InDesign hangs on opening specific files

[dmsduco]

I'm having trouble opening some files in InDesign 2019 on macOS Mojave.

When I open these files, the blue bar loads almost completely (only a few pixels left), then InDesign freezes (infinite spinning beach ball) and CPU for InDesign goes to 100%. I waited one hour without success.

When I reopen InDesign after a forced quit, the recovered document shows up but then InDesign freezes again.

Notes:

It's happening to some, but not all files.

The problematic files contains a few to many links to documents on the server.

It's happening on my computer only. The file opens fine an another computer in InDesign 2018 on macOS High Sierra. I cannot test the combo InDesign 2019 on High Sierra.

What I tried so far, all without succes:

• Open in InDesign 2018 on the same computer
• Open an IDML (created on another computer)
• Open as a copy
• Disable all network connections and copy the INDD / IDML to a local drive to exclude network problems (note that I'm not able to make a package, the links should just appear as missing links in this case)
• Reset InDesign preferences
• Disabled and even uninstalled my font manager (a usual suspect...) RightFont 4.10

Example file:

problematic file.idml

I can't really nail down what's causing the problem. Any ideas?

[Laubender]

Hi dmsduco ,

I successfully opened your IDML file with InDesign CC 2018.1 on Windows 10.

Of course all the links are missing:

And also some needed fonts:

Then I tried with InDesign CC 2019 version 14.0.0.130.

It took a bit longer, perhaps due to a bug with the Control panel and changing the active tool to the Type tool.

But basically it worked ok.

Regards,
Uwe

[dmsduco]

Thanks for testing.

I'm curious if anyone can open it in InDesign 2019 on macOS Mojave.

[Laubender]

You can download the documents from my Dropbox account:

Dropbox - probelmaticFile.zip

Note: I will remove the zip file in about 10 hours.

Regards,
Uwe

[dmsduco]

Thanks. The problem remains with these files. So the problem seems to be in my InDesign installation.

Any other ideas?

[dave c courtemanche]

I cannot open the file on CC2019 / OS X Mojave. Spinning beach ball.

[Laubender]

Hi Dave,

how long did you wait before you gave up on this?

With my Windows 10 version of InDesign CC 2019 it took about a minute that the message with the missing images appeared.

Regards,
Uwe

[dave c courtemanche]

Uwe,

You're right. Needed to be patient. I can open the file after a few minutes of waiting. My guess as to the issue might be the 771 links in a 58 page doc. Try turning preflight off before you open. The page count is low, but with this many links, I'd break into smaller sections and use the book function. This many links with transparency effects on them can really drag ID down...

[dmsduco]

I get your point about breaking the document into smaller sections. I actually considered doing this a while a go, but I chose not to because of other workflow considerations (for example, managing cross references across multiple files is a pain for our semi-automated translation workflow).

Besides that, before Mojave / ID 2019, my (pretty powerful) Mac handles these files quiet well.

So apart from being a tough file, there must be something causing the freeze.

Any other ideas?

Is there some kind of log where I can see at which point the freeze is happening? I'm really in the dark on this one.

Btw, really appreciate the help!

[dave c courtemanche]

I've removed all the items on the pasteboard and resaved as idml. Tell me if you can open this. BTW, if you were one of my designers, we'd be having a chat about file prep - that's some hot mess right there.

https://arbonneintl-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/dcourtemanche_arbonne_com/EYtTgxxIPPlPsdrTdhMB_...

[dmsduco · Accepted solution]

I found the cause!

It seems the font manager (RightFont) was causing the freeze anyway, even after I disabled and deleted the app.

Apparently InDesign still loaded some plugin that RightFont installs automatically.

When I manually delete that plugin folder, InDesign loads the problematic files just fine.

The developer of RightFont is investigating the issue.

Thanks for all your help!