Can't open ID 2019 idml in ID 2018

[J van E]

Because of an annoying problem I want to stop using ID 2019 and go back to ID 2018. However... I have ANOTHER annoying problem: the ID 2019 documents I am working on can't be opened in ID 2018! Not by converting them and not by using an idml! What's going wrong here!!!!!!!!

This morning I spend with Adobe online support (chat) and they thought they'd solve my previous problem by trashing my prefs. So all in all I spend all morning getting things to work again and now 1. the previous problem (Re: Spacing options locked/greyed out...? ) is still here and 2. there is another problem added to it! I am completely stuck with a buggy ID 2019 now!

I have a job to do and I am losing a lot of valuable time with all this!

[majankowski]

I had the same problem, but this morning I thought to open the 2019 idml file in 2017 rather than 2018 and it worked!

[Bill Silbert]

Did customer support have you uninstall and reinstall CC 2019? If not, then it might be worth a try as far as salvaging CC 2019 for you.

To do so:

In the app section of your Creative Cloud desktop app click on the “V” next to the app’s (InDesign) name and choose the “Uninstall” option from the pull-down menu that appears. After you’ve run the uninstall then use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems  . Then reinstall the program through the Desktop app. Before you reinstall, once again trash all preference files to make sure that your install is completely clean. Then launch InDesign and see if the problem persists.

It also sounds like the problem that you are describing might be fixed by deleting your InDesign cache files (which is not the same as trashing preferences). This can help with problems that occur within Panels.

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s cache files 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 “Caches” folder. Within the Caches folder find and delete the entire folder “Adobe InDesign”. I find that deleting the InDesign cache folder completely leads to a lasting change. 

For Windows Users: On Windows 7 and above the caches 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 Name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version [#]\<Language>\Cache.

Finally, make sure that you've installed the latest version of CC 2019 which is 14.0.1.