Catastrophic InDesign failures (Admitted by Adobe)

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Hi I have had endless technical problems with InDesign for the year I have been subscribing which has had a catastrophic impact on my business. I am hoping someone here might know the silver bullet solution. Adobe admit the problem is at their end but haven’t been able to fix it. Over many months, I have spent countless hours in chat and on calls with multiple Adobe agents, with issues frequently escalated to senior specialists — yet no permanent solutions have been found. Several times I have had senior managers call me but still many ongoing problems are being experienced. Multiple emails. They are responsive in trying to fix the problem but haven’t been able to fix it. I just can’t understand how there can’t be a solution.

Please can you let me know if you know the solution? I can’t be the only person in the world having these problems and I am hoping someone else has figured it out. Please bear in mind this has been going on for a year so it can’t be related to any recent updates.
I have liaised extensively not only with Adobe but also with Microsoft, and with Hewlett Packard who I bought the computer from, and they have done all checks but no problems there.
I am using InDesign 2025. My PC: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor. Running Windows 11.
I have everything totally up to date and regularly check for updates across InDesign, Microsoft and HP.

I’m really hoping you can help as I need to be able to collaborate with graphic designers and my income has been severely impacted.

My computer:

I have very high powered gaming laptop purchased this year specifically to exceed Adobe’s specs for InDesign and Photoshop.
It is an OMEN Gaming Laptop 16-wf0163TX.
It has 32 GB memory, 1 TB SSD and the following graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070 Laptop GPU (8 GB GDDR6 dedicated).

The ongoing problems

I have had the following problems ever since I first subscribed to InDesign.

Crashing/slow: Endless crashing, extremely slow performing even the most basic task – up to five minutes to make one simple font change for instance. So it can take me a whole day just updating fonts. Documents corrupting.
File error reports: On most days, I have the option show up on my screen from Adobe to report the latest error. This confirms system failures, not user error.

Attempted fixes:

Countless Adobe tech specialists have remoted onto my computer and tried every possible fix they could think of.
I am endlessly uninstalling/reinstalling InDesign, resetting preferences, restarting computer.
I have trialed InDesign on five other computers including other high powered computers and same problems.
Adobe tell me it is not related to my profile as I asked if we could close my account and start again from scratch.
Anti-virus is not the problem as we’ve trialed all possible options there.

I hope you can help because I have exhausted every avenue.

Report · Sep 25, 2025

It really does sound like you’ve been through the wringer here, and fair play for persisting for a full year. Since you’ve already been through Adobe support, Microsoft, and HP, I’d suggest a few angles that are less obvious but have helped others in similar situations:

1. Rule out the environment (not just the app):

Try creating a brand-new Windows user profile and install only Creative Cloud + InDesign there. Sometimes profile-level corruption or lingering settings can cause bizarre, persistent issues.
Check whether OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or any sync/backup software is monitoring your InDesign file locations. These can massively slow down saving and even cause corruption.

2. GPU / driver quirks:

Try disabling GPU Performance in Preferences > Performance. NVIDIA RTX cards are great but not always happy with Adobe’s GPU handling.
Also, make sure you’re testing with Studio Drivers (not just Game Ready drivers).

3. Fonts as a hidden culprit:

Font conflicts or corrupted font caches often create the exact behaviour you describe (lag when changing fonts, document corruption). Try clearing the font cache (e.g. using a tool like FontNuke or manually clearing the Windows Font cache folder).
Run InDesign with only Adobe Fonts activated and see if performance improves.

4. System-wide conflict check:

Use a “clean boot” startup (Windows with only essential services). If InDesign runs properly there, it points to a third-party conflict.
Antivirus was ruled out, but tools like Nahimic (audio), or vendor-installed utilities (HP background services) can sometimes interfere.

5. Collaboration / file source:

If you’re collaborating with designers, test whether the corruption happens only with files from them or also with new blank docs you create yourself. Imported legacy files (from older versions, or from Quark/Illustrator) sometimes carry corruption forward.

6. Nuclear option:

Since you’ve already tried other machines and the same account, one test would be try logging into someone else’s Adobe ID on your machine and see if the issue follows you. If it doesn’t, the account itself may be the culprit despite what support says.

If none of that works, you might want to document one reproducible example (e.g. “open this clean file, change font, it takes 5 minutes”) and post it here or on Adobe’s UserVoice sometimes engineers will pick it up if it’s a clear reproducible bug.

Or post it here.

