Skip to main content
Known Participant
October 15, 2024
Question

Constant Spinning Wheel After Actions in InDesign 2025 Update

  • October 15, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1631 views

This new udpate gives me a contstant spinning wheel almost after each action I try to make. Select an item, move an item, open a panel, open a menu, anything really—each interactions causes the wheel to appear for 1-2sec. My productivity has been completely obliterated. Anyone else having this issue?

 

MacBook Pro 2023

M2 Max

32 GB 

Sequoia 15.0.1

 

 

<Title renamed by MOD>

3 replies

Participating Frequently
May 9, 2025

I'm having this issue with version 20.3.1. 

 

I don't see a pattern or reason. Sometimes it bombs out while I'm relinking images. Sometimes it bombs out while I'm creating or updating style sheets. It just happens in the middle of any task I perform. It's not time related. I can sometimes work for 10+ minutes before it happens and other times it bombs out in seconds of me opening the same file.

 

Super frustrating. Where I am right now I'm about to start taking my files over to Affinity Publisher, becuase it's more stable than InDesign.

 

I teach InDesign and whenever a new course starts (which was 2 weeks ago) I reset my preferences to show students who to set up. So its not a preference thing. I don't currently have any Adobe fonts activated (because I want the freedom to be able to move to Affinity and any non-Adobe platform if I so wish without being tied down by Adobe). I use a font manager, so I don't have a million active fonts on the system. Computer is restarted. All the software is up to date.

Community Expert
May 9, 2025

Hello @makusvdw 

 

I installed 20.3.1 on my Windows 10 8gb machine and it works fine, slow to load up but once it's loaded it works as expected.

 

I suspect something else going on for you. 

I have never encountered these issues you're encountering or anyone else has on the forums - InDesign has always run smoothly for me. 

 

For the best part I typically use 2022 - I have not moved to 2023 but plan to once I complete some tests between files. 

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

In recent months we've noticed third-party apps - especially on Macs can interfere, how Apple let other apps override other app settings is a mystery. 

If you have Typeface, Magnet, WebRoot, or other third party software. you should try disabling them and see if things improve - things like VPNs Firewalls and all that stuff. 

===========

One quick way to test if it's a third party app is to start in safe mode, see if InDesign behaves as expected. Then you will know - works on Mac and Windows. 

=========

Sometimes it's a user profile permissions issue (sounds strange) but if you setup a new user profile on your computer Windows or Mac doesn't matter - then see if it behaves normally.

=========

You can always rollback to a previous version of Indesign

Rollback to a previous InDeisgn version

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html#:~:text=Open%20the%20Creative%20Cloud%20desktop,down%20list%2C%20select%20Other%20Versions.

 

But for the most part sometimes old files act weird with new software - files created in previous versions of the software opening in a new version.

If a document is not behaving well then try 

File>Export 

Choose IDML

Open the IDML in InDesign
Save the file as a new InDesign file with a new name
See if the issue persists.

 

====

Try resetting your preferences:

InDesign 19.3 and newer go to Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart.

Or
Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.



More in-depth cleanse of preferences

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

 

=====

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

 

===

On a side note - I was a beta tester for Affinity and I didn't really notice any performance improvements or stability enhancements, both work with ease. However, I did find that Affinity lacks a lot of features I require so I ended up not continuing with it. And bringing these up with Affinity was met with rejection that the idea was not required which was strange to submit feedback and be met with a wall. Now it's taken over by Canva, I'm not sure what path it will take. 

 

But whatever works. 

 

I don't use Adobe fonts either, I prefer to keep the version the same, and use font managers etc. like you do. 

 

 

Participating Frequently
May 9, 2025

Hi Eugene, 

Thanks for the detailed reply.

 

I've been using InDesign since 1999, and before that QuarkXPRess and PageMaker. I have also not experienced issues like this. I've always bragged that InDesign is one of the most stable apps I use. 

 

I do not have Typeface, Magnet or WebRoot on my computer. No VPN running, I only have VPN when I need to grab something off the server at the college, but when I do that then I'm not using any of my design software.

 

The only thing that changed is the InDesign update.

 

I agree, Affinity Publisher does not have all the features I need for the work that I do, but at least its stable and it doesn't crash on me every 2 minutes. Then I'd rather find a workaround instead of having to force quit whenever the Spinning Rainbow of Death comes up and retrace my last few steps on the recovery file. 

 

Currenly I'm saving my document after every two steps I make, because I'm done with losing work. 🤯

Participant
January 27, 2025

Has there been any solution to this issue. I'm constantly plagued with the same thing. I've reset my preferences numerous times without any change. 

leo.r
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 27, 2025
quote

Has there been any solution to this issue. I'm constantly plagued with the same thing. I've reset my preferences numerous times without any change. 


By @Mark38123569umxc

 

did you update to InDesign 20.1?

leo.r
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 15, 2024
Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
October 15, 2024

Hello @mabela001,

 

Thank you for reaching out! I completely understand how frustrating this must be, especially when it's impacting your productivity. In addition to the troubleshooting steps suggested by leo.r, if possible, a screen recording of the issue would help us further diagnose it. You can also try resetting your preferences following this guide: Setting Preferences in InDesign.

Additionally, could you let us know if this issue is specific to a particular file or if it happens with all files? Are you facing similar performance issues with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications, or is it just InDesign?

 

Looking forward to your response so we can assist you better!

 

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao