InDesign CS6 crashes on startup

[bageled001]

InDesign CS6 crashes on start up.

The boot gets as far as "starting up panels" then I get a windows message "Adobe InDesign has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

Other CS6 programs I have tried have workd fine.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling InDesign

I have updated InDesign via the Adobe Application Manager.

I have tried booting as administrator.

Windows 7 Professional 64bit

As far as I know InDesign has never worked, I only recently installed CS6 and this has been my first attempt to launch it.

[Salah Fadlabi]

Troubel shooting 101

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/526990

[bageled001]

Thanks for that.

There is a quick and easy method for doing this using the keyboard: close and relaunch InDesign, and IMMEDIATELY hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Windows) or Cmd + Ctrl + Opt + Shift (Mac), and respond in the affirmative to the dialog asking if you really want to replace the preferences. There are two downsides to this method, however. First, you must be extremely fast on the keyboard (if you don’t see the confirmation prompt, you were too slow), and second, anytime you replace the preferences you will lose most program customizations, and using the keyboard method leaves you with no backup to restore them when the problem turns out to be something else.

Did the above, didn't help.

My preferred method is to CLOSE INDESIGN and do a “manual” prefs replacement, which consists of finding and renaming the two files which make up the preference set: InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData.

Did the above, didn't help.

Any other suggestions?

[Peter Spier]

Are you running from an administrator account or a restricted account? Is the user profile on the C: drive?

[bageled001]

I am running it in an administrator account, and have also tried, from within this account, right clicking and running it as administrator.

The user profile is on the C: drive.

[Peter Spier]

Unfortunately that eliminates one whole branch of possibilities, so we're no closer to finding an answer. What does event viewer have to say about it? It won't be real helpful, but it might have a clue.

[bageled001]

Event viewer?

I've inserted a screenshot of the error message, but I don't think that is what you are referring to.

[Peter Spier]

No that's not waht I was looking for, but it actually was helpful as it showed the splash screen withteh last notice "starting up panels." I've been searching,and I can't find a definitive answer for a cause. Do you know how to check folder permissions? Do you have a font manager?

Is your default printer a local (as opposed to network) printer, and turned on?

Event Viewer is in the Windows Control Panel under Administrative Tools. There are a number of sub-categories, and you'll want to look under Windows Logs > Application and Windows Logs > System.

[bageled001]

I think I know how to check folder permissions, which folders shold I check?

I do have a font manager, I have Corel Bit Stream Font Navigator installed.

My default printer is a network printer and is turned on.

Event viewer could be of interest, it seems to be pointing at Java.

EventData

InDesign.exe

8.0.0.370

4f72c3ee

SUPPORT FOR JAVASCRIPT.RPLN

8.0.0.370

4f72caab

c0000005

00020334

328

01ce5f3401b5d397

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS6\InDesign.exe

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS6\Required\SUPPORT FOR JAVASCRIPT.RPLN

61e8b3d1-cb27-11e2-a4fa-001999eade80

[Peter Spier]

OK, that's really good information. Javascript may not be enabled on your system, and ID depends heavily on it. From the Start menu, choose Run... then in the command line type "regsvr32 jscript.dll" without the quotes and click OK. You should see a confirmation of successful registration.

Next, see if you can locate a font activation plugin from bitstream in the InDesign Plugins. I don't have a clue about it's name or which folder it will be in, but you might be able to find it by using Adobe Extension Manager, which you can launch from the Start Menu (it will be listed along with the other CS6 apps). Select InDesign from the list on the left side after it loads, then look for the Bitstream plugin in the list and uncheck it (it may need to be removed entirely, not just deactivated, but I would do that using Windows Explorer once you know its name so you can find it using Windows Search -- you can cut it from its installed location and put it someplace safe where you can find it to reinstall if the problem isn't related to font activation).

If that doesn't do it, try manually installing the InDesign 8.0.1 update by downloading it from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5465 (You may already have this update installed if you've been running the Adobe updater).

[bageled001]

I unsintalled Bitstream.

I entered the java script line into Run, and got the confirmation window.

My ID was already up to date via the Adobe Updater

I rebooted after tha changes.

Still not working.

I checked event manager again, and the error message is the same.

