InDesign crashes on launch

[a-dugg]

Yesterday afternoon InDesign crashed on launch and I have been unable to get it to launch since.

So far I have taken the following steps:

• I have deleted the preferences cache and restarted.
• I have updated to InDesign CC 2017
• I have uninstalled and reinstalled InDesign
• I have signed out of Creative Cloud and signed back in again
• I have been through my fonts menu and cleared that out
• I have started in 'safe mode'
• I have logged in as another user

I am running an iMac on OS X El Capitan on version 10.11.6

Any help or suggestions on how to get me back up and running would be greatly appreciated!

[AnshulJain19]

Hi a-dugg,

Please submit a crash report for same and enter you email id. Also email me crash report at ansjain@adobe.com.

It will help us in finding the cause for the issue.

Thanks

-Anshul

[a-dugg]

Thanks, I have emailed you a copy and submitted the crash report as requested.

I look forward to your response.

[nohas63999415]

I have the same issue. I am unable to startup InDesign.

I have tried all steps described on the support pages.

My InDesign is updated, I have unsynced and removed all fonts from TypeKit, I tried and disabled all services and processes at startup from MSConfig and still I am unable to start InDesign.

OS: Windows 7

InDesign: CC (2017)

Thanks for your help!

Noha

[niamhb16206319]

Hello,

My new version of InDesign (CC2017) just freezes at startup. I've tried all the above mentioned steps (some steps a few times even, like uninstalling and reinstalling, with or without prefs etc.), but nothing works. I get a black screen or it looks like InDesign started up just fine, but there's no error-message, it's just frozen, nothing works!!! Can only get out by using the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys (working on Windows 10, ACPI x64 PC)....

[fiedler]

Just did the inDesign 2017 on my Win10 machine. It too had a terrible time with it, permission error, freezing, etc.

What worked for me:

If Indesign is Not Responding, kill it in Task Manager.

Restart InDesign and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, until it becomes responsive.

Close IndDesign

Restart your computer.

Everything was back to normal after doing this.

Since this is a major upgrade, all your indd files are now obsolete and will need to be "saved as" 2017.

A major time suck if yo have thousands of files!! Is there away to automate this?

[Sumit_Garg]

Hi Horst Fiedler,

Yes CC2017 is a major release , However this does not mean all "indd" created in older version became obsolete and required to "SaveAs" in CC2017. All older files are automatically opened inside CC2017 without any extra steps and then worked upon. Once changes are done user can simply save his work in CC2017.

Now if user again wants to work in older version for CC2017 files , he can again simply open his work in older version. Where InDesign will automatically detect this case, due to a feature "Simple Save Back" and enable opening/editing his work in older version.

Thanks

-Sumit

[AnshulJain19]

Hi Niamh,

Please try restarting you machine and then launch InDesign. Let us know if this solves the issue.

Thanks

-Anshul

[a-dugg]

Are you actually joking?

I have done this multiple times.

Uninstalled reinstalled restarted.

I hope you are going to offer a better solution than that.

Î

[AnshulJain19]

Hi Andrew,

Your issue is different than Niamh, that solution is for Niamh. We are looking into your issue.

Regards

-Anshul

[HHK-Ebel]

I just deinstall indesign and reinstall the app. Now it is working again.

Windows 10 latest updates

[niamhb16206319]

Hi,

I just uninstalled and reinstalled InDesign, started InDesign and let it go for over 10 minutes (I still had to kil it in Task Manager though). Than I restarted my Computer. Now everything is up and running again!

Thanks for the quick response!

[Daniel Day_841]

Hi, Im experiencing same issue with InDesign cc 2017 not responding and once its opened either messes up my file or just closes and wont open again,

Please advise whether we can revert back to the 2015 edition cheers

[AnshulJain19]

Hi Daniel,

Does your InDesign get launch and hangs/crashes after doing some steps? Or it is hanging/crashing just on launch?

If it is hanging on launch only without doing anything, please restart your machine and then launch InDesign.

If it is hanging after doing some steps, please let me know at what step it hangs.

Thanks

-Anshul

[Daniel Day_841]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have tried various restarts and reinstalls.

It still crashes once I've opened a project, also when I open a project currently working on, it asks to convert to a cc2017 file, then once converted I've realised opening in the older cc2015 isn't as simple, Also when my work does open, I've noticed a lot of the tools aren't working as it should be so for now at least with deadlines looming I have had to revert back to previous cc2015, and have opened a previously saved backup, in order to continue with my work, and will hopefully reuse the new cc 2017 once these issues have been fixed.

cheers for your time.

[cmscss]

Hi There, I too have this issue on one Mac but not the other.

In answer to Anshul's comment above, If I restart, then InDesign will open but the next time it's opened, it freezes. InDesign freezes either opening a file when InDesign is closed or just opening the app for the first time.

