inDesign Crashes constantly when placing images

It sounds to me like possible program corruption. Try resetting your InDesign preferences. This will restore the program to its defaults. Hopefully, this will fix the problem with placing images that you’re having.

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:

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.

Hi ​@Dynamic_Oceane3e4,

Sorry to hear that InDesign is crashing frequently, especially when placing multiple images.

Could you please update to the latest InDesign 2027 (22.0) release through the Creative Cloud desktop app and check whether the issue persists?

If it does, please try temporarily disabling the Generative AI options under InDesign Preferences > Generative AI, restart InDesign, and test placing multiple images again. 

Reference: InDesign freezes when placing/updating files.

Additionally, could you create a new blank document and try placing two or three JPG/PNG images stored locally using File > Place? This will help us determine whether the issue is specific to certain documents or affects InDesign more generally.

Could you also confirm whether the Adobe Crash Reporter appears when InDesign crashes? If it does, please submit the crash report, including your email address and a brief description of the issue. You can then share the same email address with me via direct message (DM) so we can use it to help locate the relevant crash report.

Reference: Adobe — Submit crash reports in InDesign.

Please also confirm your InDesign version, operating system, and whether the crash occurs with all images or only specific files.

If possible, share a short screen recording demonstrating the issue. These details will help us narrow down the cause and investigate further.

Thanks for your patience and cooperation!

Abhishek