Blue circle keeps spinning at the top of the document

[Attroll]

I don’t know when this started or what caused it.

When I open my document the blue wheel at the top keeps spinning constantly.

After I click on the blue wheel another box opens titled Background Tasks and displays Adding Font and a blue line going back and forth to the right of the font name Times New Roman Regular.

It does the constantly.

What is this and how do I get it to stop.

I have attached and image to show what I am talkign about.

[Manan Joshi]

Seems like a font sync issue. Logout/login into your creative cloud account and see if it helps

-Manan

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi Attroll,

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry for the trouble. In addition to our expert's suggestion, could you please tell us the version of InDesign installed on your machine and the details of your operating system? Does that happen with every file and every font?

We will try our best to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

[Attroll]

Here is what I figured out.
I am using the latest version of InDesign 21.02.
I logged out of my account and back into my account, but the same problem was still happening.

I did a search for that font, and it showed no results.
However, after looking deeper, I found that I had this font, but it was not in my document, it was on the left side of my page outside of my document. This was the reason it did not show up in my search results.
Once I removed this text box, saved the document and completely closed InDesign and reopened InDesign and the document (with the text box removed), the issue was resolved.

That leaves me with a three questions.

1. Is there a way to search through text boxes that are not in the documents but outside of the document?

2. If I have a document that causes this blue circle to come up and I close the document and there is no other document open, the blue circle continues to stay up there trying to add the font in the background task. If the is no document open, why is it doing this?

3. I have another large document with a lot of text boxes outside of the document that is doing the same thing. I can’t find the text box that is doing this because it will not search the boxes outside of the document. I don’t want to remove all the text boxes outside of document. How can I get this font to be added and get the blue circle from come up and trying to add the font?

[Manan Joshi]

You can allow preflight to flag missing fonts on the pasteboard as well. In the Preflight panel open the flyout menu and there you shall see the option "Preflight Options" inside it there is a checkbox to toggle "Object on Pasteboard", check this. Now you shall be notified for a missing font on the objects outside the page.

 -Manan

[Attroll]

I was lucky that I was able to find this font in my previous document.

However, I have another very large document that is doing the same thing. The blue circle is spinning, and it says that it is adding font Times New Roman Regular in the background.

I did a search for this font in my document. I set it to search for objects on paste board and non-printing objects. I came back with no results in this search.

This blue circle will remain trying to do this for hours and it never goes away. If for some reason it is trying to add the font, why would it take that long.
This font is in my Windows fonts that are installed. I don’t understand.

Why is this background task trying to add the font Times New Roman Regular in the background?

I almost forgot to mention that after I close the document, the background task conitunes without any documents open.

Rick

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Attroll,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Since you're still seeing the background task trying to add Times New Roman even after checking pasteboard objects and closing the document, it usually points to a font activation or cache issue rather than something actively used on the page. InDesign can continue to attempt to resolve a font if it believes there is a reference to it somewhere in the document structure, even if it's not found by Find/Change.

At this point, I'd suggest closing InDesign, temporarily disabling or removing Times New Roman Regular from the Windows Fonts folder, then relaunching InDesign and opening the document to see if the background task changes or reports a missing font instead. After that test, you can re-enable the font and check again.

If the spinning task continues even with the font disabled, please share your exact Windows version along with a short screen recording showing the Background Tasks panel staying active with no documents open. That will allow me to check this further with the team, as the task should not persist once all documents are closed.

Let me know what you observe after trying this.

Abhishek

[Attroll]

Thank you for trying to help.

I am using Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200 and InDesign 21.1 x64.

I am looking at the font directory and trying to disable the Times New Roman font as you suggested, but I don’t see any option to disable it. I will attach a screen shot. Is that a way to disable it rather than delete it?

I have also tried adding a box to my document with the Times New Roman font in it and it shows up correctly. I have closed the document after adding this font to the document and reopened the document, the same problem persists.
This font works without anu issues in Microsoft Word.

I can open other InDesign documents, and this blue circle and background task does not happen.

Rick

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Attroll,

Thanks for the update and I understand how frustrating this must be. I've shared the next action plan with you via direct message. Please follow those steps when you get a chance and let me know how it goes.

Best,

Abhishek

[Lisa22884210ziko]

Times New Roman cannot be deleted because it is a system font. I am having the same issue as the writer, I have uninstalled InDesign and reinstalled it but I keep having font issues and freezing episodes.