Indesign constantly crashing - tried everything. Help!

Forum|Forum|11 hours ago
August 28, 2026
8 replies
32 views

I'm tearing my hair out here! InDesign (and Photoshop to a lesser degree) has decided to suddenly start crashing at random times. It will be ok for a little while, then I get the rolling beach ball and have to force quit. When I reopen it, sometimes it lets me do a few things then crashes, sometimes it's straight away. I've tried uninstalling cc and all the apps, I've tried deleting anything cc related in the activity log , restarting etc. Nothing works. Please help!

Correct answer Linda22170705ws5e

@leo.r Thanks - I’ve just managed to uninstall and reinstall CC (no mean feat!), hoping that might have fixed it.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Mike Witherell

L

Linda22170705ws5eAuthor

Participant

So I’m still having problems. Details of what I’m running are:
MAC OS Tahoe 26.5.1
Indesign v.21.5.1
Photoshop v. 27.10
Illustrator v.30.8

I’ve tried opening in safe mode, no change. Any new file I create works for a little while then crashes. Illustrator is now the same - I can create a blank document, or open docs (after a lag time) but it freezes when I try to do anything. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled everything, really at a loss.

leo.r

Community Expert

Do you know when the problem started? Can you associate it with any software (Adobe, macOS, etc.) or hardware update?

Also, how much RAM and free disc space do you have?

You can try these two radical troubleshooting steps:

-Create a new clean admin account in System Settings > Users & Groups and work from there.

If there’s no difference, try to eradicate your entire Creative Cloud installation then reinstall:
https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/creative-cloud/apps/troubleshoot/diagnostics-repair-tools/run-creative-cloud-cleaner-tool.html

leo.r

Community Expert

p.s. also, make sure you have Full Disk Access granted to all Adobe apps in System Settings > Security & Privacy. recently, this solved unusual issues for some users.

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

What is the version of InDesign and OS?
Do you use any 3rd party plugins/scripts/extension? If yes, remove them and then try
Does it happen with all documents of some of them?
Do you happen to save/open files from network drives? If so try moving them to your computer and then try
Boot your computer in safe mode and then try. If it works then it means that some software on your computer is interfering with Adobe apps.

-Manan