Troubleshooting 101: Replace, or "trash" your InDesign preferences [2009 Outdated & Locked]

[Peter Spier]

When InDesign starts to behave strangely, the number one suggestion for troubleshooting is to replace (or trash, reset or restore) the application preferences. This will remove corrupt preferences and replace them with a new set of default preferences, and often end bad behavior.

There is a quick and easy method for doing this using the keyboard: close and relaunch InDesign, and IMMEDIATELY hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Windows) or Cmd + Ctrl + Opt + Shift (Mac), and respond in the affirmative to the dialog asking if you really want to replace the preferences. There are two downsides to this method, however. First, you must be extremely fast on the keyboard (if you don’t see the confirmation prompt, you were too slow), and second, anytime you replace the preferences you will lose most program customizations, and using the keyboard method leaves you with no backup to restore them when the problem turns out to be something else.

My preferred method is to CLOSE INDESIGN and do a “manual” prefs replacement, which consists of finding and renaming the two files which make up the preference set: InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData. BOTH of these files should be replaced at the same time. You can delete them, but renaming or moving them will give you the opportunity to copy them back in the event that new prefs doesn’t cure your issue. When you restart ID, the program will look for these two files, and when they are not found, a new default set will be written.

[Defunct link removed by Peter Spier on 11/6/15]

These are normally hidden files, so you will need to set your system to show them. They will be found in various places depending on the OS, and the version of InDesign. (Edit: For Mac users running OSX 10.7 or newer, you can learn how to show hidden files here: Access hidden user library files | Mac OS 10.7 Lion)

PLEASE LOOK AT THESE PATHS CAREFULLY. They look similar, but are two different folders for the two files.

InDesign Defaults:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<USER>\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<language>\  (Note: Prior to version 6 [CS4] the language folder is not used).

Windows Vista or Windows 7 and newer: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>\ (Note: Prior to version 6 [CS4] the language folder is not used).

Macintosh: Hard Drive/Users/<USER>/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/<Version #>/<Language>/(Note: Prior to version 6 [CS4] the language folder is not used).

InDesign SavedData:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<USER>\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>\Caches\ (Note: Prior to version 6 [CS4] the language folder is not used).

Windows Vista or Windows 7 and newer: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>\Caches\  (Note: Prior to version 6 [CS4] the language folder is not used).

Macintosh: Hard Drive/Users/<USER>/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/<Version #>/<Language>/ (Note: Prior to version 6 [CS4] the language folder is not used).

In some earlier versions of ID, InDesign SavedData may also be found in the first directory.

As mentioned above, when you replace your preferences you will lose customizations beyond those things that are set in the preferences dialogs. These include Document and Print Presets you might have created. If you haven't made backups already, you should go, prior to replacing the preferences, to the "Define" dialogs for printer and document presets and custom stroke styles, and select all of your custom entries, the click the save button and put the file someplace safe. After resetting preferences using the keyboard or by renaming/deleting the old files and restarting InDesign, these customized settings can be re-loaded with a single click once again in the Define dialogs. 
  
PDF presets can be backed up in the same way, but they are stored in a different location and will not be destroyed by a simple preference reset. Other customizations that you should not lose are workspaces, keyboard shortcut sets, and find/change queries.

As a further step I strongly recommend that you make a copy of these two files when you have a working customized set. Store them in a safe place and you can use them to overwrite a corrupt set so no further editing or reloading will be required. Users of InDesign CS4 can use a free script from InTools.com to backup and store multiple sets of preferences: In-Tools Scripts » Preference Manager Script

Edit: Corrected Mac Path per Jongware's post below.

UPDATE: I just ran across a situation in which overwriting the InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData files failed to restore functionality to the tools on a single user account on a multiple user system (the other account was fine). This is an absolute first and I've been using the technique for years, including replacing these two files on this system which is used by the student newspaper where I was a professor, in order to customize or restore preferences every semester. What did work was to use the keyboard method first, then close InDesign and manually replace the two files to restore the prefs to the proper settings.  -- Peter

Further update: We have had several reports now in the CC versions of InDesign where using the manual method has failed to solve problems that are normally fixed by replacing preferences. to the best of my knowledge, using the keyboard method has solved the problem for each of those users. -- Peter

Message was edited by: Peter Spier

Message was edited by: Peter Spier

Message was edited by: amxyz

Message was edited by: Peter Spier to add path warnings.

Message was edited by: Peter Spier to add update re: failure of one method and success of other in CC.

[Peter Spier]

Did you reset the units with no files open? Have you got the latest patch for CC (prefs tended not to stick in the initial release)?

[KMurphy68]

I closed CC, then reopened, reset prefs, and then started a new document and it worked. Thank you! I did have an existing file open that I brought in from CS 6.

