InDesign CS6 crashing at start up (mac OS Sierra)

[bobfreshwizzle]

Hi,

I'm having serious issues opening InDesign CS6. I try to open InDesign either by opening a .indd document or by opening the application itself, the startup image appears (and is currently taking longer than normal to disappear), then the window showing the document last opened appears very briefly, then before any action can be taken the whole program quits unexpectedly.

I have tried clearing the AdobeFnt*.lst caches (though I couldn't find the actual files in a search, I had to use OnyX to clear the font cache that way), and have also tried changing the Adobe preferences folder to read & write, however there was no folder named Adobe in /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I rely on InDesign and so desperately need to get it operational again.

As an aside, I have not had any other issues with any other CS6 applications. Upon opening Illustrator a day or two ago, a dialog opened saying a file was corrupted and that it would be reset, which I OK'd, and which did not cause any issues to Illustrator running.

Thank you very much!

[Derek Cross]

InDesign CS6 is not supported by Adobe running under El Capitan upwards. Some seem able to run it and others, like you, have issues. If it's mission critical it best to either upgrade to InDesign CC2017/CC2018 or revert your OS.

[bobfreshwizzle]

Thanks for replying so soon, Derek. I have used it fairly regularly on Sierra for just under a year and have not had any issues. This seems like a sudden problem?

[BobLevine]

CS6 is unsupported under 10.11 or later. I suggest you roll back to an earlier operating system using the back up that you should have made before upgrading.

Other than that, you’ll probably need to move to Creative Cloud.

[bobfreshwizzle]

Thanks Bob. Unfortunately I did not upgrade. Due to an accident I had to buy a new laptop which came with Sierra, and so jumped from Mavericks to Sierra with no time machine backup. Is it usual that this problem would have occurred suddenly, without an updates to my OS to prompt it? As I mentioned to Derek, it has been working on Sierra with no problem for almost a year.

[Derek Cross]

Try resetting the InDesign preferences to see if that helps. Also do a Save As on the document you're having problems with to clear out any crud that may have built up.

[bobfreshwizzle]

I am unfortunately not even able to get far enough to reset the preferences or save the open document! The program shuts before anything can be clicked.

[Steve Werner]

Here are instructions for restoring preferences. It happens when InDesign is just opening by holding down modifier keys. Or, alternatively you delete preferences files when InDesign is not open:

Trash, Replace, Reset, or Restore the application Preferences

[bobfreshwizzle]

Thanks Steve. I deleted the preferences by holding down the keys just as InDesign opens, however it did not fix the issue.

ALSO

I booted my laptop in Safe Mode and InDesign opened just fine, letting me access and edit my document as usual. Upon opening, a dialog box showing missing fonts appeared (all fonts used in the auto-opening document are user fonts rather than system fonts). I was able to do a Save As of the doc while in Safe Mode as Derek suggested, however opening again in normal mode produces the same problem.

[bobfreshwizzle · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for your help! PROBLEM SOLVED.

I disabled all of my user fonts, was then able to open InDesign normally, then I went to Preferences > Type and turned off Font Previews. After re-enabling user fonts and re-opening InDesign, the program ran as normal.

However I am now aware that InDesign is not supported on my OS, so I will take extra care. Thanks again!

[BobLevine]

If this is a mission critical machine you are playing with fire. Lose one job or one client and figure out the costs.

[Derek Cross]

Yeah, I second that, it's a relative small monthly payment for a vital tool (if you don't use InDesign regularly you can get the monthly plan where you pay a little more, and you can suspend payments for the month(s) you don't want it – minimum one month).

[phatn86627399]

Hi  bobfreshwizzle
You can try disable all your font on font book users (or delete) and open Indesign again . If you use too many font in mac os 10.11, 10.12  Ind CS5, CS6 will be crashed, Acrobat X Pro too.