Adobe InDesign 2024/25 Troubleshooting How-to Guide
This article (updated October, 2024) is about how to reset preferences as well as a step-by-step checklist strategy of what to do when your InDesign app crashes or your document becomes corrupted. What do you do when InDesign 2025 (latest version is 20.0 and past versions) is crashing? Here is a checklist of ideas (including all about how to reset InDesign):
Generalities
Isolate the source problem
Is the problem the InDesign application, or something wrong with your file, or something wrong with your computer OS? InDesign won’t start, or file won’t open, or file opens and crashes, or crashes on same page?
Do you have enough RAM?
You need at least 16GB of RAM to run InDesign effectively.
Restart your computer
Quit InDesign, restart your computer, and try to start it again, with no other programs running.
Did you try a different computer?
If you can, move/copy the InDesign document and linked graphics to open on a different computer. If it works ok, that might indicate that the computer or its operating system or its application has a problem. A variation on this idea is to try to open the document in a different username login. This could indicate if you have a corrupt user cache.
Run your Mac or Windows Utilities
Before you start any programs, try running housekeeping operating system utilities like DiskWarrior, OnyX, or CleanMyMac (macOS) or CCleaner, Fortect, or Iolo System Mechanic (Windows) before starting InDesign again. Some Windows 10/11 users manually empty the Temp folder on a regular basis.
Force a screen redraw
Sometimes the screen is not redrawing. Try: Shift-F5 to force a redraw. What looks like a bug will often vanish. Cmd+Opt+/ (macOS) or Ctrl+Alt+/ (Win) will force InDesign to recompose the text and also refreshes the screen.
Font Troubleshooting Help
https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/troubleshoot-fonts-illustrator-indesign.html
Windows 10/11: Required Fonts
See Font Settings. There is a Check Box to “Hide fonts based on language settings.” Also “Restore default font settings” will help in case you delete fonts you needed.
Round up the usual font suspects
Font Doctor can diagnose and repair fonts, a common reason for crashing.
https://fontgear.com/products/fontdoctor-for-macintosh
Font Book utility built into macOS can also validate fonts, thus finding corrupt fonts.
There are many font managers. Most can check for corrupt fonts on your system. This one is for Windows:
https://proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/
Same problem in a new file?
Do you get the same problem in a new file, or does it only happen in one problem file? This can help you determine if its the InDesign application or a corrupt file.
Move from network to hard drive
Working on a network server drive can work OK. But, if you are having trouble, try packaging the InDesign file (File > Package) to a folder on your local hard drive, and work local. Network problems can cause crashing. InDesign 2017 and newer is better at network drives.
Keyboard shortcuts not working
Usually caused by a 3rd-party software, possibly a browser plug-in. Try rebooting and loading InDesign. If it works, then load the browser and see if it breaks.
InDesign cannot open an InDesign document file
With no ID documents open, look in the folder to see whether an InDesign lock file is present. If you see an .idlk file, delete it. Sometimes lock files are left over after a crash, and prevent InDesign from opening the file.
Missing File Info dialog
Missing the File Info dialog? Locate and delete the DVADialogPrefs.xml file and restart InDesign 202x.
Running Slow
Running slow on macOS or Windows
Some macOS users suggest turning off Time Machine to see if InDesign runs better and faster. Some macOS users have had to turn off GPU in Preferences to resolve screen display problems and slowdown issues. Some report that InDesign runs better and faster after they delete all traces of PostScript T1 fonts in the operating system, whether macOS or Windows.
InDesign features that slow you down, but you can turn them off:
Preferences > General > Show Home Screen When No Documents Are Open can be turned off.
Preferences > Display Performance > set to Typical renders the images at screen-rez, but sacrifices color management.
Preferences > Interface > Options > Live Screen Drawing can be set to Never and it will draw more quickly.
Preferences > File Handling > Saving InDesign files > Save Preview Images switches can be set to off.
Preferences > Type > Smart Text Reflow could be turned off.
Preferences > Advanced Type > Type Contextual Controls are two text switches that can slow down InDesign.
Live Preflight can be turned off by deselecting the On checkbox.
Pages Panel > panel menu button > Panel Options allows you to deselect Show Thumbnails.
Hyperlinks > panel menu button > and deselect Auto Update URL Status.
Assignment panel: Consider removing completed assignments to lighten the load.
Threaded Textframes: consider flowing and threading text for only a few pages/frames instead of many.
Paragraph styles that are simple can speed up InDesign. Consider leaving out GREP passive formatting styles.
Cross-References will slow down InDesign. Consider saving them for last.