[Belinda Puetz]

I read through this post to try and eliminate a problem with a user that couldn't change font type or point size.  Other users logged into the same computer were able to do these things without issue, so I assumed the problem was preferences for this particular user.  Resetting didn't work.  After an uninstall and reinstall, the user would click on the font dropdown list and nothing would happen.  Clicking on the font size actually gave a dropdown of the font types.  Ultimately, the issue was the user had used the option in Windows 7 display settings to make text larger.  When we set it back to smaller, all selections worked as they should.

[BobLevine]

Known issue: http://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/indesign-tools-panels-dont-respond.html

[thierry_deleu]

It works great !!! Thank you very much

[dvanmun]

Thanks Peter, the problem has been solved!!

[Dawn Gwin]

I followed these steps, removed the files, sent copies to Adobe, but my icons are still blank on the desktop. Please help!

[Peter Spier]

Blank icons means a file association problem. For Windows, best bet is to reinstall so you get the correct icons for the file version. On mack you can try resetting through Get Info.

[sammy_q]

The problem that a coworker and I are having is that we are working in files that were originally created 10 years ago. Various character and paragraph styles were used since different people used the file to create a product catalog each year.

Is there a way to get rid of the preference in the actual document? can we override all of the settings that the previous designers have made so we can edit the text/styles from scratch? The documents are a mess. They are catalogs that are about 200 pages and represent a few thousand products. It is a disaster.

[Peter Spier]

Please start a new topic.

[sdea_hr_experts]

I was able to get the keyboard trick, and it worked! Thanks a million!

[JSH22]

All Sorted - Cheers.

[robl21975516]

thanks Peter, i tried this and it didn't work. i can not log on as a new user as it is restricted i will get the details on monday and try this. thank you so far

[jeffmart]

Peter, can you help me?

Yesterday, finishing a 12 page newspaper, InDesign CS5.5 crashes and I cant reopen any page. Including this or very old newspapers pages. All pages appear "Loading" (seeing by circular mouse pointer), but freezes in that...

I am using Win 7 64bit. If I go to system security mode (Win), them I can open all pages in InDesign. And, If in secure mode I save them, they will open normally in InDesign, including if I started Windows OS in normal mode. But just If I saved it before, in OS security mode!

I tried clean prefs, saved data and defaults. But the result is the same... Can you give me a help? I have a lot of old pages that eventually I need to open!

Thx!

Jeffmart

[Peter Spier]

I'm not certain  I understand what is happening to you. Have you emptied the InDesign Recovery folder? It should be located in the same folder as InDesign SavedData.

[mgdibblee]

In Troubleshooting 101: Replace, or "trash" your InDesign preferences it should be included in instructions that after trashing the two preference files the computer must be restarted.

[Peter Spier]

Restarting the computer is not necessary, only restarting InDesign. If you needed to restart your computer there was some other issue.

[mgdibblee]

Thank you.

[kyriosity]

Thought the Windows 8 paths might be a useful addition to this post:

C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\[Version]\[language]\InDesign Defaults

C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\[Version]\[language]\Caches\InDesign SavedData

Also, are corrupted files still wanted?

~Valerie

[jackh60032411]

Hello world!

I have just come across an issue with my Indesign which seems to be a world wide problem..

I've been working on a document for a while now, which involves a lot of Illustrator objects, Indesign & Illustrator

have been working fine up until now.

For some reason I can't move an object in Indesign & if I try simple things like dragging a swatch to my palette seems to crash Illustrator!

I've followed the steps above:

Pressed: Cmd + Ctrl + Opt + Shift (Mac) and selected "YES"

Copy & save the "InDesign Defaults" and "InDesign SavedData" and delete the original files.

Re-opened Indesign and still nothing is moving!

What do I do??

Cheers

Jack

[Peter Spier]

These symptoms are often associated with the PushBullet plugin for Chrome.

[Marcy McGuire]

Peter, I frequently make templates for newsletters and magazines. I just had to ditch my prefs to fix bad behaviors. If I had bad prefs when I made the template will the user also have the same issues? One of my problems was with the paragraph styles, giving me the wrong color and the wrong font.

[Peter Spier]

Prefs are a user property, not a document property, so it's pretty unlikely.

[blackbasenji]

InDesign goes unresponsive at least once a day on me.

I tried the shortcut and even that didn't work. It caused InDesign to go unresponsive as well.

The only thing that seems to work is restarting my computer but it's such a pain in the ass because it forces me to close everything else I'm working on (obviously).

I'll try the manual method and report back.

[Peter Spier]

It doesn't really sound like a preferences problem to me; more a conflict with other software.