Issue with InDesign 2025 on Sequoia – Export to pdf takes too long

[François402]

Just bought a new MacMini with M4.

Exporting a simple InDesign 2025 text page to pdf on my old iMac Monterey 12.7 OS takes 1/2 second.

Exporting the same file on my new MacMini Sequoia 15.2 OS the 45 second.

Worried how long it will take for a normal artwork with pictures

Is that a known issue ?

[Mike Witherell]

What version of macOS are you running?

Is InDesign 2025 patched up to 20.0.1 ?

[François402]

Old machine : Monterey 12.7
New machine : Sequoia 15.2
InDesign 20.0.1

[Mike Witherell]

Other mac users are reporting slow PDF export. Have you ever considered experimenting by resetting preferences to see whether or not it helps the problem?

Have you experimented with turning off Time Machine to see what effect it has on InDesign?

Here is more to read about generic troubleshooting. 

[François402]

Clicked the Reset on quit in the prefs.

Quit

Reopen, created a new document, put a text box, insert placeholder text in Arial

Export to pdf took 40 seconds…

Nochange…

I'll go to see your "generic troubleshooting" link

Thanks

[Eugene Tyson]

Restart your computer in Safe Mode and launch only InDesign - does it take as long?

If not - then a 3rd party app is causing the issue. 

You have to restart in normal mode and then try disabling applications one by one to find out which is causing it. 

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If it's the same in safe mode

Try a deeper clean of your preferences

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

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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

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If it's not working for you then maybe you can could try an earlier version of InDesign available for install in the CC app - see if it's the same in a previous indesign version. 

I personally still work in InDesign 2022 - cause it works with no issues for me and there's no new features I need at the moment to move up. I'm currently testing InDesign 2023 for myself and will probably step up to that next year, I have 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 installed - but only work in 2022 - and 2023 if necessary.

I have not updated my Mac OS yet - no need to - the one that I have is working without any issues. 

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If you find that  you don't need the latest and greatest of Adobe and Mac OS you can turn off auto updates and only update when you want to or need to. 

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[François402]

Thanks…

Safe mode did not work. This is a new machine. All softwares have been reinstalled from scratch to avoid bad prefs to be transfered. I guess (hope) that these have been "clean" installed. For now, my best bet is to use the 2024 version, which works OK, on the Sequoia machine too. I'm waiting for Adobe Customer care… Hope someone will help me on screen share. I'm disapointed… Whole new machine, clean install, unable to use the latest version…

[Eugene Tyson]

What feature do you need in the lastest version? 

I've read a lot lately that people with Sequoia are having issues with InDesgin.

Might be worth asking Apple too on their Mac OS forums - might be a fix from their side is required. 

I don't know why they can't play nice with each other. Everytime with an update from Apple OS something can go wrong, it's very frustrating. 

Until a patch comes from either side nothing will change. So using an earlier version is ok.

Unless there's specific new feature that you require it should be fine.

[François402]

Thanks for your insights… I tried to reach out an agent on the Adobe chat on this Sunday morning… without success.

The feature I need is a simple export to pdf that works as fast as before. With the Adobe 2024 (in Sequoia 15.2), it was OK .

On my iMac with Monterey 12.7, InDesign 2025 worked well.

Now I have a whole bunch of 2025 files that I will have to downgrade to 2024 on my new machine to be able to work them.

Thanks for your support

[Eugene Tyson]

You're more than welcome, we're here to help and we are users just like you facing similiar issues and  helping each other out.

Out of curiosity - do you have an App called Magnet installed - a lot of people have reported improved performance by removing this application.

I doubt you do as  you started in safe mode and still had same issue. 

Downgrading files can be time consuming - you can use a script to batch convert files and pick IDML - might speed things up for you.

https://creativepro.com/files/kahrel/indesign/batch_convert.html

You'd need to do it from 2025 version to downsave - then you can open the IDML in earlier versions.

[François402]

No, I did not installed Magnet… 

As I want a very clean machine, I installed (and will install) only what I really need.

I currently work for multiple clients for which I have done InDesign 2025 work, and I wait for their feedback.

I'll downgrade their files, one at a time, as they come back with comments. I won't look for batch converting.

And maybe a patch will come up in the meantime…

But thanks for the link… It may be usefull some day…

[Anubhav M]

Hello @François402,

I can see how frustrating it can be to face delays while saving files in InDesign. Could you please verify if InDesign shows this issue when exporting to a particular folder/drive location? Additionally, ensure that InDesign has Full Disk Access enabled in macOS preferences (https://adobe.ly/49U28Sn) and try running InDesign under a different administrator account (macOS), then share your findings.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[François402 · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone

I finally reached out a support guy at Adobe. He uninstalled my 2025 InDesign. Took out a lot of files in the libraries that the "uninstaller" didn't took out. He then reinstalled a new InDesign that he downloaded himself  (not the CreativeCloud link but as a .dmg). And now it works… We first tried the new user trick (without success). 2 hour conversation, but it gave results… At last… Thanks everyboby for your help.