InDesign 2020 (15.0.2) keeps crashing/ Slow performance

[LindaFazili]

After the latest update yesterday, InDesign is crashing all the time. When i want to copy something or change text or import PDF remarks. I get 3 crash messages per time and i cannot fill in the reason because the messages dissapear before i can send them.

InDesign won’t even start now. Please help me. I need to work!

{Renamed by MOD}

[Derek Cross]

Which OS version?

[Judith Krimski]

I just installed Mac OS Catalina 10.15.3 along with the latest version of Indesign 2020. Indesign is extremely slow or stops working completely. IN the force quit box it states Indesign (not repsonding).  I did the delete preferences thing but an still having issues. Please help I can't do my work!

[LindaFazili]

Mac OS Catalina 10.15.3

[StephGelder]

We are having exactly the same with various versions of OS-X from 10.13.6 to 10.15.2? or whatever the latest version is.  When we put images in that were no issue in the past we get the little circle of death quite often and it's just incredibly unreliable i tried resetting the preferences on one of them and they say it was a bit better for a day but seems just as bad now.  It's doing it from local desktop as well as network drives.

[ThatsShively]

Same issue here. It is also corrupting files.

Win 10, i7-6700k CPU 24 gb ram 

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there, 

Sorry to hear about this. I understand this should not be happening. I would request if you can share a few more details like:

• Does it crash on launch or while working on it?
• Is the issue related to a specific document? If yes, could you please share the document with us? You can upload it to the Creative Cloud and share the download link. 
• Where the files are saved (Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System /External HDD)? 
• Share crash logs by following these steps: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/submit-crash-reports.html 
  While submitting the crash report please use the same email address, with which you are signed in on this community. This will help us find the crash report and help accordingly. 
  

Also, please email your corrupt InDesign files to idfile@adobe.com and we will take a look at the document. If the file is larger than 10 Mb, you can upload to Creative Cloud account (or Dropbox) and send us the document link. I must also inform you that file recovery can't be guaranteed with a 100% success. We'll surely try our best. 

Regards,

Srishti

[tatasimon]

Hi

Indesign crash on launch and while i Work on it.
When i work on indesign, after 20 minutes, or less, (when i copy and paste a text, or export the file in pdf) I receive two messages of error saying « a serious error happened » and indesign crash.
And when i try to restart indesign, these messages appear and it crash.

And thats the case with all the files.
The Adobes support tryed to help me with many actions but theres no change.
(I uninstalled indesign, creative cloud, reinstalled. Cleaned the Mac, creative cloud, then i deleted the preferences etc...)

This issue has begun in january, and today its impossible to work more than 1 hour per day on indesign.

Thanks to help us because we can t work.

Léa
Envoyé de mon iPhone

[Srishti Bali]

Sorry to hear about your difficulties, Lea. Which operating system you are working on? Questions I asked above was for Windows machine only. If you are working on macOS Catalina, there is a known issue about about slow performance. If it is crashing multiple times, please try the steps I shared in response to Hello_Amsterdam

Regards!

[natelich]

Same here. Is so anoying, Indesign is also corrupting files. Almost impossible to work

[tatasimon]

Have you figured it out? I have the same probleme and i need to work and its impossible since last day.

[natelich]

I just stopped using indesign 2020. I went back to 2019 version. It's not a great solution but I have deadlines

[ThatsShively]

Is anyone from Adobe reading and or monitoring these forums? 

[Srishti Bali]

Hi,

We are so sorry to hear about this. We are currently investigating performance related issues on macOS Catalina. I would request if you can upvote this issues here (https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/39583759-cc-2020-catali...) and stay tuned for updates.

Till the time it is fixed, please try installing the previous version (15.0.1) and share your observations. 

Regards,

Srishti

[ThatsShively]

That's great but I am on a PC.

Win 10, i7-6700k CPU 24 GB ram

[ThatsShively]

Win 10, i7-6700k CPU 24 GB ram

[Srishti Bali]

Thanks for sharing the information. I have replied to your previous response, please check.

[Hello Amsterdam]

Same problem. It's maddening. InDesign 15.0.2 freezes when opening, or after a short while working. It's not affecting one file, but all InDesign files. Other CC apps work fine (AI, PS) and does Word. It doesn't matter what I do: move something, change a font, link an image, modify paragraph styles - anything I do provokes freezing (timidly first, then the rainbow button keeps winning). I tried everything: reinstalled it numerous times, removed preferences when reinstalling, restarted the MacBook Pro endless times, called support (they were friendly, but their advice didn't work - they recommended I create a new document and move the pages there). Crazy because I can't work more than 1 hour a day, if lucky. What to do? Please help! My system: Mac OS Catalina 10.15.3. Thank you! PS: I forgot to mention I also reinstalled the older version available on CC - 14.0 but the problem persists. 

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing the details. Please try following these steps one by one and let us know how it goes:

1. Reset Preferences: - 

• Close all adobe applications 
• Go to Locations:  
• ~/Library/Caches 
• ~/Library/Preferences 
• Rename Adobe InDesign and com.adobe.indesign to Adobe InDesign.old and com.adobe.indesign.old 
• Launch InDesign from the CC 

Please note that resetting preferences will remove all the custom settings and InDesign will launch with default settings. This way all your old settings will be saved in .old folders and InDesign will recreate new folders with default settings.  

