InDesign 19.5 Exceeds memory during startup

[Zealous_discovererB88B]

During startup, InDesign 19.5 gets to "Starting up panels..." stage, then slowly eats all of memory and crashes my system. This is on a Dell XPS 15 9500 laptop with 64GB of memory. It worked on this system in the past, and still works on my desktop system which has 24GB memory. I uninstalled and reinstalled with the same results. I also rolled back to 18.5, also with the same results. And have reset the startup file (Ctrl/Shift/Alt during startup), and that also did not resolve my problem. HELP please!

[Mike Witherell]

Here is an all-encompassing troubleshooting guide:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo...

[Abhishek Rao]

Hello @Zealous_discovererB88B,

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with InDesign 19.5 consuming all memory during startup. I understand how frustrating this can be. Let's work together to resolve this issue.

Could you please provide a bit more information?

1. Are there any recent changes to your system, such as OS updates or new software installations, before this issue started?
2. Are you using the same Adobe ID on your laptop and desktop?
3. Have you checked for background processes that might consume additional memory?
4. Do you see any events i the Windows Event Viewer> Application logs (or System logs) regarding this crash. 

In the meantime, please try the following steps and update if they helped:

1. Ensure your Dell XPS 15 9500 has the latest system and driver updates.
2. You mentioned resetting the preferences but also ensuring that InDesign’s cache files are cleared.
3. Try running InDesign as an administrator to see if it makes a difference.
4. Temporarily disable any third-party plugins to see if they might be causing the issue.

Additionally, please refer to the Adobe troubleshooting article for more detailed steps:

Fix crash issues when launching InDesign (https://adobe.ly/46AuiAl) 

If the issue persists, please feel free to update the discussion. 

Thank you, 

Abhishek Rao

[Zealous_discovererB88B · Accepted solution]

InDesign is now working on my laptop computer. I have made no changes that I know of. I have booted the laptop multiple times, and connected and disconnected an external monitor. It does not appear any updates have been applied to either InDesign or Windows. Yesterday InDesign didn't work. Today it does. Go figure...

Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions.

[Holger Walter34008837xo0j]

For me, when I close InDesign (19.5) on windows 11, I get the exe-error: "The read operation could not be performed in memory." 😞

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Zealous_discovererB88B

Try the nuclear option - CC Cleaner... 

[leo.r]

It looks like some other users experience the same:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-19-5-exceeds-memory-during-startup/td-p...

I don't know if it's related to another recent issue with launching InDesign (and other apps). This one is acknowledged by Adobe with some solutions here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/unable-to-launch-all-creative-cloud-apps-like-ph...