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mattbrunt
Participating Frequently
October 4, 2018
Question

InDesign fatal error when interacting with network drive

  • October 4, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1334 views

First, I would like to say that ever since Adobe eliminated all reasonable competition in its space, the product quality has taken an infuriating downturn.

Most recent issue (one of so, so many with modern iterations of Adobe's products... but what real choice do I have in my industry?):

InDesign CC 2018 13.1 does not play nicely with files hosted on network drives. Almost every other day, I deal with a "fatal error" that crashes the application and endangers my files the moment InDesign detects what may or may not be an interruption in a server connection. I say "may or may not", because it's a bit of crapshoot as to whether or not the server has actually been disconnected. I'm not sure what activity InDesign is responding poorly to, but no other applications are affected.

Sometimes, I'm working in between Windows 10 via Parallels. This one seems at least a bit predictable. As tough the Mac cannot maintain a connection to the network drive in both domains simultaneously. However, as I said, no other applications are affected. I can be working on a map design in a combination of InDesign, Illustrator, and ArcGIS Pro in Windows, and InDesign is the only application that cannot handle the switch. It crashes every time I switch to Windows.

The last straw was today: I was working on a document design in InDesign, working off of our local network drive. InDesign suffered one of its "fatal errors", claiming that the network connection had been interrupted. It hadn't, however. I opened the drive, still mounted and visible on my desktop, and reopened the file, a combination of text with both vector and bitmap links. I made some revisions to it and attempted to save. I couldn't. InDesign claimed the file was in use by another application. So I tried "Save As..." in the same directory. InDesign craps out and disappears.

So did my document.

The document I had been working on is gone. The temporary file is still sitting in its folder, but no working file is present. I have tried...:

Opening InDesign to activate document recovery. Nothing happens.

Opening the temporary file with a right-click and "Open with... InDesign".

Restarting.

Unmounting and remounting the network drive.

Checking my trash can.

The file is nowhere to be found.

This file represents about $1000 worth of billable time for me. This lazily developed mess of an application just cost me a grand (not to mention the time I am wasting leaving this irritated message here hoping that someone can help me recover the lost file).

I know my support message is clouded by my irritation at my circumstances and at this application and its developers, but does anyone have any counsel regarding recovery of this document? Any counsel regarding this infuriating persistent bug? I issue crash reports every time it crashes. I would have gladly migrated to an alternative, already. Unfortunately, there just isn't really a realistically feasible alternative, anymore.

Thanks,

Matt

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

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JointyJr
Inspiring
October 8, 2018

Working from network drives is problematic but I do believe that some of the problems do stem from the server and OS. The disappearing file for example is, in my totally unexperienced opinion, due to the way files are managed by the OS.

For example, if I start to save a pdf from Indesign, overwriting a previous file, then cancel the process the original file has vanished. It seems that the original is deleted to make way for the newer one. Might be the case for your Indesign file vanishing, and the reason why the lock file is still there.

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mattbruntAuthor
Participating Frequently
October 24, 2018

Thanks, JointyJr.

I suspect this is the case, as well. Of course, the problem is that so long as InDesign features this particular bug, I'm going to be frequently running into this same issue of a file over-write beginning and failing, resulting in a potentially vanished file, altogether. The crash continues to plague my InDesign usage. On average 4 days each week, I'm dealing with it. Here is the Adobe Crash Report window popping up while I'm typing this response!

(I took a screenshot of a screenshot, so you could see the time-stamp atop the Finder preview window. I'm on Central Time, btw...)

For the record, I've updated InDesign just 10 days ago. The error persists.

Anyway... I haven't suffered any more vanished files, fortunately.

Matt

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 4, 2018

First, Adobe has not eliminated competition. In fact, there’s plenty of it.

I would suggest posting one of those crash reports on pastebin.com and providing a link here. Please do not post the full crash report on the forum.

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mattbruntAuthor
Participating Frequently
October 4, 2018

Thanks for answering, BobLevine.

In the last 10 years, I'm not sure I've seen a single job listing requiring "proficiency in Adobe alternatives." Every legitimate graphic design position requires proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud applications. It's just an indicator of the level of the competition's viability. I didn't say there isn't any competition. Just that there's no reasonable or viable alternative. Anyway, Adobe knows it. There is no good, healthy industry pressure to stay on top of their game.

I haven't been introduced to pastebin, but I dig it. Here is the crash report: InDesign CC fatal error crash - Pastebin.com.

Thanks for patiently humoring my frustration. The best posts rarely come out of a cortisol overload.

Matt

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