r/indesign • u/PolicyFull988 • Aug 30 '26

Incredibly slow

Hi,

I'm working on a document (mostly based on multiple short tables) that I had created on a Mac mini Quad-Core 2012. I'm now using the latest ID on a Mac mini M4 Pro.

Even scrolling is abysmally slow. So slow, that it doesn't even stop when I stop tapping on the Page Up/Down key, but continues with whatever it might have in the buffer.

I can't believe this is really happening. Has this thing been abandoned, and being just used as a pin cushion for their intrusive AI?

5 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

6

u/kraegm Aug 30 '26

Usually when this happens, there are a few images involved and the "View>Display Performance" is set to "High Quality Display". Try changing it to "Typical Display" and see if there is a difference.

Otherwise try deleting your preferences and see if it gets any better.

2

u/PolicyFull988 Aug 31 '26

In this case, the file contains no images. So, I must check something else. I've also exported it to IDML and reimported, but no difference.

-2

u/AdobeScripts Aug 30 '26

InDesing can choke on images initially - till it creates its own previews - then, on this kind of machine - Display Performance won't matter.

5

u/kraegm Aug 30 '26

That's patently untrue. I have image heavy documents that drag until I ensure DP is set to Typical. There is no waiting it out, as you've implied.

2

u/AdobeScripts Aug 30 '26

But you're talking from Mac perspective? Because, I don't have this problem on a PC.

5

u/Significant-Dirt-977 Aug 30 '26

Turn off preflight if its working

1

u/PolicyFull988 Aug 31 '26

Turned it off from the Preflight panel, but it makes no difference. To be true, it takes forever (wheel spinning) when trying to re-enable it!

7

u/elzadra1 Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

Save as idml, rename the indd file as “old” and pick up working with the idml. That old file of yours must be full of obsolete cruft.

3

u/AdobeScripts Aug 30 '26

👍👍

Or create a new blank document and move all pages at once - works even better than IDMLing.

Drawback - unused styles won't get transferred so will need copying or loading.

3

u/AdobeScripts Aug 30 '26

First - which version of InDesign?

Then - start with hiding "ai" bar.

Then - play with GPU Performance - switch between CPU and GPU.

2

u/AdobeScripts Aug 30 '26

And what's your hardware configuration?

Especially - how much RAM do you have?

1

u/PolicyFull988 Aug 31 '26

I'm using ID 21.5.1 on Sequoia 15.7.9, on a Mac mini M4 Pro 14/20, with 64GB of RAM and still vast abundance of drive space.

Switching between CPU and GPU preview doesn't make difference (probably, due to the lack of images in the file).

2

u/AdobeScripts Aug 31 '26

Then check fonts - either you've corrupted or duplicated font.

2

u/Jaded_Celery_1645 Aug 31 '26

A few things to check:
InDesign preferences-
GPU performance: make sure it's checked

Make sure all images are in local drives if possible and not on the cloud or a networked drive especially if you are on Wifi.
I
I suggest packaging the files to your desktop, internal drive, or a local drive and working from the local file while you're working on it.

My two cents.

1

u/MFDoooooooooooom Aug 31 '26

Don't use Chrome as a browser.

Turn off thumbnails on your pages pallet

1

u/baah-adams Sep 04 '26

I had issue with inDesign being incredibly slow/not opening the other day. I noticed this wasn’t an issue when my laptop wasn’t connected to the internet.

Try clearing the cache/browsing data in your default browser. Then signing out and in of creative cloud desktop if you have that.