Crashing and cannot add or insert a page in InDesign

[CodysKeyboardClub]

Can someone please help? I am editing a book in InDesign. Everytime I try to add or insert a page, the program crashes - I have to go to the taskmaster to get out of it. I have uninstalled and rebooted and reinstalled numerous times but the problem persists. Has anyone ever heard of this? Can someone help or direct me to someone who can help?

Thank you.

Joy

Joy@codyskeyboardclub.com

[Bill Silbert]

What version of InDesign and what OS? You've uninstalled but have you also trashed your preferences?

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: With InDesign closed Launch a Finder Window in column view and click on your home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the following two files and delete them: “Adobe InDesign” and “com.adobe.InDesign.plist”. 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:

On Windows 7 and above 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.

[CodysKeyboardClub]

Hi Bill - I finally got back to this. I am running InDesign CC 2018 -I get prompted as to uninstalling the preferences. And I said "yes." I am also running Windows 10 - I haven't figured out how to see "folder options" I am still following your directions…

joy

[CodysKeyboardClub]

I have not had any success - I was not able to find the "Open Folder Options" but I did delete with removing the preferences. I found directions for "completely" uninstalling InDesign CC Manually but I'm wondering, could it be something corrupt in the document that is stopping me from adding or inserting pages? Does anybody have any idea? I don't want to spend a lot of time uninstalling and then finding out I still have the problem.

Many thanks -

[Mouse Waver · Accepted solution]

Hi

I found on an old thread a suggestion that might help;

InDesign CS5 crashes when adding pages - is there an answer yet?

Post 2 on that page mentions problems if you add pages based on master pages with 3 or more columns.

I just tried:

- adding blank pages instead of master pages, via the drop down menu on the Pages palette

- selecting those blanks and applying my (multi column) master page to them.

Hooray! This worked just now for me, my inDesign frequently crashes when pages are added or removed. My master pages are usually 3 or 4 columns.

Thanks to John Hawkinson for that.