InDesign keeps crashing and I have lost ability to edit using Command Y

[tturiano]

I have been working in InDesign on this particular project for three years. InDesign crashes pretty consistently during work, at least once a day, and it is a real pain, but I have gotten used to it, and gotten in the habit of hitting save after every single change I make. Today is different. It crashed once, twice, three times, and now I have lost all editing functionality in the Command Y editorial window. The initial crashes mostly occurred while scrolling, mostly by swiping my finger on the Apple bluetooth mouth. For some reason, the Command Y editorial window just cannot handle scrolling, which is a real pain because when you are editing a document, you have to be able to scroll. Now, when I restart InDesign, and try to start editing again by pressing Command Y, the editorial window does not even appear whatsoever. Command Y no longer does anything, at all, nothing. I have the latest version of Indesign and Mac ios. I have tried reinstalling the program from CC before when scrolling crashes have happened in the past, but it doesn't help. Something is seriously wrong with either my computer or InDesign that it keeps crashing like this. Does anyone have any idea how I can just reset my whole system so that InDesign might start working without crashing? Thanks, Tom

[tturiano]

George...disabling GPU might have fixed the problem. I did it yesterday, and haven't had a crash since. I will keep the community posted. Thanks!

[tturiano]

I was able to work in Indesign since the 21st with no crashes, evidently after disabling GPU, but today IND has started crashing again, GPU is still disabled.

[Derek Cross]

tturiano – Try turning off GPU Performance in InDesign Preferences.

[Geоrge]

indd-idml-indd not guarantee to you 100% exact publication as it was. You are need to check all the pages by your eyes. This emergency thing to rescue your publication.

[Peter Spier]

In addition to turning off GPU acceleration, make sure you've updated to the most recent version. There have been a number of bug fixes.

Did you run the cleaner tool before reinstalling? If not you may find you need to uninstall again and run it before reinstalling.

[Peter Spier]

I'll second what Derek has said about "recycling" documents and incremental failure, but that should be limited to the particular document, not brand new work.

Back in the old days when I worked with Macs on various jobs (I'm primarily a Windows user) we would use a freeware program called Cocktail to perform maintenance functions. It's been around for more than 20 years and is reliable, but sadly no longer free ($19 for a single license) but there does seem to be a limited trial period for unlicensed use.

https://www.maintain.se/cocktail/

Make sure if you decide to try it you use the version that matches your OS version.

There is no guarantee this will solve the problem, of course. If it's bad hardware nothing short of replacing the bad component will work. Here's an article on memory testing for Macs: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/check-memory-mac/

If you feel this is beyond you, I urge you to enlist a helper.

If memory tests OK and repairing permissions doesn't seem to help it may be time to uninstall and reinstall ID. I would run the CC Cleaner tool before reinstalling: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

[Randy Hagan]

If you don't mind my asking, how big is this project document you've been working on for the last three years? Is it a single file? Without discussing the content, what kind of document is it? How many pages are in it? Does it have lots of placed graphics in it?

In short, could the file just be to danged big for your system? What kind of Mac have you got? How much RAM? And how much available storage?

You've got a bunch of folks here who want to help. As you can share more about what you've got and what you're working on, we can better help you quickly find your way past your issues.

Happy to help,

Randy

[tturiano]

Thanks Randy...I'm working on a book. There are 16 chapters. Each chapter is an Indesign file. The files range in size from 10 to 30 mb. There are between 20 and 80 pages in each. The book has about 600 images, but they are all linked, not embedded.

My iMac is a 2017, 27-inch monitor. 3.8 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 processor; 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM; 1.35TB of 2.12TB is available...running BigSur 11.5.2.

I have looked into hiring a local person to come run some tests on the hardware to see if anything is bad.

[Randy Hagan]

It seems you have an adequate system for running InDesign. The files are large, and as suggested in other responses, you may choose the InDesign document (.indd) saved as an InDesign Markup Language interchange file (.idml) to clean out the digital jetsam that accumulates with InDesign files worked with continuously over time. It saves the original, problematic files and creates a refined and (in the background, not for the page content) redefined file that you can then re-save as a new InDesign file. Be sure, though to name them so you know the difference between the new files and the old ones.

It's a solid, safe and well-established InDesign workflow.

If that doesn't help, you may find that further sub-dividing your chapters may offer some relief. I've produced catalog files, where clients want you to provide "minor updates" (as if!) to their existing files rather than create new ones. With lots of graphics and separate, discrete text blocks for each item, over time they become problematic. Because 600 images generally turns into 600 separate, discrete captions to describe them, etc. The files show down and become unmanageable over time and countless additions/deletions/revisions/updates. If you're working with them the whole time, they seem to slow down and respond sluggishly. When someone presents you with files they've been working with for years because "they're not working right" and they ask for your help, they seem to fall apart and crash your systems out of the blue.