High CPU Usage because of cephtmlengine makes sluggish slow operation
https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/high_cpu_usage_cephtmlengine.html
Component Information dialog
Hold down the Cmd key while you choose InDesign > About InDesign (macOS), or the Ctrl key while you choose Help > About InDesign (Win). The Component Information dialog can tell you potentially useful info about the history of your file.
User cannot start InDesign
With admin privileges, create a new user and launch InDesign. This will tell you whether or not the user account is corrupted.
Updating to InDesign 2024/25
While installing, Import Previous Settings and Preferences might trigger operational issues for some. If so, turn this off. On the other hand, this feature has worked well for me when I have used it.
Resetting InDesign
Reset (aka trashing) preferences (1)
Custom preferences are written to file each time you quit InDesign, but can get corrupted if it crashes.
Simply delete them (or move them elsewhere) and restart. InDesign will write a new set of preferences. Press modifier keys immediately as/after you click on the InDesign icon. Press Cmd+Opt+Ctrl+Shift (macOS) or Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Win). Click Yes to this message:
Startup Alert: Delete InDesign Preference files?
NEW!
If you have updated to InDesign version 19.3 and newer, a new way to reset preferences is to go to Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart. Thanks Adobe! We have been asking for this a long time!
But maybe you want to change your mind (1b)
If you want to to protect a backup copy, do this:
Start InDesign 2024 (or your older version)
Open Scripts panel (Window > Utilities > Scripts)
Right-click on the User folder, and choose Reveal in Finder (macOS) or Reveal in Explorer (Win)
This is a folder named Scripts Panel in the Mac Finder or Win Explorer. Go one level above this folder to the preferences file named InDesign Defaults. If you make a backup copy of this file, you can restore it (copy it back) if the original file becomes corrupt.
NEW!
Version 19.3 and newer: After getting all your many preferences to your liking, export those settings.
File > User Settings > Export User Settings ...
Save your preferences in a named file in a folder and thereafter you have the ability to import those clean settings:
File > User Settings > Import User Settings ...
This may save you a lot of resetting time the next time you have to reset preferences because of troubleshooting.
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/export-import-user-settings-indesign.html
Reset (aka trashing) preferences (2)
To reset manually, delete InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData files, and restart InDesign.
Here is the folder location for the InDesign Defaults:
macOS: Home > Library > Preferences > Adobe InDesign > Version 19 > en_US > InDesign Defaults
Windows 10/11: Users > UserName > AppData > Roaming > Adobe > InDesign > Version 19 > en_US > InDesign Defaults
Here is the folder location for the InDesign SavedData:
macOS: Home > Library > Caches > Adobe InDesign > Version 19 > en_US >
Windows 10/11: Users > AppData > Local > Adobe > InDesign > Version 19 > en_US > Caches >
I usually visit this Caches folder to delete the InDesign SavedData file (when I manually reset preferences by finding and deleting InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData), but you might need to go into the InDesign Recovery sub-folder and delete all the files inside if you are caught in a restart/crash loop.
Some say the keyboard method works better than the manual file delete method. In worst cases, some users delete all files under these two folder locations.
Reset InDesign preferences more deeply (3)
UI (user interface) problems where a panel either doesn't open or opens up empty are often cache related, so you might try deleting the Caches before Preferences so you don’t lose your customized settings. Close all Adobe applications and try renaming the folders from the following locations:
macOS
~/Library/Caches/com.adobe.indesign
~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign
Rename Adobe InDesign and com.adobe.InDesign to Adobe InDesign.old and com.adobe.InDesign.old and
restart launch InDesign from the Creative Cloud app.
Rename the CEP folder to CEP.old from the following location:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe
If that does not help, rename the UXP folder to UXP.old from the following locations:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe
Windows OS
Close InDesign; then rename these InDesign folders:
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign
In both places, rename the InDesign folder to InDesign.old. Now try to relaunch/restart InDesign
Reset with the nuclear option (4)
A fourth and final way to reset InDesign is to uninstall the application using the CC Cleaner tool and reinstall from the Creative Cloud Desktop app.
InDesign is crashing
Turn off Type Contextual Controls
Preferences > Advanced Type > Type Contextual Controls. This is a feature that shows you alternate glyphs. In CC 2017 and possibly newer, this feature seems to be buggy, or at least overly-taxing on the computer system. Try turning these features off. I still turn these off, because they are seldom needed.
Turn off GPU Performance
If you are using InDesign CC 2015.4 (or later) on a GPU-equipped Mac with Retina display, disable the GPU Performance feature in Preferences > GPU Performance or View > Preview on CPU and see if your problem stops.
Close docked and floating panels
Sometimes files crash with certain panels open, but when the panels are closed, the file doesn’t crash. A quick way to temporarily hide all panels on the screen is to press the Tab key (when you don’t have text selected), or Shift-Tab to hide all panels except the Tools panel.
