InDesign crashes on launch without any error message on M1 MacBook Pro

[levent.y.ince]

I'm using version 18.1 on the 2020 MacBook Pro M1 with macOS Ventura 13.1.

The app crashes after a second or two after the welcome screen appears.

Tried everything on this page: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html, with no result.

I've also tried advanced troubleshooting following this page: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/advanced-troubleshooting-for-launch-issues/m-p/1... again with no result.

On the Root account, I received the attached error message.

Any suggestions?

[BobLevine]

That's not crashing, it's hanging. How much RAM do you have? Do you have any third-party plugins? Is anything running in the background?

[levent.y.ince]

Yeah, hanging. Sorry for the mix-up.

I have 16GB of RAM. No third-party plugins. Nothing is running in the background except for the Mail and the Creative Cloud app.

[levent.y.ince]

More attempts:

Updated to macOS 13.2.1

I've tried installing and launching earlier versions (18.0 and 17.4.1).

Used the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool to remove all components and re-install CC and apps.

De-activated all fonts. No plug-ins are installed.

Tried the suggestions on this page: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo...

Same thing is happening every time. Right now the OS is version 13.2.1 and the InDesign version is 18.1. The program hangs after 10-45 seconds. Some versions also crash on launch and generate reports.

[leo.r]

try to create a clean user account in System Settings > Users & Groups > Add Account, then switch to the new account and try InDesign there. will it make a difference?

[BobLevine]

Well, you certainly covered all of my next steps so I'd give Leo's suggestion a try and set up a new user account to see if that helps.

[levent.y.ince]

Using the same machine, now on Sonoma (14.1.2), none of the InDesign versions work, including the Beta apps. The same type of hanging behavior is happening. Adobe constantly updates the app, but this issue is not solved. It works using the same account on an M2 MBP and a Windows Desktop PC.

[leo.r]

Well you never told us back in February if your problem was ever solved and if so then how. InDesign isn't officially compatible with Sonoma yet - albeit the problems users experience are usually related to screen redraw, not crashes/hangs. So your problem may or may not be related to Sonoma. I can repeat my earlier suggestion to run InDesign on a clean new user account and see if it makes a difference.

[levent.y.ince]

Well, it wasn't officially compatible with Ventura back then. Now, it is not compatible with Sonoma. I've tried every version from 18.0 to 19.0.1 and several versions in Ventura. Adobe employees within this community also suggested using the Beta versions; they don't work as well. I tried your suggestion of setting up another account, but nothing worked. This is isolated to InDesign; none of the other "not fully compatible Apple Silicon" apps, like Acrobat or XD, create the same problem.

To summarize: The problem is not solved. I can't use InDesign for more than a few seconds before it hangs. None of the suggestions here on this post or other similar posts on the Community Discussions or any other platform have worked so far.

[leo.r]

InDesign was compatible with Ventura. However, there was indeed a compatibility mess between various versions of InDesign and Ventura that started I think around August. In the end, macOS 13.5 solved the crash-on-launch problem for the users of InDesign 18.5 and later on earlier macOS versions (while earlier InDesign versions weren't affected by this problem). Amazing user experience and a total boost for productivity.

Another user also recently reported a problem similar to yours where they couldn't launch InDesign on Sonoma no matter what. It doesn't look like it's a widespread problem but it does appear that it exists. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any known solution.

Also, do I understand correctly that you weren't able to launch InDesign on Ventura all this time since February - even on macOS 13.5 and later?

[levent.y.ince]

I can launch it, but it hangs after some time (usually between 5 and 40 seconds), whether I open a file, create one, or do nothing but remain on the initial launch window.

I was using macOS 13.1 at the time. I upgraded to the next version each time Apple released a stable version up until 13.6, and then I switched to Sonoma after a week. I've also updated InDesign each time Adobe released a new version (18.2.1, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, 18.5.1); versions 19.0 and 19.0.1, I've only tried on Sonoma.

I've experienced the same problem with all of the OS and ID versions.

[leo.r]

Yep something is going wrong with InDesign in an unusual way on your machine.

I can only suggest to run yet another clean test - partition your drive and install a clean version of macOS, then install Creative Cloud and see if InDesign works there. (Or try the same on an external SSD - whatever is easier under your setup.)

[BobLevine]

14.2 (currently in beta) is reported to solve some issues with InDesign.

[Mike Witherell]

(Sonoma has given me no issues but I seem to be the only one)

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