InDesign Crashing - Deadline Approaching!

Report · Oct 10, 2023

I have an annual report that has to be formatted SOON, but I can't add graphics or resize text frames without InDesign Crashing! I've been struggling with this for three weeks now and my deadline is approaching.

I have tried everything: replaced all the fonts, deleted all the graphics, exported as an IDML doc -- I even rebuilt the file from scratch in an act of frantic desperation. But once I get to inserting graphics or resizing frames, it crashes.

I'm working with Creative Cloud and all my software is up to date. I work on dozens of InDesign docs and this is the only one I'm having this problem with.

Help please!

Report · Oct 10, 2023

Hi @Randolph328387767y1y:

I am sorry to hear this. Could you please let us know what operating system you are on—exactly—and what version of InDesign you are on—exactly?

InDesign 19 was released this morning, so what was "current" yesterday is not current today. Sharing precise version numbers will help us help you more quickly.

It does sound like you may have a corrupt document since the other files are fine. Do you have a back-up version accessible? And have you worked through this post?
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/troubleshoot-file-issues.html

~Barb

Report · Oct 10, 2023

I have InDesign 18.5, which Creative Cloud Desktop says is the "latest."

My operating system is Windows 11 Pro.

--

Randolph

(This is a public forum—your personal contact information was removed by the moderator for your protection.)

Report · Oct 10, 2023

Thank you, Randolph. Version 19 was released this morning, but I wouldn't upgrade until you get this resolved. It does sound like you are dealing with a corrupt file.

So do you have a back up file accessible?
Have you worked through the troubleshooting page I linked to earlier? At the bottom, there is an email address to send a corrupt file to Adobe to take a look at to see if they can recover it for you.
In addition, there's a third-party company that will attempt to recover a file for you.
https://markzware.com/products/file-recovery-service/

Once you get past this, you will want to take some time to think about your back-up process. Any file can become corrupt, so it is important to create incremental back-ups on a regular basis, and consider using a cloud drive like Dropbox, which makes incremental back-ups for you.

~Barb

Report · Oct 11, 2023

Barb,

Thank you for helping me with this.

This file isn't corrupt, in the sense that I don't need to have anything
recovered that I can't access. I can open the file and work with it; it's
just that InDesign starts crashing as soon as I do anything more than
simple text editing. At various times the problem has arisen when I have
tried to paste blocks of text from a Word doc, relink graphic files, or
resize text frames. I've been creating backup files as I go; frustratingly,
once the current file I'm working on begins to start crashing InDesign, all
the backup files start acting wonky too and ultimately succumb to the same
fate.

This annual report has extensive formatting built into it. It contains more
than 120 paragraph styles, 32 character styles and 17 master pages. So when
I say I've rebuilt it, I don't mean that I've started from absolute square
one, as that would be utterly impractical. Last year's annual report had
absolutely no issues (as did any other year), and since I've elected to not
make major revisions to the style this year, I've used that as a starting
point. I've deleted all the content from last year's report, copied and
pasted the plain text of this year's report from a Word doc, and then gone
through all 58 pages and applied paragraph and character styles to each
paragraph of text. It takes days and it's mind-numbingly tedious. I've done
this TWICE now, and each time everything seems to be going along perfectly
up to a certain point, and then InDesign starts crashing.

I've gone through all of the steps on the troubleshooting page you linked
to, and nothing has provided permanent relief.

--

Randolph

(This is a public forum—your personal contact information was removed by the moderator for your protection.)

Report · Oct 11, 2023

Hi, Randolph ( @Randolph328387767y1y ),

"At various times the problem has arisen when I have tried to paste blocks of text from a Word doc"

so you pasted that text including the formatting?

Or did you paste as text only?

If you pasted including the Word formats than you also have imported unvisible special Word command signs. And these can crash InD.

My experience is that it is always a good idea to import as plain text.

Regards

Stephan

Report · Oct 11, 2023

Yes, I only pasted text. As a general rule, that is how I work so that my
paragraph styles don't get mixed up.

--

Randolph

(This is a public forum—your personal contact information was removed by the moderator for your protection.)

Report · Oct 11, 2023

...Last year's annual report had
absolutely no issues (as did any other year), and since I've elected to not
make major revisions to the style this year, I've used that as a starting
point. I've deleted all the content from last year's report, copied and
pasted the plain text of this year's report from a Word doc, and then gone
through all 58 pages and applied paragraph and character styles to each
paragraph of text.

This may not be the source of your corruption, if that's what it turns out to be, and InDesign is generally pretty good at "recycling" files, but for this sort of work you are much better off creating a template file with only your master pages and styles, then use that for all new versions. The more you re-cycle files, the more minor corruption can build up and the greater the chance of total loss.

Have you tried exporting to .idml and opening that, then resaving as a new .indd? Or moving all your pages to a new file?

It may be some problem with a font or a particular linked image, or something else entirely. One way to diagnose that is to use the divide and conquer method. Save a copy and delete half the pages. If the crashing stops, repeat by deleting the other half from a new copy. For any part that crashes, divide it in half as above until you isolate a page, then remove objects half at a time from that page.

If you get crashing in more than one section, it probably is not a single item and is more likely to be a font problem. Replacing the fonts temporarily may help find that.