Remove third-party plug-ins, if any
The most common problem is font activation plug-ins, since they rely on the OS, InDesign, and the plug-in all to work well together. Try shutting down font management software. Look in the Plug-ins folder in the InDesign folder in Applications (Mac) or Program Files (Windows) to remove (or move to another location) plug-ins from InDesign.
Crash on Print or Export to PDF
First, try the export to IDML trick. Next, try the Divide and Conquer technique. If you isolate a page, move half the objects to the pasteboard and test again.
If it is a graphic, open the graphic file and re-save to a new filename and different format. Place it back onto the page. If it is a textframe, copy the text out to a text editor to remove all formatting. Try to replace back in.
Reinstall InDesign
You might try to uninstall and then reinstall InDesign using the Creative Cloud app. Some run the Adobe cleaner utility before reinstalling:
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html
InDesign Auto Recovery crashing
This is a crash that happens as InDesign tries to open your file, but it crashes. The reason why is InDesign temporarily saves, or caches, information about the documents you are working on, to be recovered if InDesign crashes. When you restart, InDesign attempts to recover and reopen the problem file, causing it to crash again. The solution to this is to delete the cache files:
macOS: Home > Library > Caches > Adobe InDesign > Version xx > en_US > InDesign Recovery > RecoveryData (or even the whole folder)
Windows 10/11: Users > Username > AppData > Local > Adobe > InDesign > Version xx > en_US > Caches > InDesign Recovery > RecoveryData (or whole folder)
Win 10/11: Recent Files
Right-click on the InDesign icon in the taskbar. Under “Recent” there were files that InDesign kept looking for. Right-click on the file and “Remove from this list.” Shut down InDesign with Task Manager and then restart.
macOS Crashing
In the Fall of 2023, many macOS users were finding that their macOS needed to be patched/updated and the crashing went away. Some of those macOS users further had to roll back to 18.3 or 18.4 because it was happening with 18.5. Some tried upgrading to v19 to get past the problem. Since October 2024, version 20 is already available for 2025.
Finding Hidden files
macOS: show Library folder
Make the user Library folder visible in macOS:
Method 1: In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder. In the Go To Folder dialog box, type ~/Library. Click Go.
Method 2: Hold down the Opt key when using the Go menu. The Library folder shows. Note: drag the Library icon to the Dock, sidebar, or toolbar, making it accessible.
Method 3: Launch Terminal, type the following:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
and press Return. Enter the password, and press Return. Close Terminal. The Library folder is now visible in Finder.
macOS: Reset permissions in Terminal
Launch Terminal, and type the following:
sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/<user>/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign
sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/<user>/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign
sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support
Win 10/11: AppData folder is hidden
In Windows, open File Explorer and go to Tools > Folder Options > View Tab, and then scroll down and check the radio button to show hidden files and folders.
Salvage the document
Export to IDML
IDML (File > Export > InDesign Markup IDML) is a way to write an InDesign document to XML code. Export to IDML, then close the original file, and open the IDML to a new file sometimes cleans the file of corruption.
Divide and conquer
Delete half the pages, and see if the problem goes away. If so, now you know which half of the file is the problem. Return to the original file, and remove half of the section you previously removed. Keep deleting segments of the file to narrow the problem to a single page or pages. Rebuild those pages to heal the problem.
Another way to find a corrupt page is to export all the pages as .jpg files. The page after the last .jpg successfully-exported page will likely be the corrupt, failed page. This is a faster method way to divide and conquer than deleting half the pages in the document.
Similarly, others suggest exporting your pages to PDF, but with the switch on for separate single pages. Often it results in stopping on a certain page or omitting a certain page or crashing on a certain page. This leads to focusing on that one page as the source of the problem.
None of these three exploratory methods works every time. But it might for your file.
Push damaged pages into a new file
Use the Move Pages command in the Pages panel menu to push pages from a damaged document into a new document with the same page setup. Do not copy paste pages to new document. Moving pages rebuilds the text, whereas copying pages preserves and propagates the corruption.
Delete a text frame
A single corrupt story can be the source of the problem. Try exporting all the text, then deleting one or more of the text frames and see if the problem clears. If so, replace the exported text into new text frames.
Delete a graphics frame
Actually, any frame object can be the source of crashing. Try deleting a frame object to resolve crashing.
Delete styles and swatches
Try deleting (first the unused) paragraph, character, object, table, and cell styles, and color swatches, and see if the problem clears.
Export text to recover assets
Sometimes you need to get the text out of the file so that you can rebuild the project. Try exporting the text (File > Export > Text Only), or try ExportAllStories.jsx script (this is pre-installed in the Scripts panel).