I see no crash report because InDesign won't force quit and the Mac is completely unresponsive - I have to hold the power button down. Is there a way to manually initiate a crash report in this instance?

My workaround is to never close InDesign but I'm hoping for a more permanent solution that doesn't involve installing/reinstalling all the CC apps. I've done this several times over the years because of CC licensing corruption (which is infuriating) and can't afford the wasted time.

Both macs are 2013 Mac Pro's running Mac OS 10.11.6 and InDesign CC 2017

[a-dugg · Accepted solution]

Having spent over 8 hours trawling through every forum available, trying every suggestion possible and failing to get a response from Adobe, I eventually uninstalled every CC application on my Mac. I then went through my application cache files and all other files on my hard drive and deleted every reference to Adobe. I then emptied my trash, restarted my machine and installed CC and InDesign.

I am now up and running again. Unfortunately I have lost all of my preferences on every programme, but at least I can now use InDesign.

[artoix]

I had the same problem: I couldn't launch InDesign and Illustrator, they just either crashed on launch or (more often) went freezing, and my OSX complaining about CEPHtmlEngine freezing also, which is as I know also some Adobe's service.

The only what helped is total uninstall of all Adobe apps, Creative Cloud app, clearing Applications and Library folders, removing all adobe services. And after reboot reinstalling everything from scratch.

It sucks, it took me more than an hour of waste time. But at least I got InDesign launching again. We'll with other CC apps.

Adobe, please stop doing crap with each update! And we'll love you!

[mg90210]

Hi,

I have the same problem with InDesign CC 2017 on Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit. It crashes every time on startup ("fatal error").

What I have tried so far:

- restart Windows several times

- logout and login Creative Cloud

- many times deinstallation and reinstallation of InDesign 2017 with deleting all user content

- start InDesign with Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys

- delete all content in AppData/Local and AppData/Roaming

Unfortunately nothing gets InDesign 2017 to work.

My setup:

Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit (clean install in september)

Intel i7-4770K 3,5 GHz

32 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

What can I do?

[a-dugg]

Hi mg90210​

Although I am on Mac after trying every solution I could find online, I eventually deleted every CC programme.

After the uninstall I then went through my hard drive and deleted every file and folder that had the word 'Adobe' in it.

Run a search for 'adobe' and 'adobe.com'.

You will be surprised at how many are left behind after the uninstall.

I then reinstalled the CC app and then installed Indesign CC 2017.

I then started InDesign to see if it would boot up.

This got me up and running again.

I subsequently reinstalled all of the CC programmes.

It is a bit of a mission, but it worked for me. I was left with no alternative as I had a mountain of work stacking up.

Good luck!

[mg90210]

Hi a-dugg​

thank you! Yesterday InDesign did work! I found an old user folder (version 11.0) on another partition of my harddisk. And I copied it into the new user folder. Then InDesign startet and did work well.

But today it crashes again - even if I try the same trick...

[BECreativeSC]

I am having a similar problem. I am running InDesign CC 2017 on my Mac running OSX Yosemite 10.10.4 (will not upgrade because of all the issues with El Capitan and ID CC).  The computer itself is an iMac 21.5" late 2013, but was purchased brand new November 2014, 8 GB memory. Today I've fought with Suitcase and had to reinstall it. Now that it is reinstalled, ID CC refuses to launch. I've restarted multiple times and cannot get it to run. Jobs are on deadline and I cannot work at all.

I've submitted several crash reports although I'm not sure what good it does. Now running Disk First Aid to see if it comes up with anything but this:  Warning: SUID file “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent” has been modified and will not be repaired.

I'm out of work without this thing running. Ideas please? Although I'm a 25 year Mac user, please don't use techno-talk because I won't understand it.

Thanks to any and all.

Susan

[diffrence]

After trying all of these unsuccessful, i found a hint pointing on the Security Software. Turning off the Firewall while starting InDesign resolved my Problem. For some mysterious reason, had to do this only once, since then all is running "normal". It seems the Firewall is blocking some resource load in the background, without giving a error message.

Win10

InD CC2017

GDATA Internet Security (v25.3.0.1)

[FlowerBe]

Hiya,

My Indesign is doing the same, it crashes on launch coming up with the box 'Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSRangeException''. I've tried uninstalling it, launching in safe mode etc but nothing is working! Photoshop works fine but not indesign??

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) which was bought refurbished but recently. I was wondering Im still on Yosemite and dont want to download the new update for my mac because I think it will slow it down, could this be the reason?

I dont really understand any tech talk but have a portfolio due soon so please help!

Phoebe

[abearham]

I see that you have already chosen an answer to this problem, but I just found out that some fonts that I had downloaded from a type foundry's website were the cause of my crashes. From what I read online, this specific issue was somewhat rare but I feel like if other are still having this issue it's worth investigating