2. If that doesn't help, try booting the system into Safe Mode (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/x-productkb/global/start-safe-boot-mode-mac.html) and check how it works there. It starts your system so that it performs certain checks and prevents third party software/ services from automatically loading or opening. If it works fine in Safe mode, then there is some third party service or application like antivirus, plugins or web extensions which are conflicting with the InDesign. 

3. If that doesn't help either, login to root account (https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204012). Check how application works there. If it works fine there, then it could be related to permission errors. Follow these steps to repair permission errors: 

• Go to Terminal (Go > Utilities > Terminal.app) 
• Execute the following command on terminal to provide permission: 
  • sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/<user>/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign 
  • sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/<user>/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign 
  • sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support 

Regards,

Srishti

[Hello Amsterdam]

Hi Srishti, 

No, nothing worked. 

1. Preferences: I restarted ID pressing cmd-option-ctrl-shift and deleted all preferences. Your advice was confusing because OS Catalina 10.15.3 doesn't have preferences specific for InDesign in Libraries, yes for CC. So maybe you are using an earlier OS? 

2. Safe mode. When I opened the ID document there, and the document's fonts were lost. The only alternative was linking them to the system's fonts, none of which were the ones the original document used. Definitely a no-no. 

3. I didn't enter any info in the Terminal app. Somehow, I don't think that is the problem. 

What worked for a little while was saving the ID doc as .idml, opened it, worked on it, and avoided saving it till the job was done (risky, I know). Then, I saved it as .indd. Then, ID began spinning again and I had to Force Quit. But at least I have the .indd with the work done. Does this give you any clue to the problem? 

Another thing that sometimes worked, was to restart the MacBook Pro (several times). Then I could work for a little while with ID before it began spinning. Does this give you any clue to the problem? 

Lastly, I put the Pre-flight OFF (by default it's ON when you open a doc) because I read that some performance problems are due to that. But it didn't help me. 

All ID documents I'm working on freeze after a short while, or just by opening them. Mostly, they are publications with text, images and infographics. This began happening two months ago, when I updated to Catalina. Could this be the problem? 

Thanks for your help. Any new ideas? 

PS: The InDesign version I'm using is 15.0.2 (not 15.10.3 as I wrote earlier, sorry)
Mac OS Catalina 10.15.4

4. I had already mentioned in a previous note that another (obvious) thing I've done, is reinstalling ID (latest version). Problem persists. 

5. Following recommendations by Adobe in this Community Forum, I also installed the earliest version available of ID on CC 14.0). Problem persists. 

[Srishti Bali]

Thanks for sharing detailed information. 

1. Library menioned above is User Libary, I think you got confused with System Library. 

Please open Finder > Click "Go" on top menu > Click "Go to Folder" and type ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Caches one by one.

There you'll find Adobe InDesign and com.adobe.indesign

2. Was it a Packaged file? What type of fonts (Adobe fonts/ fonts in document folder) are these? 

3. Saving a file as idml removes document corruption. Is the issue related to a specific document? If yes, could you please share the document with us? You can upload it to the Creative Cloud and share the download link. (In this case, no need to perform any of the steps shared above).

Regards!

[Hello Amsterdam]

Hello Srishti, thanks so much for your help. Things are not working (yet). 

Preferences and Cache: yes, I was confusing the User Library with System Library. Anyway, I followed your instructions and ID continues spinning. It did well for around 15 minutes. Then it began intermittently spinning, until I coulnd't work any longer. 

2. Safe Mode: the font that was missing in the ID file was Roboto. Open source, Google font. The document was not packaged. 

3. Saving as .idml is the only thing that works. But it's super risky because the moment I save as .indd, it spins. I'm living on the edge. 

The issue is not related to any specific document: it has been happening with all ID documents for the last two months or so. Yesterday I created a simple doc, one page, a couple of links, hoping it wouldn't spin as the longer publications have been doing lately. But it also spinned. And spinned. And spinned. 

[Srishti Bali]

It looks like one-on-one support will be able to help you best. Please head here (https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html) and select the chat button in the lower-right corner of the page. We can help troubleshoot faster that way.

Thanks! 

[ThatsShively]

What I tried today.

I worked on a file from before the last crash that corrupted my file. 

Split file into two chapters (maybe it was too big?)

Everything was going well till I tried to double click on a page in the pages pane to go back to it - it froze, blinked and crashed. When I tried to open and restore? Crash. Dumped the restore file, opened file again. Crashed. Tried to open a previous version of the file I saved 30 minutes prior - that worked but of course I need to remake all the stupid changes.
Which minus a table, were all text based.

PLEASE for pete's sake fix this issue! Oh and downgrading to 15.0.1 doesn't help.
   

[Srishti Bali]

Is the issue related to a specific document? If yes, could you please share the document with us? Please email your InDesign file to  idfile@adobe.com and we will take a look at the document. 

[ThatsShively]

Not really. Once it happens with one file, ID won't open again till I go hunting and delete any temp files created by ID. Or uninstall and reinstall. Any file. Another file it corrupted on me that I wasn't lucky enough to save was image heavy, 20 pages 20 images, but it shouldn't matter that's nothing compared to files I have created in the past without issue. I may still have that file if I can find it I will send along.