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Hello @ali_4619,

I completely understand how challenging it can be to encounter issues in the middle of work. While I check this with the team, could you try the suggestions shared by Eugene and let us know if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Hi thanks for your reply. Please would you be able to come back to me while I work through Eugene's suggestions. I anticipate the many tech experts at Adobe I have worked with over a year probably tried all of these solutions. But I will do my best to run through them myself with major thanks to Eugene, but am conscious I am not a tech expert. I need a resolution asap though as I have just lost another three days of full-time work on just one project alone trying to add just a few pages to one document. This now equates to hundreds of days of lost work. There are different error messages all the time from just simple actions and loss of a huge amount of work. Adobe managers I have spoken to many times have said the faults are not mine. As noted in my original post the impact on my business has been catastrophic. I have had to delay launching this new part of my business for a year as the only tool I need is InDesign. I have tried InDesign on five different computers so the problem is not my computer. Three of the computers were mine, one a computer I bought from the last company I worked for and one a relative's very high-powered computer. I have been in talks with senior Adobe managers for a long time and we were emailing about solutions. But as of eight days ago regrettably they have ghosted me. I have sent follow up emails but no reply. One of the managers assured me by phone that they were my dedicated case manager and would not rest until there was a solution. In the last email I received on the subject, they said the following: "We have kept your case open with the case ID ADB-41227071-K5M5". So I am at a complete loss to know how to move forward. The last person I liaised with in Adobe online chat said they would get the latest document I have been working on repaired and send me an IDML version. They did send me an IDML document but regrettably it was not my book and had approx 24 missing fonts. The title included the words The Book of Revelation so please forgive the play on words but I really do feel at this point that I need divine intervention.

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Your case really is unusual. I’ve worked on Adobe products for nearly 25 years, across both Mac and Windows, and I’ve never seen anything quite like what you’re describing even on older or underpowered machines.

The fact that you’ve tried five different computers (including high-powered ones) and the issues follow you does make this a unique situation. That’s why it would be really helpful if you could share more detail; screenshots of the error messages, or even a short video showing the lag or crashes in action.

Without seeing what’s happening on your side, people here can only suggest general troubleshooting steps, which you’ve clearly been through many times with Adobe.

If the files themselves might be part of the issue, perhaps you could share a test file (with sensitive content removed) so others can open it on their systems and see if the problem is reproducible.

Given the scale of the time and business impact you’ve described, I’d also encourage bringing in a trusted IT professional to sit down with you in person. I know you’ve been through Adobe, Microsoft, and HP support already, but sometimes a fresh set of eyes directly on your system setup can spot a conflict or workflow issue that remote agents miss.

You’re definitely not alone here, and people will be more able to help once we can see the errors or files directly.

*edit* I see some error messages have been shared in another post.

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Thanks so much Eugene. I am starting to work through your suggestions now, with many thanks. Just for your interest, attached in a Word document are just some of the errors from the last three days alone. I also get a blue circle that circles around and around when it is thinking about performing a function but the actions don’t complete so I have to restart InDesign. I have loads of space on my C drive. But when InDesign does restart, I often just get a blank black screen where the workspace should be. This is happening in a lot of my designs. It happens no matter how long the file names are. And they are just a small number of the problems I have had this week, and a very tiny amount of the challenges all year. Attaching the Word document here in case it gives you a clue as to what might be going wrong. If any or all of these are user error, I want to emphasise these are mostly new issues over the past three days, apart from the blank black screen which happens very often. And there have been infinite other problems over hundreds of days over the past year of all shapes and sizes. I did initially have a learning curve where I needed help on how to do things but none of these major problems I am having are related to something I don't know how to do.

Report · Sep 25, 2025

I'd say it's something within the file in this case then, a bad image, or a bad text frame.

You could try create a new document with the same page size - then move your pages to this document.

I have these steps saved

--------------------------------------------------

alternative to check if this works - could be something built up in the background of the file.

Open the document that contains the pages you want to move.

Check the Page Setup of the Source:
With the source document open:

Go to File > Document Setup to see the page size, orientation, and number of pages.

Go to Layout > Margins and Columns to check the margin settings.
Make a note of these details — you’ll need them for the new document.

Create a New Document (Destination):
Go to File > New > Document.

Enter the same page size, orientation, and margins as the source document.
Go to File > Save As, give it a name, and save it somewhere you can find easily.

If it’s not open already, go to Window > Pages.

Switch back to the source document. In the Pages panel, select the page thumbnails you want to move.

To select a range: click the first, hold Shift, then click the last.

With the pages selected, click the menu icon (three lines) at the top right of the Pages panel and choose Move Pages…

Set the Destination:
In the Move Pages dialog box:

Move Pages: This will list your selected pages.
Destination: Choose your new document from the dropdown list.
Location: Choose where the pages should go beginning, end, before or after a certain page.

Click OK and the pages will move into the new document

Save this and see if it works for you now.

----------->I'm sure there's a YouTube tutorial on this too if you're stuck<---------------------------
====================================================================
There's a tried and trusted method too called Divide and Conquer by many

Duplicate your file and keep the original safe

In the duplicate, delete half the pages say in 50 pages it could be page 1-25

Then see if the issue persists

If it does try page 1-12 etc.

