Indesign full disk access - multiple versions installed

[Wolandit_IT]

Hi
I have a number of proprietary Quality checker plugins from different publishers that won't work in MacOs Catalina, all exhibiting the same error. (I've already had to un quarantine them to get them to apparently install, and they do). Particularly they won't export correctly the pdfs they're supposed to.
I have narrowed it down to a security/permissions error.

I wanted to grant Indesign full disk access, but I encountered a problem:
I have multiple versions installed, 2020, 2019, 2018 (which was obtained from Adobe customer service, since it's not available anymore from the CC app). When I go in the system preferences to grant the permissions, the only app listed and recognized is CC2020 (which I don't need, the plugins are for 2019 and 2018). I can't get the other two to appear in the list. If I click on the + sign to add them, navigate and select one of them, Indesign 2020 is always added instead. Same thing if i drag them in the list.
So I'm stuck.
any ideas?

[Randy Hagan]

Alas, you may well be stuck. While InDesign CC2019 and CC2018 in fact are 64-bit software applications, perhaps your plug-ins are not. MacOS 10.15x Catalina, in absolute terms, will not run 32-bit software. If the plug-ins were not explicitly written to run on the exclusively 64-bit architecture of MacOS Catalina, your older installations will crash — even if those versions of InDesign are 64-bit applications.

I suspect you cannot install your plug-ins into CC2020. Which would explain why your current version works fine, but your older ones, with the plug-ins you've installed, will not. You'll have to go back to the plug-in developers for more information.

Sorry I don't have better news for you,

Randy

[Wolandit_IT]

Hi,
First of all, thanks for the reply.

I think I need to be more specific. These are Qchecker plugins, which are designed to perform a series of controls on Indesign files, in a process similar to the Preflight indesign tool. In addition, they should export the pdfs with the chosen preset (which resides on the disk, and is defined in the xml plugin preferences).

I think it's worth to be mentioned that these plugin are recognized by Indesign (they add their menu commands, and I was able to manipulate the plugin settings, so they can write their preferences to disk.
At least one of these plugins successfully logs in, with username and password, on the publisher's intranet, so I think that it basically works: i guess it has to successfully run to do that, so I don't think they are 32 bits programs.

They run their scrpts smoothly when checking documents, and they behave as predicted, signaling mistakes in accordance to the profile selected. When the checks are ok, they prompt to export the pdf. When you say ok, they stay stuck for a little while (color wheel turning) about the time it usually takes for the export indesign function to create the same pdf.
THEN, the plugin sends an error message, inside his own interface (so not a system error) signaling a problem exporting the pdf. My guess is that it has no permission to write the pdf to disk. That's what i'm trying to address. Maybe now I'll try to change the export location, I read that certain disk locations such as cloud drives are privacy protected on a higher level in Catalina, and when I tried this, the export folder was on a Dropbox subfolder.

What about granting full disk access to the different Indesign versions installed?
Thanks

[Wolandit_IT]

Ok I have done some more trial and errors.

The plugin also has a function to export indd files, fonts and links in a particular folder structure, and that works perfectly.

It's just the pdf creation that fails, as if the plugin is somehow unable to succefully call for the pdf export.

I can't fathom why.

[Randy Hagan]

Are both writing to local folders? Or LAN folders?

Dropbox (and cloud-based folders in general) cause unique challenges to many Adobe apps and InDesign in particular. Are you able to generate PDFs directly from InDesign — e.g. packaging docs with PDF and IDML export files, creating PDFs directly from InDesign, etc.? This may help pinpoint whether you have an InDesign or specific plug-in problem.

Randy

[Wolandit_IT]

No LAN folders are involved.

Yes, I can successfully create packages and export PDFs from InDesign, on any disk location, with both versions, 2019 and 2018. I'm talking about the same documents and the same joboptions which the plugin uses.

[Randy Hagan]

Then again, I'm afraid we're back to dealing specifically with the plug-ins.

I've had experience with problems with plug-ins between different versions of InDesign, but this is the first time I've heard of problems linked to an OS upgrade. All I can recommend is going to the developers of your plug-ins.

[Wolandit_IT]

I tried escalating the problem to my clients (2 big book publishers in Italy) which are the same people who ask me use the plugins for their process in the first place, and who buy the plugins from the original software developers.

Meanwhile i discovered with surprise that the plugins can successfully make indesign packages. They can create folders, and write a copy of the indd file to disk. There are two things that they can't do: exporting the pdf and deleting folders when trying to export a second time the same thing. This last thing results in a crash.

Do you think it is in fact related to the stricter permissions, privacy and security handling in Catalina?
I have tested these pieces of software on High Sierra, and they run fine. Never on Mojave.
I tried disabling the Gatekeeper. Do you think it's worth trying to disable SPI completely?

I think if I tell my clients al this they'll just tell  me to downgrade my Os. 😞

_____________________________________
Process: Adobe InDesign CC 2019 [906]
Path: /Applications/Adobe InDesign CC 2019/Adobe InDesign CC 2019.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe InDesign CC 2019
Identifier: com.adobe.InDesign
Version: 14.0.3.433 (14030)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]
Responsible: Adobe InDesign CC 2019 [906]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2020-02-01 16:39:58.850 +0100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.15.2 (19C57)
Report Version: 12
Anonymous UUID: B486E242-7180-4D06-A582-057FEA7E8A9C

Time Awake Since Boot: 560 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000fffffff0
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process: exc handler [906]

VM Regions Near 0xfffffff0:
-->
__TEXT 0000000101aa5000-0000000101aac000 [ 28K] r-x/rwx SM=COW /Applications/Adobe InDesign CC 2019/Adobe InDesign CC 2019.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe InDesign CC 2019

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libsystem_platform.dylib 0x00007fff690fac92 _platform_strlen + 18
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff68f9677b __vfprintf + 8721
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff68fbbe1b __v2printf + 475
3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff68fa21f4 vsprintf_l + 239
4 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff68f93254 sprintf + 160
5 com.adobe.InDesign.Hyphen-Italia.QChecker 0x0000000115026d88 IDFileUrl::MoveToTrash(short) + 1912
6 com.adobe.InDesign.Hyphen-Italia.QChecker 0x000000011506a1fc QCheckerPreflight::ExportDocument(IDocument*, int, PMString&, XMLProfile&, IDFileUrl&, K2Vector<K2Pair<PMString, PMString>, K2Allocator<K2Pair<PMString, PMString> > >&, short) + 6908
7 com.adobe.InDesign.Hyphen-Italia.QChecker 0x000000011504aa08 QCheckerWorkerTask::RunTask(unsigned int, IdleTimer*) + 56
8 com.adobe.InDesign.AppFramework 0x000000010e8bc0b2 0x10e852000 + 434354
9 com.adobe.InDesign.AppFramework 0x000000010e8bbb65 0x10e852000 + 432997
10 com.adobe.InDesign.Application UI 0x0000000113cb5bcf 0x113b38000 + 1563599
11 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff2ebf93df -[NSApplication run] + 707
12 com.adobe.exo.framework 0x0000000104ca7448 exo::app::OS_AppBase::RunEventLoop() + 56
13 com.adobe.InDesign.AppFramework 0x000000010e9a9fd3 0x10e852000 + 1408979
14 com.adobe.InDesign.AppFramework 0x000000010e9a8cd9 0x10e852000 + 1404121
15 com.adobe.InDesign 0x0000000101aa6c38 main + 936
16 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff68f047fd start + 1

_____________________________________________________