Why are parent pages that are based on a single parent page, hanging onto another parent page that is also based on that single parent page.

I have created a set of parent pages that have section headings on them and as you go through the document, when you change sections the new section gets highlighted in some way.

I started with one parent page, with all the sections to be used, we’ll call that A-Parent. I then created a new Parent, named it B-Introduction and had it “Based on A-Parent.” I did an override on the word Introduction and styled it how I wanted and I was done. Then I created another new Parent, named it C-Product and had it based on A-Parent. Again, I did an override on the word Product and styled it how I wanted. I continued this process for each section that needed a highlight. As I went through the document, I applied the appropriate Parent page.

I exported the PDF, and when I was reviewing it, I found that when I got to the first page of the section with the D-People parent page applied to it, it was holding onto the treatment from the previous parent page section, C-People.

.

This is how I’ve always created my documents, but ever since I updated to the latest InDesign (2026 v21.3) this has been an issue. When looking at the native InDesign document, the pages appear as they are supposed to. This only shows up when exported as a PDF.

Thanks in advance for any insight to this issue.