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Talsp
Talsp
Participant
June 14, 2026
Question

InDesign 2026 file crashes after recovery.

  • June 14, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 8 views

Adobe InDesign 2026 – Document Recovery / File Corruption Issue

I have a critical graduation project due in one week and I need help recovering an InDesign document.

Environment: Adobe InDesign 2026 macOS Original INDD file size: 254.2 MB Document length: approximately 146 pages
After an InDesign crash, the application launched Document Recovery. Recovery was able to display the latest version of my document, including the most recent edits that had not yet been saved.

However, once the recovered document appears on screen, InDesign becomes unresponsive. The macOS spinning beachball appears and the interface freezes. The document is visible, but I cannot work with it.

Recovery shows the latest document content correctly.

The document pages are visible.

Sometimes I can briefly scroll or click before the application freezes.

CPU usage remains around 100–106% for extended periods.

CPU time continues increasing, indicating that InDesign is still processing something.

The spinning beachball remains active for very long periods.

The application never fully becomes usable.

Actions already attempted:

Force Quit and relaunch.

Re-ran Recovery multiple times.

Created a Save As copy.

Exported an IDML file.

Opened the Save As copy.

Opened the IDML file.

Reset InDesign Preferences.

Deleted InDesign cache files.

Deleted Recovery cache files.

Tested on a different computer.

Verified that other InDesign documents open normally.

Skipped Missing Links dialogs.

Skipped Missing Fonts dialogs.

Opened files directly from InDesign instead of Recent Files.

Results:

Original INDD hangs during opening.

Save As copy also hangs.

IDML file was successfully created and opens further than the original file, but eventually also hangs.

The issue occurs on another computer as well.

Other InDesign documents work normally on both systems.

Font-related information:
During opening, InDesign repeatedly reports a missing font:

Masada Thin

However:

The system contains Masada Black, Bold, Book, Demi, Light, and Medium.

There is no Masada Thin installed.

Before the crash, the document opened normally on the same computer without any font-related issues.
 

1 reply

E
Community Expert
Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 14, 2026

You’ve already ruled out most application-level causes. Because the original file, Save As copy and IDML all hang on another computer while other documents work normally, this appears to be document corruption or a particular damaged object, story or page.

Work from a duplicate of the IDML. Before opening it, disable Live Preflight and temporarily deactivate or remove access to the document’s fonts and linked files. The missing Masada Thin font may be connected, but a missing font by itself should not normally cause this behaviour.

If the document remains responsive even briefly, start moving groups of pages into new blank documents for example pages 1–40, 41–80 and so on. Test each new document, then keep dividing the affected range until you identify the page or spread causing the problem. Once located, rebuild that page and copy its elements individually rather than transferring the entire page.

Do not continue repeatedly recovering or overwriting the only usable version. Keep separate copies of the original INDD, recovered file and IDML.
 

Talsp
TalspAuthor
Participant
June 14, 2026

Thank you for the suggestions.

I followed all of these steps. I worked from a duplicate IDML, disabled Live Preflight, cleared caches and recovery data, reset preferences, tested on another computer, and skipped missing fonts and links.

The issue is that the document only remains responsive for a few seconds after opening. I can sometimes see the pages and briefly scroll, but then InDesign freezes with the macOS spinning wheel and becomes completely unresponsive while CPU usage stays around 100%.

Because the file freezes so quickly, I do not have enough time to move page ranges into separate documents or isolate the problematic page/spread as suggested.

At this point, is there a way to identify the corrupted object, story, text thread, style, or page directly from the INDD or IDML file? Since both the original file and the generated IDML eventually hang, I am unable to perform further isolation manually.

leo.r
Community Expert
leo.rCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 14, 2026

Where is the document located? If it’s on cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox, then you can retrieve an earlier document version which, hopefully, isn’t corrupt. If it’s on your local drive, then are you running Time Machine, by any chance? In this case, you can also retrieve an earlier version. If you don’t have any backup, then you learned a lesson that most of us learn the hard way: you must have an incremental backup system in place at all times (whether provided by cloud provider, the operating system, etc.)

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