InDesign 2025 Freezing – CEPHtmlEngine.exe / libcef.dll Crash Issue

Hi @CLC32121082t9zf,

Thanks for sharing the Event Viewer details. Could you confirm the exact version of InDesign 2025 you're running and the details of your Windows OS? As the expert mentioned, resetting your InDesign preferences is a good first step since corrupted settings or cached extension data can often trigger this kind of behavior. You can follow the steps here: Reset InDesign preferences.

Can you also let me know if you see the Adobe Crash Reporter at any point in this workflow? If InDesign itself is crashing, please make sure to submit the crash report, as I wasn't able to locate one linked to your community email address. After submitting, kindly share your email with me via DM, so I can check the logs. Ref: Submit crash reports.

If the issue persists even after resetting preferences, please let me know whether it happens with all documents or only specific ones. It would also be helpful to test the issue once in Windows Safe Mode to rule out any third-party plug-ins, extensions, or services: How to start Windows in Safe Mode. If possible, please share a short screen recording of the freeze, so I can review it further.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Try resetting your InDesign preferences. This will restore the program to its defaults and, hopefully fix the issue.

To reset preferences:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so: On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.