InDesign 2025 SLOW

[Bigwig]

Just started using ID 2025 this morning and I'm noticing a LOT of lag time with pretty much any activity. I'm running a Mac Studio with an M2 Ultra, so it's not my computer. I've tried some simple troubleshooting but it is simply not responding like ID 2024. Help!

[mabela001]

I have a blank document and I'm just trying to drag a image from my Mac dock to the page. But b/c it ALWAYS gives me the spinning pinewheel between any action, the placemnt always fails, it just doesn't work. This is just aweful adobe!@ @adobe-adobe  @Tcook 

[pat292345676vuf]

Hide the context bar. It really helped in my case.

[asatkuna2017]

I tried removing the preferences but that didn't work. I had to use ID 2024 instead.

[tomasius188]

For me, it's exactly the same. Every click, every selection of a text frame, everything is extremely slow. Just setting the cursor already causes the hourglass to start. It's absolutely unusable. And when you open the same file with the same performance and cache settings in InDesign 2024, on the same system, it's already much faster. I find it absolutely impossible that the performance has already dropped massively in 2024 and has now reached an unusable level at the lower end of the scale. No matter how powerful the Mac is.

[manuelm21867644]

Hi, i a m also having the same kinds of problems. I use a mac mini m2 16GB and i even see the loading wheel when i shwitch from another app to InDesign. It takes a couple of second before i can see the interface. How can this be? 

And the simplest actions in an almost empty document bring the wheel up again. This is frustrating as hell, i‘m doing this for living.

[mabela001]

I finally got some better/more stable performance after deactivating a large batch of fonts. Thank you to all who gave suggestions...I hope this post helps other users.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Same here, on Mac M1 Max... disabled Context bar, emptied caches, rebuild preferences... There is something wrong with this version.

[Capvel Martain · Accepted solution]

Hi! For me, disable/hide contextual bar might have solve the lack of response ! Maybe because InDesign is always updating this window as you change tool or click on something…

[JRizzo]

This was it! I turned off fonts, had it at fast preview. Nothing worked. This seems to be working for now by disabling the contextual bar. 

[Animatronic]

Simply rebuilding preferences is not a fix here folks. I just did a clean install of OSX and ID 2025 on my M3 MacBook Pro and the InDesign performance...! This is remniscent of 2000-20001 when Adobe started to first bloat their code as they prioritized Windows releases over Mac. It reeks of a Memory Leak to me. It's a beta release at best. And we're paying THEM to beta test their software. Unacceptable.

[abuse removed by moderator]

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

What OS version? 

[Animatronic]

Sequoia 15.1.1 on NOV 2023 16" MacBook Pro with M3 Max chip and 64GB of RAM.

[Animatronic]

It is insane to me that free speech is being moderated in a forum. No abusive language was used in my post and yet the "moderator" saw it fit to edit my post. Then they mark deletion of preferences as "correct answers". Ludicrous. Create some synchronicity between your mommunity and the actual support team as opposed to dismissing user feedback based on 15 years of using your product. Again. This should have never been a release candidtate.

[Arturo L.V.]

Same problem here! InDesign 2025 is running incredibly slow. Just to give one example, when I try to select text in a text box, it takes – and I timed it – a solid 5 seconds for the action to complete. This delay of about 2–5 seconds happens with nearly every click on a new element. It’s absolutely unusable! I downgraded to the 2024 version, and now everything runs smoothly again. (MacPro 2019, Mac OS Ventura)

[Capvel Martain]

try to close the new "contextual tasks bar" (barre des tâches contextuelles" in FRA)…

[Arturo L.V.]

Great tip, thank you! Everything’s running smoothly again now.

[David Nightingale]

I've had similar issues. Indesign 2025 is very slow to respond and very laggy when clicking from one element to another element. A workaround for me that seems to have worked was to close the 'Contextual Task Bar'. Go to Window, and at the bottom is the 'Contextual Task Bar'. To be honest, the 'Contextual Task Bar' is a terrible feature, more often than not, it's in the way of whatever I'm working on. I'm constantly moving it to see the detail behind it. Just turn it off. I'm running 64gb M1 Max Mac Studio, Sequoia 15.1.

[ndelcastillo]

Add me to the list. Mac Studio M1 Max w/64GB RAM running macOS Sequoia 15.1. ID2025 was fine yesterday but today it's nearly unusable. I tried every suggestion offered in this thread and nothing worked. I finally reinstalled ID2024 and it works fine. I don't get it, I've been using ID2025 since the day it was released with no problem, but today it was like molasses. Very frustrating.

[elanas87123280]

This new version is horrible! EVERYTHING lags. I am working on a brand new computer. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

A new computer doesn't mean anything without the specs. 

OS, RAM, Processor, GPU, etc. 

[elanas87123280]

Obviously. Latest Mac OS, 32GB Ram, there's not reason this should be happening. Clearly from the thread it's obvious the problem is Adobe.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Obviously? How would it be obvious?

[leo.r]

Obviously. Latest Mac OS, 32GB Ram, there's not reason this should be happening.

By elanas87123280

And just to make sure: does InDesign 2024 work normally (you can reinstall it from the Creative Cloud app if needed)?

[roman__]

Yes, 19.5 (long support version) is working very well. As I said before, feeling blessed for having the option to go back and meet work deadlines. Potential for improvement @Adobe:

* release updates only after exhaustive testing

* release other updates via beta channels

* make downgrades easier

* make file associations work with whatever the user chooses as default version

[elanas87123280]

Indesign 2024 worked fine. The problem is I'm working in shared files with multiple parties who all had to update to 2025 as well so going backwards to 2024 is not really realistic at this point.

I've tried disabling all the features everyone has suggested but it hasn't made an impact.