Convert a PDF to a new InDesign file
Try exporting to PDF, and using PDF2ID to convert back to InDesign.
https://www.recosoft.com/products/pdf2id/
Acrobat Pro’s Export To command
Acrobat’s File > Export To command can extract to a Word .docx or PowerPoint .pptx so that you can rebuild. Acrobat also has a Tools > Export PDF > Image (with Export all images turned on) allowing you to extract all the pixel images to a folder and auto-name and auto-number them. If you have to rebuild from only a PDF version, this can save a lot of time. Vector images can be right-clicked to edit them in Illustrator, and thus salvage the vector images. While rebuilding is time-consuming, these features within Acrobat can help a lot.
DTP File Recovery Service
Markzware offers a File Recovery Service. You pay the larger fee only if they are able to recover your file.
http://markzware.com/products/file-recovery-service/
Preventive advice
Save-As frequently
InDesign files are databases of all objects you’ve ever placed on your page, even those that you’ve deleted. Occasionally do a File > Save As and to save over the original file. This will compact and clean up the file, keeping the database smaller, and less prone to corruption.
Keep a chain of version backups
Practice saving named backups. If the document corrupts, you can go back to a workable version without much loss. Files saved in Dropbox have backups. A free plug-in called Radish can save versions for you. Mac Time Machine could be a resource to retrieve an older version.
Don’t build in a single document
Some say it is better to break the large project into smaller files, and use the Book feature (File > New > Book) to help manage the individual document files.
Don’t fill pasteboard with objects
Don’t store objects on the pasteboard, the area beyond the page. It makes the file larger, and printing slows down. Instead, use Libraries (File > New > Library) and/or CC Libraries (Window > CC Libraries) to store extras. Or make XML Snippets (File > Export > InDesign Snippet) for storing objects that you might re-use later. Or plan and build a donor InDesign file with correctly-made examples of pieces of your documents, and this could be designed to complement your branding guidelines.
macOS: reset font caches
A frequent cause of app crashing. Use Safe Mode to delete font caches on macOS. Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading login items, system extensions, and many fonts. It deletes system caches including font caches, which are automatically re-created on restart.
If Apple silicon: Shut down your Mac. Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking Continue in Safe Mode. Log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again.
If Intel processor: Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up. Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window, you should see Safe Boot in the upper-right corner of the window.
If the issue doesn't continue while in safe mode, leave safe mode by restarting your Mac normally. Then test for the font issue again.
Use FontFinagler utility to remove and reset macOS font caches:
https://www.markdouma.com/fontfinagler
Font Troubleshooting Help
https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/troubleshoot-fonts-illustrator-indesign.html
PostScript Type 1 fonts
Old PostScript Type 1 fonts should by now be long gone and are no longer supported since January 2023.
macOS: avoid system dfonts
macOS: Avoid using system .dfonts in documents.
General font advice
Remove old PostScript Type 1 fonts. Use only OpenType versions of fonts. Don’t have multiple versions installed. Even having a sub-folder of “Document fonts” can potentially cause multiple font confusion, so trying renaming or moving/removing that sub-folder when troubleshooting missing font confusion. Newer variable fonts and emoji fonts are sometimes proving to be problematic.
Use linked graphics
Don’t copy and paste artwork from Illustrator and other programs into InDesign. This makes the file more prone to corruption. Instead, always use File > Place to place .ai and .psd graphics. If InDesign always crashes on a particular page, it might be that placed graphic that is corrupt; therefore replacing the placed (not pasted) graphic can be an easier operation.
Get assistance
Adobe help documentation
Recover damaged InDesign documents:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/troubleshoot-file-issues.html
New with InDesign is an automatic checking for damage as you open the file. If it detects corruption, InDesign automatically repairs it.
Adobe InDesign Support Community user forums
Research your questions on these two public forums:
https://community.adobe.com/indesign
https://indesignsecrets.com/forums
Other outside help
Adobe might be able to help: email or link your file to idfile@adobe.com.
Visit for help: https://TrainingOnsite.com.
Known issues
Try searching for “fixed” or “known issues”. Bear in mind that InDesign does not run well on M1-chipped Macs until you upgrade to InDesign 16.3 or newer.
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/known-issues.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/macos-big-sur-compatibility.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/InDesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html
Sometimes it might involve the Creative Cloud App
Visit the page: "Fix Errors Installing the Adobe App"
https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/failed-install-creative-cloud-desktop.html
and/or this page:
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/troubleshoot-install-logs-cc.html
and/or this page:
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/troubleshoot-common-addon-installation-issues.html
Make an InDesign feature request
https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests
Thanks to all
This list was compiled with the help of all the expert InDesign people on this forum and is occasionally edited and updated ■
Mike Witherell
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