How to Fix Typing Lag Issues in InDesign on MacBook Pro M3 Max

Report · Oct 15, 2024

I've had Adobe CC installed on an M3 Max Mac Book Pro for about 4 months. For the most part it's been issue-free. Starting yesterday, I began experiencing a 2-4 second lag between typing characters in an active text box and seeing those characters appear. Same for inserting a cursor in a paragraph, or selecting a text box or pulling down a menu.

I've tried removing the prefs and have even un-installed and re-installed InDesign, yet the problem persists. I've seen some comments about this problem from a few years back; possibly growing pains when Apple switched to Apple Silicon. Could this be an M3-related problem?

Up until yesterday, Oct 14, 2024, I had no typing lag or any kind of lag. I run a plain system with Adobe CC, wacom driver, MS office and Articulate Storyline. Thank you for any suggestions!

Report · Oct 15, 2024

what version of InDesign? is it possible that your InDesign 2024 auto-updated to InDesign 2025 (which just has been released), and therefore you experience this issue in the new version? I saw other users reported similar issue with InDesign 2025. Note: you can re-install InDesign 2024 (19.x) from the Creative Cloud app if you don't have it installed anymore).

Report · Oct 16, 2024

I had downloaded ID '25 at some point but I don't believe it auto-updated...I uninstalled what I think was '24. I just removed ID then installed 19.5 to see how that problem is affected. Thank you for that suggestion!

Report · Oct 15, 2024

I had this happen when I had multiple GREP Styles applied to paragraph styles in the story. When I disabled them the lag went away. See if that is the issue.

To disable the GREP Styles I duplicated the paragraph styles and removed the GREP Style formatting from the duplicates then use Find/Change to apply the duplicate styles. When I was done I used Find/Change again to switch them back. TO make sure I had changed all of them I deleted the duplicate styles. When I was not warned they were in use I knew I had not missed anything. I undid the delete because I wanted to keep the styles for future lag-free edits.

Report · Oct 16, 2024

Just checked and no GREP styles used. However, looks like something very useful once the lag issue relative to them is solved. Thank you!

Report · Oct 26, 2024

I have noticed the exact same behavior as OP. I've uninstalled v20 (2025) for now.

I thought this lag was related to recent backups and heavy cloud syncing the past few days, but I've noticed the problem persisting today long after all syncs are complete. The lag is only in InDesign. As part of my workflows, I'm working in Illustrator, Chrome, etc., and the problem only exists in InDesign. Every few keystrokes while working in a text frame (typing), the characters just stop... then they catch up in 1-2 seconds. The problem occurs again after a few keystrokes. It's impossible to work on my project (detailed user manual). I've reverted my project files to 2024 for now and I'm uninstalling 2025 (because even setting the "Always open with" setting to default to ID 2024 does not work).

Reporting for visibility and following this thread.

Report · Oct 26, 2024

Last week I was experiencing a lag with InDesign 2025. The lag went away for me when I visited Photoshop and its preferences and set the amount of RAM it consumes down from 70% (seems a default) to a more reasonable 30% on my macbook pro. Restarted PS and ID and the InDesign 2025 lag was gone.

That seems an unlikely cause, but it seemed to work for me.

Another thing I did was prune back fonts. So, I cannot be certain which step I took helped, or whether they both helped.

How is that for an indefinite assertion?!

Mike Witherell