InDesign suddenly keeps crashing, have tried usual remedies

[csscms]

Hi There,

I stupidly upgraded (I didn't realise it was the new version) and now InDesign crashes after being open for about 20sec (with and without opening a file).

I've submitted about 15 Apple crash reports because the InDesign crash reporter won't display despite following the instructions here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/submit-crash-reports.html. 

I also can't downgrade because I have days worth of urgent work that won't open in v16 - so stupid of me.

I've tried:

- Restarting the Mac

- Runinng disk first aid on all disks

- Quiting all apps except InDesign

- Removing preference and cache as described: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html

- Uninstalling InDesign and installing v16 instead

But now even v16 crashes upon launch. I haven't installed any new apps or even activated any new fonts. The only thing that's changed is that I turned off Dropbox Backup because Photosop could no longer save any files - which is weird right? Dropbox blame Adobe so who knows.

I've been working in v17 for about 4 days and all of sudden, I opened a file (which I'd had open literally 5mins prior) and now no version of InDesign (v16 or v17) will work.

The only thing left is a complete erase and install of my Mac - I have urgent work to complete and can't think of anything else.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated

Cheers

[Derek Cross]

Which OS ?

How much RAM and spare hard disk capacity do you have?

Are you using a third party app, such as a font manager?

If you have the correct system specs, uninstall InDesign using the Adobe Cleaner Tool and then reinstall the application again.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

[csscms]

Thanks...

• Mac OSX 11.6.1
• 64GB Ram
• Years worth of trouble-free use (have been using InDesign since v1)
• RightFont 5 font manager

Will try the Adobe cleaner tool. Cheers

[Derek Cross]

Try disabling the font manager first to see if that sorts the issue out.

( How much spare hard disk capacity do you have?)

[csscms]

Thanks for that. I had quit RightFont previously to test but I'll uninstall just incase. My startup drive has over 300GB free space. Something's become corrupt somewhere, it was very sudden and besides installing v17 a few days ago I haven't installed anything new. Cheers

[Randolyn5E28]

Having the same issue on WIndows 10. This started randomly yesterday. Adobe support was no help at all. I've updated my computer and uninstalled and reinstalled InDesign and still no help. 

[Derek Cross]

More information, what started yesterday?

[csscms · Accepted solution]

OK, I think I've fixed this - v17 is now launching without crashing, not 100% sure what worked but here's what I did...

In Activity Monitor, I noticed a process taking up 99% CPU time named 'atsd' which is something to do with the Mac OS font system.

1.

Killed 'atsd' in Activity Monitor but InDesign would still freeze and atsd would come back. 

2.

Tried to manually clear the font cache using...

sudo atsutil databases -remove

But the nothing happened after 5mins, the fans spun-up almost immediately, and atsd was still using 99% CPU so assumed something had hung.

3.

Opened RightFont and tried to deactivate all open fonts but this also hung so force quit.

4.

Opened RightFont and went... Advanced > Clear Font Cache. To my surprise this worked. After restarting I was able to launch InDesign without hanging and was also able to deactivate all activate fonts in RightFont. 

I'll now finish converting my font library over to .otf and hopefully won't have any more issues. It must be 20 years since I had a corrupt font - and weird that it happened randomly and without installing/activating new ones.

@Derek Cross Cheers and thanks for the suggestions.