InDesign CC 2017 slow performance

[rtfriday]

I have tried all the fixes mentioned here including this most recent plug-in. Nothing has fixed my issue. Saving, clicking, select all, moving from one page to another, zoom, every action I try results in a 20 to 30 second lag watching the spinning beach ball. Every once in a while I get 3 or 4 actions in before the beach ball starts again.

My gut tells me this is document specific some how. Some documents that have VERY large file content lag more than others. Also I'm suspicious that reusing older files that have sizes, etc set up hold on to old links that can drag down InDesign. I had hoped, as was suggested here, that saving as an .IDML then opening that to start working with would fix the lag.  No luck there either. I agree with everyone here that this is unacceptable from Adobe. This thread was started back in late 2016. It is past time that there should be a fix for users who depend on Adobe InDesign to make a living.

my Mac Spec's below:

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

Processor: 3.5 GHZ 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

Memory: 64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3

Graphics: AMD FirePro D700 61144 MB

OS: 10.12.3

1 TB Internal drive

3 TB External drive

[White-RSC]

rtfriday  wrote

My gut tells me this is document specific some how. Some documents that have VERY large file content lag more than others.

I can't discredit that statement since I don't know what the issue is, but in my case it doesn't seem to matter the file size. It lags on me in documents that are everything from a 120 page manual (I'm on the international team and my manuals have 6+ languages) to a single kit box w/ one page in the document.

That said, I wonder if there is some specific item IN the document? A style maybe? Who knows. All I know is, In my case it's all related to a remote server. Maybe not the server itself, but InDesign is constantly doing *something* in the background that freezes the entire program while I'm connected to a server. If the server is disconnected, it runs full speed with no issues.

..........

I'll vent for a second: This is a maddening issue. I've had to work over and push out deadlines simply because my work speed has slowed to a crawl. In some cases I simply can not disconnect from the server and continue working, as I need the links and whatnot contained on the server so I can export/package files. /rant

[Guest]

installing the plugin worked for around 3-4 hours then the lock ups started again. The only thing that works 100% is disconnecting from all servers. It seems fine being connected to internet/ethernet but as soon as you connect to a server..game...over...

Insane that Adobe hasn't fixed this. Our IT department are in direct communication with Adobe and little to nothing has been resolved in about 3 months. Well done Adobe this is customer service at it's absolute best. In regards to logging bugs and not ranting in this forum. Adobe have had over 50 tickets issued by our IT department and have solved nothing.

[JohnCookScreenName]

This is the issue JB...although in essence we ALWAYS have a 'choice' that is go find another piece of software that works for you...AND ALL OF YOUR CLIENTS.  Adobe know they have us all over a 'barrel', that it is very difficult to go elsewhere and that is what nurtures their horrid corporate arrogance and fuels their poor customer services.

WE ARE ALL ULTIMATELY TO BLAME!  WE PUT UP WITH IT...WE FIND WAYS OF GETTING AROUND THE FLAWS AND PROBLEMS.  THE SOFTWARE IS AWSOME WHEN IT WORKS!!!  YOU KNOW THAT...I KNOW THAT!

A Software company...actually ANY company, is only as good as it's performance when its not running smoothly.  No-one minds things going wrong per se!  S**t happens sometimes - hell, who out there hasn't made a Client unhappy...but it's the resolution that counts.  Adobe EXCEL in mediocrity in that area!!!  And lucky old us we pay a heftily months price for that!  Just think if Adobe said "...yes we are having problems here, with this particular issue...if you've been having these issues we'll refund you a month's...two month's subs....SOMETHING"  that would ease the bad feeling - if they are loosing money on the back of it AMYBE they'd get it sorted quickly - it would 'feel' like they care but I fear ultimately they are whey too big to care about their little old Clients!

JB I am as guilty as you and everyone else who has posted on this issue...and other issues!

Suck it up or move on peeps!!

[rickhino]

     I say move on.  I have migrated my e-book creation to PowerPoint.  This actually increased my productivity and eased my clients' insecurity around a program they're not comfortable with as "everyone" knows PowerPoint (not that Microsoft doesn't have issues on their own).

