Adobe background tasks stuck and will not clear

[TaffyM]

Given the cost of Adobe and how many people are complaining about this, I think Adobe needs to fix this. Shutting down over and over to clear this, with only a hit & miss success rate, is not at all practical. I've done the reboots. I've done all the many attempts others have done and I'm still getting the spinning background task manager and it will not clear on a very extensive document. 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @TaffyM,

Could you share more details, like the version of the OS/InDesign installed, and a small screen recording of your exact workflow and the problem, so I can check this with the team?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@TaffyM 

In order to disable Background Tasks and see what is going on:

To disable InDesign's background tasks, you can create a blank text file named DisableAsyncExports.txt and place it in the appropriate InDesign directory.

For macOS -  /Applications/Adobe InDesign 2021/Adobe InDesign 2021.app/Contents/MacOS/

For Windows - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign 2021\ 

It's also possible that your file is corrupted - if you can still open it:

1) you can try IDMLing - export as IDML, open, save with a new name - DO NOT overwrite your original file,

or

2) create a new, blank document - best would be if you make it the same page size and with the same margins - then move ALL pages from your document to the beginning of this new document - save it with a new name - more details here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/error-when-exporting-indd-to-pdf/m-p/15283647#M6...

[Service1FCU]

This has been happening for me when attempting to export to PDF. The PDF doesn't export until I go to Task Manager to abort the .indd application. Just installed latest update (4/30/25) and the problem is not fixed.

[Eugene Tyson]

Not really sure what's going on - maybe disable Adobe Fonts in the preferences.

See if it helps - I'll do more digging.

Just to say it's tough because we don't have screenshots or steps to reproduce - can you please supply these so we can see what's happening?

 

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Service1FCU,

Thanks for sharing the update. I've tested this on Windows with InDesign 20.3 and the background task cleared as expected after exporting, so it would really help to narrow this down with a bit more detail. Could you please confirm the exact version of your operating system?

Also, is the issue happening with a specific file or with all files you're trying to export? If you haven’t already, please try creating and exporting a brand new file to see if the problem persists there as well.

If possible, please share a screen recording of the entire export process along with a copy of the affected file. This will help me try to reproduce the issue on my end and report it further if needed.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Abhishek 

[Service1FCU]

Thank you for your expeditious guidance @Abhishek Rao and @Robert at ID-Tasker. The issue seems to be resolved now without any additional action taken (outside of closing out of .indd—again). I've successfully exported several PDFs from different documents since my original comment (yes, the issue was with all files I tried to export over the past week or so). I will definitely keep handy your advice to create a DisableAsyncExports.txt file in the event I experience this in the future.

Thanks again to you both for your expertise. Much appreciated!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Service1FCU

Have you created DisableAsyncExports.txt file mentioned earlier? 

So, if there is an error - you'll get info about it.

Also, have you tried "fixing" your document - in case it's corrupted? Also mentioned in my earlier reply.