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Randolph328387767y1y
Participating Frequently
October 10, 2023
Answered

InDesign Crashing - Deadline Approaching!

  • October 10, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1404 views

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!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Robert at ID-Tasker

    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?


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

     

    2 replies

    Barb Binder
    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    October 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

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    R
    Randolph328387767y1yAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    October 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.)

    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Brainiac
    October 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.


    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.

     

    Barb Binder
    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    October 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

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    R
    Randolph328387767y1yAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    October 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.)

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