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scottmosher
scottmosher
Inspiring
May 18, 2018
Answered

InDesign running slow. Spinning ball constantly appearing.

  • May 18, 2018
  • 45 replies
  • 106280 views

Ok, I'm having CONSTANT slow drag with InDesign. The spinning beach ball appears while I"m doing almost ANYTHING, even after quitting/re-starting the program, and even re-starting the OS. I'm running High Sierra on Mac, with 40GB of memory, so that shouldn't be the issue, but almost anything I'm doing, I'm getting major lag. Any ideas? This is really ridiculous. Thanks!

    Correct answer Brad Kumar

    If you are still having issues with one of our Extensis products, please contact one of our Support Agents using the link below:

    https://help.extensis.com/hc/en-us/requests/new


    Hi Jeff. I actually did open a ticket with Extensis and a helpful person suggested I temporarily turn off FMCore to see if the problem persisted. Well, I didn't actually turn off the Type Core in preferences, but rather, I turned off the "Enable Document Tracking" option and after that I noticed a SIGNIFICANT improvement to my interruptions… the spinning beach was reduced by I would estimate 80%, so I'm quite happy with the result. Hope this helps some others on this thread. Thanks!

    45 replies

    Show previous replies
    Jeff Witchel, ACI
    Community Expert
    Jeff Witchel, ACICommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 30, 2018

    I just ran through this entire thread and there are a couple of questions that I din't see mentioned. If I missed these, I apologize.

    Are you using a custom preflight that is constantly checking your documents in the background? I've found that when working with layouts that have lots of large images and transparency, Preflight can slow things down to a crawl (including the spinning wheel of death on a Mac). Try turning off Preflight and see if everything speeds up dramatically.

    Another possibile culprit, are you working in documents with lots of high-res images and complex vector files with your Display Performance set to High Quality Display. Every change you make can slow performance down to the point that you can't work. Try Typical View and see if Performance picks up.

      Nicholas Petropoulos
      Nicholas Petropoulos
      Inspiring
      April 19, 2020

      Jeff. Having recently upgraded to MacOS Catalina, I too had massive LAG and SLOW reaction times with Adobe CC, in particular InDesign. After experimenting with various ideas, I narrowed the culprit to the 5K LG Ultra Fine monitor display seetings.  If you change the colour PREFS from LG UltraFine to Apple RGB in the display settings, Adobe CC works brilliant. Seems Adobe has bypassed the code to LG UltraFine Display for MAC OS Catalina. Hope this helps. Pass this on please.

       

      Ps. Explains why Mohave wasn't working well either. All good now though. The system is flying.

      A
      Alicia Decaro
      Participating Frequently
      October 12, 2018

      I have been working on Macs and in Adobe for 25 years. My machines are kept in immaculate condition and ALWAYS upgraded. My previous machine as 5 years old and still ran like a champ. My desktop is 9 years old and I would still use it if I didn't need the mobility of a MacBook Pro. I am a huge fan of Adobe, but you can't help to admit that there is an issue that MANY people are having and they have yet to address the problem or giving any reasonable "fix" for it. I have the exact same programs with the same cloud backups and InDesign is running fine. I know it's difficult to fix a problem only affecting some of the population, but it seems like this is an issue that they aren't even addressing. My comment about the upgrade was simply based on my own experience. I took the machine to Apple and they confirmed the operating system and configuration were fine. Is it an Apple issue, an Adobe issue or a user issue? Who knows, all I know is I have lost a lot of time and money on this and there are many more that are in the same boat that cannot afford to simply replace a machine.

        Srishti Bali
        Community Manager
        Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        October 12, 2018

        Hi there,

        Old or new, system should fulfill the specifications required by an application: InDesign system requirements.

        In case your system fulfills these specifications, please contact our support center at Contact Customer Care for live troubleshooting sessions. We will definitely address the issue and try our best to solve it.