You also have to try page 26-50 and so on

By removing matter from the book and trying each section

So if it crashes only on pages 26-50 - then try 26-40 and 41-50 - see if these crash

Then you can narrow it down quickly to a page or set of pages.

==========================

As I think it could be an damaged image or an encoding InDesign doesn't like

It could be a bad font

It could be a text frame that's corrupted

It could be a lot of things

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Thanks so much again Eugene. The problem is it isn't just one document. It is so many that I have worked with over the year. A document can be working fine for pages 1-4 then I duplicate page 4 to add a page 5 and suddenly the document is corrupt. And all I have done is duplicate one page. I have tried all the workarounds – including starting from scratch. Also moving pages from one document to a newly created one. I am trying to attach one of the problem documents but can't due to InDesign crashing etc. In a year, when I have meant to be creating and selling three books a week, I have achieved three books all year. The fact I have successfully completed these books confirms I do know what I am doing to the degree possible for someone who has been working in InDesign for a year, and after training and help here. Adobe tech experts have confirmed it is not me creating the problems. I have had professional graphic designers with over 15 years experience try to figure it out on my computer and they haven’t been able to. I will keep working through your tips.

Report · Sep 26, 2025

The video doesn't really show anything other than the issue, no steps to reproduce.

If you can attach some IDML files here or send me a private message and share over dropbox.

One thing you could try to rule out your own profile

Setup a new user on your Windows machine

Setup a Trial Adobe account with a new email address - and try your files. Or try a brand new file see if the issues persist.

--------------

One thing has occurred to me - are you working from files stored on your computer - not in Dropbox, iCloud, or whatever other cloud storage out there?

All the files are local and not connected to a backup service/cloud service?

Report · Sep 25, 2025

It sounds like you have already done most of the following:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo...

But this compendium can help you track through and reason out the many possible factors.

Mike Witherell

Report · Sep 25, 2025

I have trialed InDesign on five other computers including other high powered computers and same problems.

By @ali_4619

That's, I think, the part that's most puzzling.

I wonder if those are random different machines, or do they have anything in common? For example, belong to the same organization, have the same corporate software installed, connected to the same network etc.

Report · Sep 25, 2025

Hi thanks Leo. I appreciate your thinking. I have trialled InDesign on three of my own computers - my two HP Omen gaming laptops (one purchased this year to exceed Adobe Indd & Photoshop Specs), one two-year-old Lenovo notebook which I bought from my previous work and a relative's brand-new high-powered computer. To me, the logic suggests it must be my profile so I will follow that up with Adobe again. They did assure me it's not my profile though. I'll keep working through the suggestions above in the meantime but am hoping Anubhav from Adobe who has replied here will be able to get to the bottom of it for me.

Report · Sep 26, 2025

I have trialled InDesign on three of my own computers - my two HP Omen gaming laptops (one purchased this year to exceed Adobe Indd & Photoshop Specs), one two-year-old Lenovo notebook which I bought from my previous work and a relative's brand-new high-powered computer.

By @ali_4619

Were you using those computers at the same location (your home or wherever you work), or different locations? In particular, were they connected to the Internet via the same router/WiFi etc., or was it random?

Report · Sep 26, 2025

Thanks Leo. I mostly work at home on my high-speed wifi broadband connection and don't have any problems with any other apps/programmes. There is only my computer at this address and it's not networked. It's not connected in any way to an external business as I work for myself from home. When I installed InDesign on my relative's new high-powered computer two days ago to trial it, the computer was at her house connected to her wifi. I do have a funny feeling that it is going to be something like this that no-one has thought of yet so I really appreciate you considering this on my behalf, and Eugene too of course who is so helpful.

Report · Sep 26, 2025

I replied with other suggestions, not sure if you have seen them as the forum is a bit scattered.

Report · Sep 26, 2025

Hi @ali_4619,

Thanks again for sharing all the details. At this stage we need to isolate the issue step by step so we can understand where it's coming from. Could you please try testing the problem in Safe Mode (https://adobe.ly/3Ii3AVD) and also in a new local admin user profile (https://adobe.ly/4gIQ4ac) and confirm if you see the same behavior there as well?

It would also be very helpful if you could confirm whether this behavior is only happening in InDesign or if you notice similar issues in any of the other Creative Cloud apps on your system.

In addition, please check if GPU Performance is enabled under InDesign Preferences. If it is, try toggling it off and see if that makes a difference. Another test that can sometimes help is to go into Preferences > File Handling and temporarily uncheck Auto-activate Adobe Fonts to see if that improves stability.

Please give these a try and let me know the results, so I can share your findings with the team.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek