InDesign freezes when editing text

[paulineb7653733]

Hello,

Since some time, my InDesign became slow on heavy documents (more than ten pages...). This happens specially when I edit some text or any image in the document. As soon as I do some modification, even a small one, the application will start processing and freeze for about 10-30 seconds. On every interaction it happens so it really impact negatively my workflow . 

To know, I use this computer since a few years and I often work on "heavy" documents and I never had this issue before. I tried the "IMDL solution" but it doesn't seems to solve the problem. Working on a server or a local file doesn't impact the slowness. While working on my secondary computer, I have the exact same problem.

Any ideas on what I should do ? 

Thank you by advance 

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @paulineb7653733,

Thank you for reaching out and describing the issue you’re experiencing with InDesign. It sounds frustrating, especially when working with larger documents.

To better assist you, could you please provide the following information:

1. The version of InDesign you're using.

2. The details of your operating system (macOS version or Windows version).

In the meantime, I suggest testing InDesign in Safe Mode to check if any background processes or settings are causing the slowdown. Here's how you can do that based on your operating system:

• For Windows: You can start your PC in Safe Mode by following these steps: Safe Mode for Windows

• For macOS: To start in Safe Mode on a Mac, follow this guide: Safe Mode for macOS

Once in Safe Mode, try editing your InDesign document and see if the issue persists. This will help identify if the problem is related to third-party software or settings.

Let me know how it goes, and I’ll be happy to guide you further based on the results.

Best,

Abhishek Rao 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@paulineb7653733 

Do I guess correctly, that you work on a Mac?

Have you upgraded recently to 2025? And then problem started? Downgrade to 2024.

[paulineb7653733]

Hello @Abhishek Rao and @Robert at ID-Tasker  and thank you for your time. 

To answer to system's details questions, here are the info :

• InDesign version : 20.0.1
• OS : Windows 10 version 22H2

@Abhishek Rao for the "safe mode solution" : since my computeur belongs to my company, I had to ask my IT department to restart the computer in this mode. They told me it wasn't a really good way to do so since a lot of common services wouldn't work anymore in this mode.

Before going back to you I've been further in my resaerches and discovered that this problem seems to impact only the document I am currently working on. For example, on a much larger file (130 pages vs 40 pages for my current document), I had no problem working with it.  My conclusion is that something on this file, or the file itself, is slowing down InDesign.

Do you have ever heard of this problem ? I there a way to spot what is slowing down the document , or to "clean" it ?

Than you by advance

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@paulineb7653733

Might be a problem with fonts - you have multiple copies in multiple places in the system - or your file got corrupted - try IDMLing - export as IDML, open, save with a new name - do not overwrite your original file.

[paulineb7653733]

To go further, I kept testing things ony my file, since I know the problem comes from inside this specific page. Turns out that when I start editing content outside my main text-chain, I have no longer slowness problem, which seems to mean that the problem come from one specific element inside my main text-chain. So I started to delete some parts of my text to figure out what part whas causing slowness. I identified a group of 4 pages, when I delete the text of 4 of them the issuie no longer happens. The strange thing is that slowness will happen again if I leave the content of one of them, no matter which one. This seems to mean that those 4 pages are the problem, but not a specific element on one of them (i tried to remove text only, images onyl, links etc...). 

I guess all I have to do now is to erase content of these four pages and edit it again and hope that the problem do not appear again.... 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@paulineb7653733

Do IDMLing that I've suggested in my earlier post - it should fix your document. 

[paulineb7653733]

@Robert at ID-Tasker 

As explained in orignal post, I tried this technique earlier and it doesn't fix the problem, unfortunately. 

[Mike Witherell]

I read someone's comment yesterday that suggested that the slowdown condition of InDesign 2025 is related to using cloud-based storage and the fact that InDesign is checking continuously on updating an adobefnt file. The suggestion to test was to turn off or not use the cloud-based file storage and see if it affects the speed/response of InDesign and your document.

[paulineb7653733 · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone and happy new year.

Sorry for my late response.

I guess I managed to find the problem and how to avoid it: after working arround with the file, I noticed that what caused slowness was two cross-references in my text, each one pointing to another chapter of the book (for context I am working on a whole book and each chapter is divided in a separate INDD file). What fixes the problem is opening in parallel the linked INDD files, and then I could work normally. 

I don't know if this problem happens everytime another INDD file is cross-referenced in a composition or if this is also caused by my document's wieght though. 

Anyway now I can get back to work as normally. Thank you everyone for your time and your support ! 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@paulineb7653733

Yes, Cross-References between INDD files will slow down InDesign - if all related INDD documents are not open at the same time.