InDesign freezes for a few minutes if there's a missing font

[Jeremy AB]

Just noticed this one in the last week or 2 with InDesign 2022 - if I open a document that has a missing font, InDesign freezes for a few minutes. Then the font missing dialog comes up. It doesn't have to be an Adobe Font. But I also notice at this point, there is no option for it to activate any Adobe Fonts that are available. I have to quit and restart InDesign a few times and disabled/enable the Adobe Font setting before it finally activates the font.

macOS Monterey 12.3 - although my coworker is running Catalina and reports the same thing.

[Eugene Tyson]

Hello

Usually logging out from everywhere and rebooting helps.

In InDesign go to Help>Logout

And in Creative Cloud Log Out

Go to Creative Cloud online and Log Out from there.

Then try relaunching Creative Cloud - log in 

Open Indesign and ensure you're logged in on the Help menu

And then try logging in online

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Try resetting your preferences:
The easiest way to reset everything is to delete the InDesign preferences: as soon as InDesign starts to boot hold down Shift, Alt, Ctrl (and Apple/Cmd if working on a Macintosh). A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.
Further info and instructions here if needed:
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

[Jeremy AB]

Updating to the latest version last week seems to ahve motly fixed the problem. My coworker reported improvements too.

But there is still a bit of funkiness that I can't quite seem to pin down. I'll have to test more, but it seems after awhile, Adobe fonts kind of stops working. When I open a file that uses Adobe Fonts, it says the fonts are missing but there is no option to active them and nothing happens.

I don't know exactly what get it working again, but I try the following and eventually the fonts will start activating again:

- quit and restart InDesign

- quit and restart the Creative Cloud app

- toggle the Adobe Fonts setting in Preferences > File handling (if it was enabled, disable it and vice versa)

[Jeremy AB]

I was hoping the recent 17.2.1 would fix this problem but it has not. InDesign still freezes when opening a document with missing fonts. My coworker is complaining about it too.

[Jeremy AB]

It happened again last night. I opened a document created on another computer (same version of InDesign) which used 5 Adobe fonts. InDesign would then freeze for a minute or 2 right after it opened, and then it would display the font missing dialog. No mention of Adobe Fonts, and none of the fonts activated.

I tried closing and opening the document a few times. The same behviour continued, except one time I noticed in the Font dialog that the button for "Enable Adobe Fonts" was there for a split second and then dissappeared.

The only way I got it to work properly was to quit InDesign AND the Creative Cloud app. Opened both again, and then my file... no freeze, and a moment later the fonts enabled. So this seems to fix it for awhile but eventually it happens again.

[Jeremy AB]

Nothing has helped. Both my work computer and home computer (both running the same versions on Monterey) do the same thing. And my friend who's Mac is running Catalina does the same thing. If there's a font missing, opening that file, or switching to an open document with missing fonts, will cause InDesign to freeze for 10+ seconds.

[Jeremy AB]

What's even mroe frustrating is that occsionally the problem goes away and everything is fine. My friend and I both noticed around the same time that the problem was gone last week. We don't even work together - different cities. Makes me wonder if it's a server issue with Adobe.

Of course, the problem didn't take long to come back. So now any document I open with a missing font lags when opening, and I have to manually find each font on Adobe Fonts and activate them individually.

[nosarengonikkitikkitengo]

Unfortunately, it appears the only solution is to disable Adobe Fonts altogether in Settings > Services > Adobe Fonts OFF.

This is a band aid, rather than a solution, and only then if you don't use Adobe Fonts. (I don't).

I hope Adobe fix what is a massive glitch, as a 2 minute long application freeze to open anything with a missing font is not acceptable.