9:09 PM UTC

                    We have several hundred files that are now having this issue, across a shared server with 8 people. We've been replacing fonts on current active files, but it's fairly time-consuming to go back and change layouts on large books.  I hope there's some intent to fix this so we don't spend the next week on it...

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                      Mike Witherell
                      Community Expert
                      Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
                      Community Expert
                      Nov 17, 2025 2:23 PM UTC

                      Hi all,

                      So, there are currently 2 prime suspects: 1. a new version of InDesign, and 2. a patch of Windows.

                      Are any macOS users experiencing this same Times New Roman problem ?

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                      Mike Witherell
                      gosiaAuthor
                      Participating Frequently
                      Nov 18, 2025 11:40 AM UTC

                      Thank you, Mike.

                      InDesign 21.01 was updated today. The OTF problem remains unresolved. So, is it only a Windows issue? Maybe not.  Opened an IDML file with Affinity Publisher. No missing font: just as it should be.

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                      River7567
                      River7567
                      Participating Frequently
                      Nov 19, 2025 1:10 AM UTC

                      I use Mac at work and Windows at home, same version number of InDesign on both OSs. No issues with Mac. It's only happening on Windows and only with the aforementioned Windows update installed, as far as I can tell.

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                      Colin_Isherwoods
                      Inspiring
                      Nov 17, 2025 11:24 AM UTC

                      Today my Indesign (V21) has started this issue. luckily , my documents use other fonts but there are places where a return hasnt had a style applied and has defaulted to TNR . the main problem with this is that many of my documents now show errors in pre-flight where they didnt before, forcing me to investigate the errors and replace the font. An annoyance for sure.

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