        In case you need any help while initiating chat please refer to this link: https://indd.adobe.com/view/71f09a02-3841-4249-b701-14276522cf0e

        Regards,

        Srishti

        A
        Alicia Decaro
        Participating Frequently
        October 12, 2018

        I did, on 5 separate occasions. All did the same steps and no one fixed it. They blamed DropBox, Fusion and corrupt fonts. One rep did say he thought it had something to do with the Creative Cloud, but then said it may be something with my network. After many hours on the phone, I finally gave up and just had to deal with it.

        A
        Alicia Decaro
        Participating Frequently
        October 11, 2018

        Dropping my laptop and getting a new MacBook Pro solved the issue. I really think it's an issue with upgrading from InDesign 2017 to 2018. This is an Adobe Fail.

          BobLevine
          Community Expert
          BobLevineCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          October 11, 2018

          That is a rather unfounded conclusion. The two versions have nothing to do with each other.

          My conclusion is your old machine was improperly configured in some way and the issue could have to do with multiple in place operating system upgrades.

          W
          williamm97875483
          Participant
          October 11, 2018

          Maybe the first part is unfounded, but the second part is true. InDesign CC 2018 is a fail. 40 seconds to save a document after adding a comma. Files forever looping in recovery mode. And the "dump your preferences" gem is straight out of the Quark Xpress playbook circa 1996.

            A
            Alicia Decaro
            Participating Frequently
            September 14, 2018

            I have this issue and been on the phone repeatedly with Adobe. Here are all of the steps Adobe has given me that they say will fix my problem, but have not:

            • Trashed preferences (4 times on 4 different calls)
            • Uninstalled, cleaned and reinstalled the program (3 times on 3 different calls)
            • Turned off Auto-Activation on fonts
            • Removed Suitcase and all of the supporting files
            • Removed Dropbox and all of the supporting files

            The only resolutions I have found is if I save the file as an .imdl file and continue working, the drag goes away. I'm not sure why, but have found this works. Hopefully it works for the rest of you, as I have tried other "fixes" people have posted and found them unhelpful.

            Been a long time user of these products (working in them over 20 years) and this has been the most frustrating issue. Adobe really needs to solve this one, as I see this issue popping up more and more.

              scottmosher
              scottmosherAuthor
              Inspiring
              September 14, 2018

              Wow, that's a completely ridiculous solution from Adobe. Just trash your computer while you are at it. Scorched Earth solution. Ridiculous. Sounds like they are passing the buck or have No solution. How much productive time did you lose? Crazy.

                A
                Alicia Decaro
                Participating Frequently
                September 14, 2018

                Scott,

                The best solution they came up with was working offline, which was a bit helpful but not practical AT ALL! Hours and days have been lost on this, I'm feeling very frustrated and rather disappointed in Adobe.

                Hope my suggestion helps you.

                  twaritar3263062
                  twaritar3263062
                  Participating Frequently
                  May 18, 2018

                  Hi Scott,

                  Sorry to hear that.

                  Please try resetting preferences for InDesign and update application and check if that helps.

                  Set preferences in Adobe InDesign 

                  If this does not work, feel free to update this thread so that we can further assist you.

                  Regards

                  Twarita

                  scottmosher
                  scottmosherAuthor
                  Inspiring
                  May 18, 2018

                  I don't really want to reset my preferences as then I'm going to lose all my settings.... InDesign is up to date.

                    R
                    rpr
                    Participating Frequently
                    July 9, 2021

                    Hi Shristi,

                    So is it safe to delete the cache and preferences files in Locations?

                    Thanks

                    Ryan


                    Old thread but still seems relevant since it seems to be an ongoing issue... like all adobe issues.  I just wanted to add to this, since it's always the firsr suggestion, that trashing my preferences has never made any noticable difference for isseus Ive had and continue to have with indesign.. for years. Uninstalling and reinstalling everything helps for a bit but not long.

                    absolutley hate using indesign lately, it's a painful, misreable user experience and more time is wasted problem solving than anything else. 

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