InDesign 2025 Lagging on MacBook Air with M3 Chip

[krzysiekt44191413]

Something terrible happened after InDesign upgrade to 2025 version, MacOS's spinning beach ball spins every time the cursor moves, and InDesign is lagging soooo badly (I work on MBA 15” M3, RAM 24GB, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1). Have you experienced something like this? Is there any solution for this?

<Title renamed by MOD>

[Eugene Tyson]

A new version of InDesign - a New version of the OS 

There's going to be teething issues - 

As per the min spec 
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/indesign/system-requirements.html

Os 15.x is not supported yet 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-compatibility-concerns-with-macos-15-se...

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Adobe self says InDesign IS compatible with MacOs 15 since version 19.5 Eugene...

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/macos-sequoia-compatibility-common-issues.html

[Eugene Tyson]

Thanks - conflicting info 

It's the same every release of a new Mac OS - the forum is swamped with users with issues. 

And with information not updated everywhere it's hard to know

[HD Schellnack · Accepted solution]

Dear Eugene, I reckon it's not the OS. ID24 ran just fine (as did all CC Apps, oh wonder) on the Public Beta(s) of Sequoia and on the final release as well. After installing ID25 the problems started – if I had to take a wild guess it was something to do with the fonts / preferences. 

I sure wish, ID would get a lot more love from Adobe, frankly. There's even a ton of things that you could do with LLMs here (but not with firefly, probably). There is so much potential for an application that works for print, social, maybe some simple animation – and we get Adobe Express 😄

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@HD Schellnack

Where have you got ID 2025? 

Beta or something? 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@HD Schellnack

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/whats-new.html

It's still "2024" - even if its "20.0" 

Sorry, I don't have access to my laptop and info on the website is a bit misleading. 

[krzysiekt44191413]

[DragonfliesDesign]

The 2025 Adobe Suite was released October 10th with the Summit. I am also experiencing lag with my Macbook M1 Pro with Sequoia 15. ID25 contains new generative AI features. I don't know if that has anything to do with it but the lag is so bad I will likely uninstall and go back to ID24 until it's corrected.

[Ranessa]

I totally took off all 2025 updates and reinstalled 2024 and my computer is working fine now. It is something with the 2025 update.

I’ll just wait until they get all the bugs out.

Thanks!

[wotUwant]

Yes that is what I ended up doing and have been working happily for days now! I am sure it is the 2025 update.

[HD Schellnack]

Same here. M1Ultra, 64GB, 4 TB, Sequoia — spinning ball when you edit text and jump out of the text, select an object, basically everything. Switching Tab does not work, Indesign stays in Background. 2024 was running just fine. 

All for KI-features I sure as heck do not need in a Layout-Software.  In PS they are fine (although basically you have to use other software, bc flux is so much better than firefly), but in Indesign? Sigh...

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@krzysiekt44191413, @HD Schellnack

Can you go back to Sonoma? 

I'm not a Mac user but saw some articles that Sequoia have some network problems - not sure if it has been fixed already - but can you try disabling network cards / WiFi? 

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Hide that 'floating' Context Bar! That will speed things up. It is slow with Text frames.

[HD Schellnack]

Wouldn't want to go back to Sonoma, Sequoia seems to be a bit more stable all things considered and CC24 ran quite fine on that platform since the first public beta. 

The Context Bar is the first thing I deactivated — great idea in PS and would be fine in ID as well... but not for image-generation. (Why is Adobe so crazy for LLM?) 

what seems to have worked for me:

clear font cache / run Onyx. 
restart

clear ID preferences. 

runs okay for the moment, let's see what happens. 

[johnf39304004]

I cleared the InDesign Preferences and it works like it should (for now at least)

[HD Schellnack]

Well, it just started again. seems to be a bug in some way. 

[HD Schellnack]

And again. I basically reset my preferences every second day now. For an update with basically no real new functionality. I consider going back to 2024-version. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@HD Schellnack

How many fonts do you have installed / activated? 

Can you check if you've duplicates? 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-2025-v20-0-crashes-upon-redo/m-p/149299...

[Ricardo281378713tcu]

I'm having the same problem. After I edited some text and press ESC to leave it takes literally 2 seconds until I can click something else and the panels restart. Never happened to me in the last version.

[HD Schellnack]

It's also consistent, I think – the other Macs in the Studio have the same problem, all M1Max. Basically lagging, slow, beachballs. And all this for features the App doesn't need, that add nothing to the workflow. 

[Ricardo281378713tcu]

We've only updated one and left the others on the last version. The difference is noticible. Will push back this machine to the last version and leave this new version until they make us change 😄

[HD Schellnack]

Just re-installed ID19 as well. After resetting my preferences it took about 30 Minutes to be slow again, 

Interesting, as AI, PS and so on all seem to work well. 

I am truly afraid that Indesign is not getting enough love at Adobe, which is a shame. It is basically somethign we work every day in and I 'd guess that is the case for most design companies. ID for the real design, AI for vector graphics, PS for image-editing. But who knows, maybe all the magazines, books and catalogues are done in Illustrator these days? 

[Eugene Tyson]

Well I recently moved from 2019 to 2022 InDesign on MacBook M3 and no issues with it at all running slow.

Unfortunately - it may be something else else slowing down InDesign - maybe some 3rd party software like a firewall, VPN or antivirus.

Maybe you could try to restart the computer in Safe Mode and run Indesign and see if the issue persists.

If it doesn't then you know it's a 3rd party app 

[HD Schellnack]

2024 runs smoothly, 2025 does not. It has nothing to do with the system around the software, it is a bug within ID. It is gone when I clear preferences and returns. I'd bet it is some cache or preferences degradation, probably to do with systems that have a lot of fonts or something. I am sorry, but for the money spent on CC I expect it to work on a regular current MacOS installation and not in Safe Mode only :-D. This is not some one-dev-freeware that can be a bit funky when VPN is on (and it is not, just the usual drivers, Loupedeck, Wacom and so on). 24 runs just fine, going back to it felt like the actual upgade after three days in ID20 😄