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Nicholas Avallone
Inspiring
November 28, 2017
Answered

InDesign Crashes When Trying to Scale or Delete Graphics Frame

  • November 28, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 3360 views

I really need help. I have a huge document which seems to have a corrupted graphics frame: Whenever I try to scale or delete the frame, or try to change the frame's style, ID crashes.

Oddly, I can scale the contents of the frame and/or replace the contents without an issue.

But the frame itself is now completely in the way of the rest of the document, so it needs to go.

I have tried upgrading to CC2017 (no help) and tried packaging the file and editing that version instead (that one crashes too.) I tried saving as an IDML file and using that, but it also crashes the exact same way.

Any help recovering this file would be greatly appreciated. I'm losing about 2 weeks worth of work time if I have to roll back to a previous iteration.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Nicholas Avallone

    Thank you all for the helpful responses. I tried a few of the suggestions, and managed to resize the frame somewhat without crashing. But even running the script version of delete, I got crashes.

    But after seeing the frame resized and watching the text flow around the frame, it occurred to me that the text around the frame might be an issue. Some of the following pages had multiple columns and some had anchored objects and some had tables, so I decided to delete the content of those pages. (That content is unchanged from a previous version of the file, so I could do that without too much trouble.)

    Deleting the final half-dozen pages seems to have done the trick. That made me suspect the issue was caused by a table reacting poorly to being moved into a multi-column spread, which happened when the text flow changed, shifting things into new pages.

    Sure enough, after saving my new version, I went back to the older, crash-prone one and removed the table from those final pages. Then I went back to the troublesome frame and deleted it. No crash.

    So my tentative conclusion: be very careful using tables! If they get shifted into a page with a multi-column layout, ID will crash.

    Thanks again for all the helpful replies. They put my brain in the right place to figure this out.

    4 replies

    N
    Nicholas AvalloneAuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    November 29, 2017

    Thank you all for the helpful responses. I tried a few of the suggestions, and managed to resize the frame somewhat without crashing. But even running the script version of delete, I got crashes.

    But after seeing the frame resized and watching the text flow around the frame, it occurred to me that the text around the frame might be an issue. Some of the following pages had multiple columns and some had anchored objects and some had tables, so I decided to delete the content of those pages. (That content is unchanged from a previous version of the file, so I could do that without too much trouble.)

    Deleting the final half-dozen pages seems to have done the trick. That made me suspect the issue was caused by a table reacting poorly to being moved into a multi-column spread, which happened when the text flow changed, shifting things into new pages.

    Sure enough, after saving my new version, I went back to the older, crash-prone one and removed the table from those final pages. Then I went back to the troublesome frame and deleted it. No crash.

    So my tentative conclusion: be very careful using tables! If they get shifted into a page with a multi-column layout, ID will crash.

    Thanks again for all the helpful replies. They put my brain in the right place to figure this out.

      Barb Binder
      Community Expert
      Barb BinderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 29, 2017

      Thank you so much for coming back and sharing what you learned. It will certainly help others down the road.

      ~Barb

      ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 29, 2017

      Hi Nicholas,

      before doing anything else:


      Save the document to a new name.

      Or duplicate the file in the file system.

      Work with a duplicate.

      If you do not need the frame, just move it to the pasteboard.

      Do not try to remove it.

      If you absolutely want to remove the frame, here are some options:

      1. Select one path point of the frame with the Direct Selection Tool and press the delete key.

      Repeat with other path points until the whole object is removed.

      2. Select the frame and press the delete key.

      3. Select the frame and cut it to the clipboard.

      4. Move the frame to a new spread and delete the spread.

      5. Do a group of objects, let's say a group of two rectangles, select the frame, open the Layers panel and move the selected frame inside of the group. Finally remove the group by using the delete key or cut it to the clipboard.

      6. Instead of using the delete key select the frame and run this ExtendScript (JavaScript) code snippet:

      app.selection[0].remove();

      7. A two step script thing:

      Step 1: Select the frame, run the code and note the alert message's number:

      alert( app.selection[0].id );

      Step 2: Do not select anything.

      Exchange the word number in the code below with the number of the alert and run the code :

      app.documents[0].pageItems.itemByID( number ).remove();

      How to create script files and install them:

      Indiscripts :: Indiscripts for Dummies

      Hope something of the above will help,
      Uwe

      T
      TRI-POT designs
      Participant
      April 1, 2020

      Hi Guys at Adobe

       

      I had a similar issue as stated in the chain above with my InDesign file. I worked on a very long and straining document for a few days and just when I finished and was about to export to PDF, it crashed and when it reopened, the text I set was all gone. After trying a few times and sitting for 4 hours reading and trying to recover it or find out where the autosaved versions are, I gave up.

      I noticed this morning that when I press delete to get rid of some frames and extra pages, it keeps quiting. It happned so many times this morning, over and over. So annoying as I am pressed for time with this job. 

       

      Can you please assit me?

      SanyamTalwar
      SanyamTalwar
      Participating Frequently
      November 29, 2017

      There are multiple factors both internal and external to InDesign application that can lead to document corruption. However, I can take a look and see if the file can be repaired. Please email your InDesign file to corrupt_indesign_docs@adobe.com along with forum thread link and I will take a look at the document.

      If the file is larger than 10 Mb, you can zip (and password protect) the file and upload to Creative Cloud account (or Dropbox) and send us the document link.

      Barb Binder
      Community Expert
      Barb BinderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 29, 2017

      You've narrowed it down to one frame, which is a good start. Some ideas:

      1. Work through the steps in this file: Troubleshoot damaged InDesign documents
      2. Or can you delete just that one frame (or page) and rebuild it to salvage the document?
      3. Or create a new file and drag the "good pages" to it, load the styles and master pages and then recreate that one frame?
      ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
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