Report · Oct 11, 2023

I've exported to IDML and resaved as INDD a few times. I've deleted al the images and replaced the fonts and everyting I can think of to eliminate whatever the offending content is. I can get things to work for peiods of time without crashing, but inevitably, at a certain point, it starts again. Sometimes it happens when I try to resize a certain frame, or place or certain graphic, or paste or delete some content, but once it starts crashing the file and all the backups associated with it become unusable.

I haven't tried "divide and conquer," though, so I'll try that now. I really don't have anything else I can possibly do.

Report · Oct 11, 2023

Try to install older version of InDesign - not the latest?

If you create completely new file - and DON'T use anything from the old file - will it start crashing as well?

Can you share - on priv - full package - after it start crashing?

Do you work locally - your local hdd / add - or ANYTHING is linked from a network server / cloud storage?

Do you have any problems with any other software? Maybe you should stress-test your system? CPU / Memory / etc.

Report · Oct 12, 2023

Robert,

Can you please explain what you mean by "share - on priv"? If you mean uploading the file somewhere, I can definitely do that. I can get InDesign to start crashing over any version of this document in just a few simple steps.

In response to your other questions:

I'm on a network that restricts the sort of things I can do with my PC, so I don't think installing an older version of InDesign will be an option.

I have not tried creating a completely new file because of the complexity of this document. It contains over 125 paragraph styles, 32 character styles, 17 master pages and 61 document pages. I could never recreate all of that formatting and meet my deadline. I can say, however, that I create new documents frequently and work with hundreds of existing InDesign files, none of which have any problems.

The document is stored on our network drive, as are all the links. I work from home and in-office, so I connect to the network both on-site and remotely. During one of my failed attempts to arrest the crashing problem, I saved the document and all the links to my hard drive and worked on it there.

I have no problems with any other software. I do a lot of design work and frequently have InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, multiple browser windows and miscellaneous applications running all at once and, to the surprise of the occasional coworker who looks over my shoulder, never experience any hiccups. The agency I work for has been very good about making sure I have resources sufficient to do my job.

To my embarassment, I have not heard of ID-Tasker. Would it help in this situation? I'm hesitant to crack open anything right now that could distract me from the task at hand unless it has the potential to resolve this problem.

Report · Oct 12, 2023

@Randolph328387767y1y

Can you please explain what you mean by "share - on priv"? If you mean uploading the file somewhere, I can definitely do that. I can get InDesign to start crashing over any version of this document in just a few simple steps.

Yeah, I mean you upload it somewhere and send me a link privately.

I'm on a network that restricts the sort of things I can do with my PC, so I don't think installing an older version of InDesign will be an option.

If you can re-install current / latest version of InDesign - by yourself - then you can install older version as well - you just need to select different option in the Creative Cloud Desktop:

I have not tried creating a completely new file because of the complexity of this document. It contains over 125 paragraph styles, 32 character styles, 17 master pages and 61 document pages. I could never recreate all of that formatting and meet my deadline. I can say, however, that I create new documents frequently and work with hundreds of existing InDesign files, none of which have any problems.

I mean - if the same problem occurs if you start on a new blank document - not related to your "problematic" document.

Just something completely else - to try and eliminate problem with files that you are using in your "problematic" document - so not the same font and not the same linked files.

The document is stored on our network drive, as are all the links. I work from home and in-office, so I connect to the network both on-site and remotely. During one of my failed attempts to arrest the crashing problem, I saved the document and all the links to my hard drive and worked on it there.

And that might be a problem ... InDesign is EXTREMELY sensitive to the network speed - or "lag" - if the network is too slow - it will open document as ReadOnly - so maybe InDesign is able to open it for editing - but then, when there are problems with the network - it starts "crashing" your file?

Have you tried to work COMPLETELY locally? Copied EVERYTHING to your local drive? Then TURN OFF the network - to force InDesign to use everything locally - "break" all links to network locations.

I have no problems with any other software. I do a lot of design work and frequently have InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, multiple browser windows and miscellaneous applications running all at once and, to the surprise of the occasional coworker who looks over my shoulder, never experience any hiccups. The agency I work for has been very good about making sure I have resources sufficient to do my job.

Like I've said above - you need to diagnose your network...

To my embarassment, I have not heard of ID-Tasker. Would it help in this situation? I'm hesitant to crack open anything right now that could distract me from the task at hand unless it has the potential to resolve this problem.

Nothing to be emarassed for - it's just my sig(nature) - and ID-Tasker is a tool I've created. It probably won't help you with your problem - for now - but I can easily add new "rules" to help in similar situations in the future.

But overall - it could be very helpful to you, if you have a lot of repetivie tasks.

Report · Oct 12, 2023

Forgive me for not being terribly familiar with how this forum works (mercifully, aside from this issue I don't really have problems with my Adobe products), but how can I send you a link privately?

Report · Oct 12, 2023

Click on my nickname and you'll get redirected to my profile.

Report · Oct 12, 2023

This problem is sort of fixed -- or, at least I understand that it really is a font problem. Replacing all the fonts with Myriad Pro got the file to stop crashing InDesign. I'm having some trouble exorcizing all the existing fonts from the most current version of the file, but at least I know what I need to do to keep InDesign stable.

Report · Oct 12, 2023

Check to see if you have multiple versions of the same font name installed -- like Google and Adobe fonts with the same name. Tghat can definitely cauyse the kind of trouble you're having.

InDesign Crashing - Deadline Approaching!

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