Experiment with taking one of the smaller chapters you're working on. Try first breaking it in half, then work with each half independently. See if that gives you an improvement. If it does, lather/rinse/repeat as necessary for the remaining files. It will be a tedious, teeth-gnashing process to break those chapters into smaller files, then stitch them back together using InDesign's Book functions (link provided, for benefit of anyone who may be new to this process). Hopefully that will help you even more.

Good luck,

Randy

[alexweefs]

Whilst InDesign is generally pretty stable I do sometimes come across people who have an issue with InDesign crashing repeatedly. There are a few things you can do to stop this, other than simply reinstalling InDesign.

RESTART THE MACHINE

OK it sounds kind of obvious, but one thing you could do it restart the computer itself.  Generally this won’t resolve the problem but I have come across situations where it has.  It’s worth a go and only takes a few minutes.

RESET THE PREFERENCES

The next thing which I usually try is resetting the InDesign preferences.  This does wipe any customisation so if you have personalised workspaces, etc.. they will be wiped.  Having said that it generally does fix recurring crashes in InDesign (and Photoshop / Illustrator). In fact personally I find this method has worked almost everytime over many years.

To reset the preferences simply restart InDesign and hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Windows) or Cmd + Ctrl + Opt + Shift (Mac).  After a few seconds you should then get a pop up box that asks if you want to reset the preferences.

Personally I find this fixes almost all my crashing issues.

The downside of this is it wiped your personal settings, including document and print presets, so I would suggest synching whatever settings you can to the cloud first to save a bit of time.

That way if doing this doesn’t solve the problem you can always restore the preferences.

You can also save and then reload things like print presets and document presets by going into them from the file menu and clicking define then saving them.

[tturiano]

This is happening again, but way worse than before. I open Indesign, I open a file, I go to where I am editing, I hit Command-Y for the story editor, and the program disappears from the screen. I have deleted/reset preferences, I have saved the file as IDML and back to INDD, and I have tried a dozen times to edit this document always with the same result.

[Peter Spier]

Made any other changes to hardwarte or software recently?

[tturiano]

No changes

[Peter Spier]

Didn't upgrade InDesign or the OS?

Can you get to Story Editor through the menu rather than using the shortcut? Might be a problem withthe shortcut set.

[tturiano]

No changes in software or operating system. When I tried accessing Story Editor through the edit menu, the program crashed even sooner (the moment I selected 'edit with story editor') that when I used Command Y. When I use Command Y, the story editor will open for a second or two, then the program disappears from the screen.

[tturiano]

I uninstalled and reinstalled Indesign and it seems to have solved the problem for now. Thanks for your help.

[tturiano]

I hate to say it, but like last time I went through all of the steps provided to help my situation earlier this year, the fix lasted through about 1.5 hours of work before Indesign crashed, just disappeared from the screen, while scrolling with my mouse through text in the Story Editor. I have tried everything suggested and have run diagnostics on my computer to make sure I don't have a hardware or operating system problem. My only conclusion is that there must be a bug with the program and I hope someone will address it soon with a program update, as the repeated crashes are a real problem for me.

[Peter Spier]

If this were truly a bug in the program it would be more commonly reported. I don't recall seeing anyone else with this particular problem.

Have you tried running the Mac in Safe Mode, or using a new user account? Both of these are steps to see if there is some sort of software conflict -- safe mode for conflicts with background tasks and a new account to isolate user problems.

[Geоrge]

He have solved now and can't check it. IMHO, such things needs to show support chat directly. 

[tturiano]

I had extensive help with the problem with Adobe tech support and they were stumped. However, they did not suggest restarting in Safe Mode. I just tried that, opened Indesign, opened a file, tried story editor, and it did not crash the program, even after scrolling around in story editor for several minutes, actions that would surely have crashed the program before. I called Apple to see if they had suggestions on how to handle my Mac's background activity effecting Indesign. Other than updating my OS and calling Adobe, none. I hadn't updated to Monterey because of problems that I had heard about, but I just did. Now Indesign will not even open.

[Peter Spier]

OK, sounds like a software conflict of some sort, but could still be a corrupt user account. Did you try a new user as well?

You might want to roll back either the OS update (reports of problems with InDesign and Monterey are common) or your version of InDesign if you've updated to 17.2 (again, lots of bugs there).

[tturiano]

I just reinstalled Indesign and it opens!

I just opened a file, hit command Y, scrolled around for a few seconds, and it didnt crash!

I hope it lasts.

[Peter Spier]

Glad you've got it running. I still supspect some sort of software conflict since it was working for a time previously.