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Question

Indesign Crashes Instantly on launch – Urgent Issue

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 5, 2025
2 replies
223 views

Hi,

I can't open InDesign without it crashing immediately. I've had similar issues with Acrobat Reader and Illustrator to varying degrees—Illustrator seems stable now, but Acrobat still freezes when opening a PDF. InDesign doesn’t even launch; it just crashes instantly.

My operating system is macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, and I’m using the latest InDesign 2025 update.

I've tried everything: uninstalling and reinstalling all Adobe apps multiple times, checking fonts, and even installing previous versions. While this helped with Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat remain unusable.

This has severely disrupted my workflow. Any urgent fix or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Bug

G

grit&pixel

Participating Frequently

This happens to me as well and I've tried all of the fixes you noted above. My IT department provided several Mac users the following instructions and it works.

Close all Adobe programs

Open terminal

Paste this code: sudo chmod 1777 /tmp/

It will ask for your password, hit enter, then you should be good to go!

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Have you used the Adobe CC Cleaner app to uninstall?

Questions:

What is the actual InDesign version?

Why isn't your Sonoma at the latest version (14.7.3)?

What are the specs of your computer: processor, RAM, free space on hard drive, etc.?

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

many islandsAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes, I used Adobe CC Cleaner two days ago, but unfortunately, it didn’t make any difference.

InDesign version: 20.1

System specs:

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro)
16GB memory
320.28GB available out of 994.66GB

Let me know if you need any other details.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Did you remove ALL with the cleaner app?

Not saying this is the problem, but 16 GB RAM is extremely low. I would be working with at least 32 GB if not more (depending on the model).

Try doing a Time Machine backup, and see what happens if you upgrade to the latest OS (Sequoia 15.3). You can use Time Machine to downgrade if you need to.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

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