How to turn off automatic font activation

[MikeA-m10]

A week or so ago I accidentally clicked a button to allow Indesign (or Adobe?) to automatically activate fonts that are missing from a document. I can't find where to turn this feature off.

Cheers, Mike

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind disabling the button from the Creative Cloud app as shown in the screenshot below?

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks,

Harshika

[MikeA-m10]

Unfortunately that completely turns off Adobe Fonts. Before I had to option to activate individual fonts when needed. There was a check box next to each missing font. For prepress I need to be able to check individual fonts and make sure they match what the customer sent.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Thanks for elaborating it. Yes so now you will be able to activate the full family of font and not the individual font weight from fonts.adobe.com and search the font you want to activate. Please see the attached screenshot.

Thanks,

Harshika

[MikeA-m10]

Is there a way to keep Indesign from automatically activating fonts? Seems like you're saying it's all or nothing.

[MikeA-m10]

Some fonts have a dozen different versions, some TrueType, some Open Type, some Postscript, and different foundries and versions of each of these. Sometimes customer even sends a mix of the different flavors and versions.

I used to be able to turn on individual fonts as needed and verify that the clients file maintained it’s correct type flow, proper line breaks, etc.

Now if I have adobe fonts turned off I don’t have access to adobe fonts when they are needed. Some clients are using adobe fonts so they are needed.

But if they’ve used a different flavor of a font that is also available from adobe, then I’m in trouble because I can’t be sure to have the correct font type and version. Adobe will activate automatically and I don’t know it until the customer calls up complaining that the type flow is all different.

Is there no way to get back to being able to activate individual fonts as needed? Do I need to go back to an earlier version of Indesign?

[MikeA-m10 · Accepted solution]

Finally stumbled across the location of preference for "Auto-activate Adobe Fonts". It's in preferences/File Handling.

[erics60158124]

I think I am having the same issue, but this setting is already turned off for me.

I want to keep a specific font family from activating when I open old documents so that I am prompted to find/change to my new font. I don't want to deactivate all Adobe fonts. Just one family in particular.

Should the method above work?

[karend21127755]

I would probably keep the auto activate function turned off, but you should also be able to go into the Creative Cloud app and turn off that specific family by going to Manage Fonts and searching for the font you no longer are wanting.

[erics60158124]

Should this box be checked or unchecked if I don't want to auto-activate a font? I have the check box turned off, but Source Sans Pro still auto-activates.

[Mickey5C8F]

Mine is doing the same thing! Any updates on how to stop it?

[CZarza]

what program is ths dialog box from?

[erics60158124]

Adobe InDesign

[Jill27008713z7tc]

Has there been a resolution to this? I'm on mac indesign 2023 recent update and non-adobe fonts that have been removed from suitcase are still auto activating when opening old documents. To comply with the new OTF font requirement I need to replace these fonts with new OTF fonts but the old keep auto-activating even with the auto-activate button clicked off.

[Jill27008713z7tc]

acutally meant removed from font book - not suitcase

[Kris Hunt]

This checkbox does not exist in Photoshop 2023. What the heck, Adobe?

[DavidMatos]

Yet another arrogant, time consuming, productivity damaging feature from Adobe.

[defaultdv2wmk6jgast]

This seems to be another nightmare Adobe has created for me. As advised above, I switched off Adobe fonts, but the InDesign Background Tasks keep trying to replace my original Proforma fonts with Adobe Proforma fonts (which do not have small caps, etc.). Also, all my Proforma Small Caps fonts do not appear in the InDesign font menu even though they are activated in FontExplorer X Pro.

[DavidMatos]

As if it wasn’t enough, Adobe now induces users to Save to Creative Cloud by default in Illustrator, by removing the (command+S) shortcut and forcing users to manually click the ‘On your computer’ button. Amazing, ha?

[meh67]

UGH!!! I have this problem as well. In Indesign I do have the "Auto-active adobe fonts" Turned OFF - but Adobe fonts STILL keeps loading THEIR version of Interstate (which sux), instead of the one I bought for good money because it has a monospace version of the font (Tabular Lining) in OpenType features so my tables line up. Why have a button in Indesign Preferences to NOT auto-load the Adobe fonts and have it not work??? 
I literally have to go into Adobe Fonts, find Interstate that it KEEPS LOADING even while working on the same file - and turn it off over and over and over...
Adobe seems to keep making "improvements" that make me less productive.

[David__B]

Hi @meh67

Thanks for reporting the issue. I've reached out to our developers. I'll provide an update when I hear back.

Thanks,
Dave

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @meh67,

Could you share the version of InDesign and your OS details? Also, please check if the font is duplicated in your system fonts. If you see Interstate listed in Creative Cloud Desktop App > Fonts, check if it’s activated there and let me know. If the Adobe Fonts version is active, try turning it off. If the issue persists, clearing your InDesign font cache might help (ref: Adobe Font Troubleshooting). Let me know how it goes!

^
Abhishek

[meh67]

Adobe Indesign 2025 (version 20.2)

MacBook Pro - 16-indh 2019

2.4 Ghz 8-Core Inter Core i9

AMD Radeon Pro 550M 8GB
Intel UHD Graphics 630
1536 MB

Memory: 64GB 2667 Mhz DDR4

I have Interstate OpenType which I purchased located on my computer. I have this font activated for use on my computer through the type activation program "TypeFace". This version has the OpenType features I need. When I open up an existing Indesign project to update the tables, The tables dont use the Tabular version of Interstate - so I go into Adobe Cloud Desktop App > Font and Lo-and-Behold Interstate is activated there. As soon as I deactive it and go back to Indesign - everything looks fine as apparently it then allows my purchased version of Interstate (which was originally applied) to work. 

In Adobe Indesign  Preferences > File handling I have "Auto-add Adobe Fonts" unchecked.
I think if there is a way to completely remove it from Adobe Font that would work. I have deleted it over and over, but it still keeps activating when I open up my projects to update.
Ill try clearing my Indesign Font Cache and let you know.

[neilm15106706]

Did cleaning the cache help at all? We have exactly the same isuse. Fonts opened in ConnectFonts are overridden by the CC Adobe fonts. Which can't be packaged so we cannot submit them to Veeva!

[meh67 · Accepted solution]

No, what ended up working was completely deleted Interstate from the list in Adobe Cloud Fonts rather than just making it inactive. Then restarting everything and it seemed to work then.

It seemed to be a bug with Adobe Cloud Fonts wanting to use their version of the font even with auto-activation unchecked - so removing it from my Adobe Type list completely made it work. At least, thats what I think made it work. I thought I had DELETED it before, but I think I just inactivated it.