     I am currently learning programs like "freeware starts with a G" and "freeware starts with an I".  Definitely not as fully featured as Creative suite but so far, they do what I need.  Once I find a replacement for Animate, my subscription will be done.  I don't expect Adobe will allow this post to stay up for very long but let's face it, if Adobe's programmers had any skill (and it didn't create problems with their cloud model), this problem would be fixed already.  The problem is a combination of the two.

     I understand not everybody can do this, but until people start an exodus, you're the graphics equivalent of a Detroit Lions fan.

[Derek Cross]

Rickhino states:"don't expect Adobe will allow this post to stay up for very long." 

I've never known a comment like this to be deleted by Adobe, there's  even a huge posting elsewhere, that's been going for ages, collecting supporters for a class action against Adobe!

[rickhino]

Glad to hear it!

[Guest]

Move on...Powerpoint is not a professional layout program. Many of us work for companies and have no control over the software we use. We are told. The problem is cc2017 is trash and that's on Adobe. We as customers aren't to blame for Adobe bugs. Thats ridiculous.

[rickhino]

Agreed!  I can't make a document that looks as good.  However after explaining how much money could be saved, my client was okay with the slight degradation in quality.  If I suggested customers are to blame for the bugs, my bad.  However, it seems to me that continuing to support Adobe makes us enablers.

[ermingtrout]

Hi all!

I came here earlier today as I've been having (what sounds like) similar issues.

Have spent an hour with an adobe customer care guy who's been remotely controlling my desktop.

FINALLY resolved the issue on my computer - not sure if it will do the same for you - but essentially purged inDesign cache and preferences from library - this didn't seem to immediately do anything.

He then got me to boot in safe mode, open the programme and try it out - it was working fine / as you'd expect, nice and fast no lag.

Then he got me to restart and open ID and hey presto, it was working fine. He said it might be something to do with a permission issue - which get reset when opening in safe mode...

Try it and let me know if it works.

TL;DR

Mine just got fixed.

Purge cache / prefs

Restart in safe mode, open indesign and make some boxes / move them round

Reboot in normal mode, open indesign and it worked...

Good luck, game changer for me as I've been putting up with lag issues for months.

[White-RSC]

I tried the safe boot method, but alas, I'm still spinning the beach ball like crazy if I'm hooked to a server. If I unhook, I'm fine. I'm throwing in the towel on this one, as I have exhausted my knowledge. I'll monitor this thread and try to research more, but otherwise I'm going to try and figure out alternate methods of getting my work done.

[SJRiegel]

Is PreFlight turned off?  Having PreFlight running constantly is a really big drag InDesign performance. I leave it off, and only activate it at the end of the job when it's time to do Preflighting.

[White-RSC]

SJRiegel  wrote

Is PreFlight turned off?  Having PreFlight running constantly is a really big drag InDesign performance. I leave it off, and only activate it at the end of the job when it's time to do Preflighting.

I did have it running, but when I turned it off, it didn't seem to effect the hanging issue. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[AnshulJain19]

Hi,

If your Mac OS version is 10.12.4, then please try turning off the 'GPU Performance' in Preferences dialog:

Thanks

-Anshul

[rtfriday]

This was already turned off on both the Mac systems having the bulk of the problems.  The problem persists even with this turned off.

[Sandilou]

I have the hanging beachball, although not as bad as when I first upgraded to Sierra and CC2017. I discovered if I do a "Save As" instead of a "Save" that seems to help. I found that the size of the file kept ballooning at every save, until the file got unstable and crashed. Doing a Save As seems to purge unnecessary bits. I now have to deal with not being able to drag items from one layer to another. Although, Adobe gave a workaround for this issue, which requires another step in the process, it just increases the level of dissatisfaction I have for CC2017 so far.

[laszloz1085961]

I met also the same slowing problems when typing, moving the cursor, etc...

What I have tried: turn off preflight, displ. perf set to typical, untick the adv. type checkboxes, reset preferences, empty cache, disable CC feature (however I did not used the CC features), etc.. none of them helped.

