Importing Previous Settings—InDesign CC 2019—Not Necessarily a Bad Thing

When InDesign CC 2017 and CC 2018 came out it was very clear that using the function that presented itself in the Advanced Options during the install to "Import previous settings and preferences" led to a number of performance problems in running the program. I did some research at the time and discovered that the preference folder that was created for the newer version of the program was not a complete preference folder. It seemed that it was somehow "feeding" off of the older preference folder but it, in itself, was not complete. This seemed to lead to slow performance and a number of other issues so it seemed prudent to warn users not to retain their old preferences when installing the new version. As a result my posting about it became part of the InDesign FAQ for CC 2018. In installing CC 2019 on my home computer (late 2015 iMac running Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6) I deliberately installed using the option to retain preferences to see if the problem had continued. When I had tried this with CC 2018 I had immediately seen the problems with slow performance as well as interface issues—panels in the wrong place and some missing some of their elements (the panel issues required trashing the InDesign Cache files as well as the preferences). This was not the case, however, this time, with CC 2019. After reading a large number of performance complaints on the forum I was surprised to see that not only was my interface completely correct but that the program was completely responsive and even a bit faster than CC 2018 had been running. I then checked the preference folder to see if the way that this had been handled was different this time. It was. There were now complete preference folders for both CC 2018 and CC 2019. Both of the folders exist within one folder called "Adobe InDesign" within User>Home>Library>Preferences on a Mac. The preference folder created for CC 2019 matched the one from CC 2018 item for item. Based on my own experience and research I feel that I can no longer categorically warn users not to use this option for CC 2019 InDesign.

All that being said, however, I would say that installing any program with a fresh set of preferences is never a bad idea and that if anybody is having a problem that cannot be solved with any available solution then "trashing preferences" is not ever a bad thing to try. It is suggested, though, that in the aftermath of "trashing" after setting up the program as you like it (do it with no document open) and then quitting the program to finalize the customization that you make a copy of the pristine preference folder to use for any future time that you may need to "trash" them again.