I thought that was going to work.

[Peter Spier]

I was hoping it would, too....

There was another thread yesterday that might have some relevance: http://forums.adobe.com/message/5373209#5373209

Manish Sharma suggested deleting the PlugInConfig.txt file from your user profile (he was talking to a Mac user, for you it will be in Users\<your username>\appdata\roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version 8.0\en_US), and making sure you have read and write permissions on the application plugin folders, which would normally be installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\(and some subdirectory that would depend on whether the application is stand-alone or part of a package).

It's a long shot, but worth checking. I'll ping him, too, to see if he has any other suggestions....

[Manish-Sharma]

Hello bageled001,

I will appreciate if you could please follow the below steps and update us with the status :-

1) Check in the new user account on your computer.

2) Check running InDesign in the Selective startup mode on your computer. (http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/disable-startup-items-services-windows.html)

Also, could you please check the version of Java you are running and update latest version if you do not have the current Java update installed.

[bageled001]

Java is up to date.

I created a new user account, no admin permissions, and InDesign booted up correctly, which is encouraging.

I followed the selective startup directions, restarted the computer, and tried to boot up InDesign, and it failed at the same point.

It seem to be something to do with permissions. That selective startup seemed the equivalent of Safe mode, it had me switch everything off, but still there was a problem at the "Starting Up Panels" stage.

[Manish-Sharma · Accepted solution]

The application worked fine in the new user account and is not working in your usual user profile.

It seems the issue is with Premission or some other issue on the specific user account.

Please follow the suggestion in the below link as they may help :-

http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/troubleshoot-unexpected-behavior-user-account-1.html

[bageled001]

Problem solved.

It took a while, and I had to work my way down the list, but in the end it was a corruption in the registry files.

Thanksl.

[lnogales]

How could you tell that it was a problem with a corruption in the resgistry file?

I'm having the same problem you described in the beginning with InDesignCS6 on Windows 8.1

[Jose-Cuellar]

I'm actually experiencing the same issue with my Macbook Pro. InDesign opens up completely then closes, it is then followed by a window that says "InDesign quit unexpectedly". I have tried uninstalling and installing the program but received the same outcome, also tried the link below and thought it might finally be the solution but it was not. Deleting InDesign Preference file did not work for me either. This is the only program that is behaving this way, Photoshop and Illustrator work fine. 

http://www.cnet.com/news/adobe-provides-fix-for-indesign-crashes-on-new-macbooks/

[BobLevine]

That link is four years old!

And if you're using El Capitan, CS6 is unsupported and having reached end of life will never be patched to make it compatible.

[Jose-Cuellar]

Thanks for your reply Bob.

Yes I am using OS X El Capitan. Is there no known solution, or workaround for this issue? I hate to have invested money on software for it to become obsolete due to a software update. I have work InDesign documents I no longer have the ability to access. Any suggestions?

[CEEH]

I am using InDesign CS 6 on a Windows 7 Enterprise PC, with limited user permissions. Anything with Admin  rights requires a Help Desk technician within my organization to log on and give Windows permission to make the changes.

We replaced InDesign once after certain features stopped working -- particularly the Stroke and Fill box when using the Swatches panel on the right side of the Window. Was also crashing on launch and required relaunching to open files with large graphics.

After uninstalling and reinstalling the software, it fully worked for about two weeks and reverted to its old behavior.

Help Desk downloaded and reinstalled InDesign CS6 (after uninstalling it first). It now simply quits on launch. I gets almost completely through starting up and simply quits. No error message, Just quits.  It does this whether I double click the application icon and launch it "cold" or try to double click an InDesign file.

We tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it after deleting all visible user preferences. No dice. Tried having an Administrator open InDesign and the same thing happens.

Adobe used to have a Clean Script to remove all Adobe applications and clean Adobe items out of the Windows Registry, and I''m wondering if that would solve the problem. Or do we erase the hard drive and reinstall Windows first (our Help Desk will not run third party solutions like CCleaner).

[Peter Spier]

No guarantees it will solve your problem, but the cleaner tool is still out there. CS Cleaner Tool for installation problems | CCM, CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4, CS3

[angel2k6]

You have to try to do a registry scan with CCleaner .. for me worked