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InDesign too slow to use

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 3, 2025
6 replies
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Any solutions to InDesign slow performance? It takes 5 seconds to type one character.

I have tried the current version and other versions back to 19.5.3 and no difference.

I read all the articles and did the things on the lists. (uninstalls, reboots, reset preferences, etc.)

I've spent 2 days on this and am getting nowhere. I've used InDesign since CS2.

Company-managed computer is 9 years old, but I think it meets specs:

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Dell, Xeon processor wth AVX2 support , 32GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro M4000.

Computer passes all self-diagnistics and no memory-hog programs are running. Task Manager looks normal.

All files are on the local SSD drive. Just basic conventional 2 to 4 page docs.

This started after installing 20.2. Went back to 19.5.3 and it was fine for a week. Now sluggishness happens all the time, even when reinstalling various versions.

Not blaming InDesign since it works fine on my newer home laptop. I think it's either my old computer or the installation. Is 20.2 OK with Win10?

Should I do a complete uninstall of InDesign and start over?

Anything else to check or try?

Performance

Correct answer Robert at ID-Tasker

Quite a bit with this document. It's been updated/converted annually for the past 10 years.

Perhaps you've hit upon something!!

Maybe it's best to copy to a new blank document instead of doing 'Save-As' on real old ones..

Quite a bit with this document. It's been updated/converted annually for the past 10 years.

Perhaps you've hit upon something!!

Maybe it's best to copy to a new blank document instead of doing 'Save-As' on real old ones..

By @fiedler

Yeah, I've even posted about that not so long ago - moving pages to a new document is much better even than IDMLing - as it cleanups everything better - IDMLing / Save As exports / saves everything anyway - but moving pages transfers only stuff that is really in use - removes everything that is unnecessary - all unused styles.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi Fiedler,

ICYMI:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshooting/td-p/11990234

Mike Witherell

F

fiedlerAuthor

Known Participant

Mike, can you repost that link?

[Reposted and working correctly now.]

InDesign behaved for a few days and now it's back to a crawl. Being able to type one character every 5 seconds is not productive. Have I missed something?

Is ID compatible with Windows 10 Pro? Our corporate world is still on Win10 because replacing servers and every computer is quite an undertaking for a small business.

ID runs fine on my home Win 11 laptop, but we are prohibited from working from home and we can't connect outside devices to the compnay network.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@fiedler

What link?

F

fiedlerAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for all the suggestions. IT updated my drivers which didn't help.

I uninstalled all versions of InDesign.

The Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool requires Adobe account admin access. Not wanting to do another IT request, I hunted down InDesign files in Adobe folders, Program Files, and Program Data folders and deleted them (after making backup copies).

Reinstalled the current version of ID.

More sluggish than ever.

Copied my latest document to a new blank one. Back to acting normally now.

To answer some questions.

IT department controls Windows updates, so I don't see what is going on. Could be related to that.

About 37 Adobe fonts installed, one purchased set, and a couple of freebies.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @fiedler,

Thanks for the update! Since moving the content to a new document helped, it does sound like the original file may have had some corruption. Please confirm if this sluggishness only happen with certain files, or do you see it even with brand-new documents?

Let me know how it goes!

^

Abhishek

F

fiedlerAuthor

Known Participant

I have two identical documents.

Open the old one alone and the whole program slows down.

Open the newly created copy alone and it runs just fine.

Have both the new and old open at the same timeand the whole program slows down.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Another easy thing to try would be to sign out of the Creative Cloud Desktop App and then sign in again onm the possibility it's a prolem with activating Adobe Fonts...

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@fiedler

Check recent Windows updates.

A few weeks ago people reported a lot of problems with some KBxxxxxxx updates.

On another note - how many fonts do you have installed - by Adobe and in the system?

Peter Spier

Community Expert

@Robert at ID-Tasker ...

@fiedler is using Win 10, not 11, so the KB updates are a red herring, I think.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Peter Spier

They are still releasing updates for Win10 😉

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/march-11-2025-kb5053606-os-builds-19044-5608-and-19045-5608-8beab4af-42c8-4469-9273-d241597431c3

Peter Spier

Community Expert

It sounds like a software conflict of some sort. I run Win10 and don't have any speed problems.

Try running MSCONFIG and turn off whatever you think might be a problem and is not essential, including browser helpers. This is a bit more targeted than starting in Safe Mode, but it wouldn't hurt to try that first to confirm athat InDesign runs correctly with only the basics.

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

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

There's also lots of conversation in similar threads like this one
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-18-2-is-extremely-slow-especially-when-editing-text-on-windows-11-machine/m-p/13742279