And here is what solved my problem:

I created a package about the document I have worked. Actually I have a new document and a big old document (230 pages, many graphics files), from which I have copied many things previously (texts and linked objects as well). When I used the new document I always met a weird thing: the old file was always on the recent list just as if I had kept it opened with the new document at the same time - but in reality I did not opened.

So I have created a brand new package and now I work with that and the slowing problems disappeared.

(I guess indesign always collaborates the other document package in the background and that was too much. When I created the package all the graphics and others were copied in the new package.)

I hope the description is not conusing and could help to others as well .

[Helvetica]

I would like to add that I am in the same situation now for probably the last three versions of inDesign, maybe longer. Search & replace dialog box is painfully slow, basic text editing can be slow. Exporting to PDF can be very slow and sometimes hangs on a background task. I have had the Advanced Type tick boxes all unchecked (all of them), and it makes no difference. It's making inDesign very hard to work with. Might have to consider Quark 2017 as the only viable alternative.

Is it possible that more ram would help? Or is my memory allocation of 3072MB good, bad or indifferent? Any advice appreciated.

Adobe CC / Mac Pro 2013 / Sierra 10.12.4 / 3.5 GHz 6-Core / 16 GB Ram / AMD FirePro

[roberte85947417]

Hi, I have in the past two months made the massive step of moving from Mac OS 10.6.4 and inDesign CS4 to OS 10.12.5 and ID  2017 and boy except that my old iMac died I wished that I was still using CS4 it was so much faster than 2017. I upgraded from 4gb ram to 8gb and I'm just so disappointed.
I use the programme to do real estate floor plans, so I don't have photo images like I used to when I did travel brochures to slow the programme down, but I see the beach ball a lot of the time and I can't seem to pick up really small boxes or lines without getting in really close.
My other major beef is if I 'SAVE AS' a file the programme locks up and I have to 'force quit' at least once a day, PLUS when I EXPORT a file I always do a PDF and a JPEG for my clients, 50% of the time it won't do the JPEG, even if I quit out and reboot the computer it has a mind of it's own and  sometimes builds the JPEG but sometimes doesn't?? - This has all happened since I swapped in late April 2017.

Grafix21 Australia

my Mac

2017 MiniMac

Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Corei5

Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

OS: 10.12.5

1 TB Internal drive

[margot-gabel]

Indesign is insanely slow when working on a server. Not other solution than make a package and work locally..

[roberte85947417]

"Not other solution than make a package and work locally" - what does that mean?

I work for myself at home on my MAC, I'm not connected to any other computer, I don't use the Creative Cloud and I don't use preflight and it is still SLOW and it still LOCKS UP when I "SAVE AS" and then I have to force quit the programme.

[ZebraMark]

Working on an InDesign document that's getting to about 100 pages, and CC 2017 just can't handle it. Going back to CC 2015, which handles it fine.

Each CC iteration is seeming like a downgrade.

I don't think Adobe technicians actually use their own products as a daily workhorse like their customers do. I invite them to come in and watch me work 8 hours a day in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator putting together ads, newsletters, textbooks, flyers, posters, etc.

[Steve Werner]

Have you tried restoring the InDesign preferences?

Trash, Replace, Reset, or Restore the application Preferences

[Thompsonryan-bCssHz]

This is the only thing that has worked for me:

Go to Panel Options in the Pages Tab and uncheck "Show Thumbnails".

I was getting the beachball with every adjustment even in two-page documents. So far this has allowed me to work without the beachball every 5 seconds.

Unfortunately, I can no longer see my page thumbnails, but it beats not being able to work at all.

Good luck - I hope this gets fixed soon. I'm running sierra on a maxed out macbook pro with the latest Indesign CC 2018.

[randalll23249759]

Did you ever find a solution to stop the rainbow spinning wheel in Indesign using a 2016 MacBook Pro?

I use Indesign and Apple products for a living and have for quite sometime. I have lived through the initial CC subscription service launch and all the bugs and updates over the years. I do the Apple Adobe update song and dance every time it comes along which is often.

comparing my slightly older Mac mini and the new MacBook Pro with the same OS, same Indesign version, same working files several different times over the last year... I only get the spinning Wheel on the new MacBook Pro. This spinning wheel delay every few minutes has deemed this new laptop unusable. I have tried everything. What do I do?