Upgrade - help! Can no longer work with the team on magazine files

[oliviac93871777]

Indesign told me I had to upgrade today, but my system (Win 11) is incompatible. I'm on a Windows PC / laptop. Our designer is on a Mac, and his indesign upgraded automatically. He's now on a different version of indesign and I can no longer view the photos which he uploads to the pages, which means I can't add captions and approve the magazine pages for print. He doesn't seem able to downgrade back to the old version without huge glitches, and I can't upgrade. What the hell am I meant to do Adobe?! I'm on an almost brand new computer but requiring 8GB of RAM simply to upgrade is insane. Help! It's press day next Tuesday and I have 98 pages to create, proof and publish...

[Derek Cross]

Ask your designer to save the document as a IDML document, you should be able to open that in your version, though 8GB of RAM is insufficient for comfortable working. Ensure you have identical fonts as your designer.

[BobLevine]

InDesign 2023 is fully compatible with Windows 11. Are you saying your machine has less than 8GB of RAM? That's insane! For reference, mine has 64GB

Your computer is incredibly underpowered. Out of curiosity, what processor are you running?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Only 64GB? 😉 

[oliviac93871777]

I've always run this computer / colleagues laptops with indesign with 8GB of RAM - we're not publishing gurus or gamers with massive needs, all we need is basic MS docs and it's worked fine, until this new upgrade. I can't go out and buy all new computers with huge RAMs and price tags simply because Adobe decides it's going to move the goalposts!

[BobLevine]

Frankly, I didn't even know you could buy a computer with less than 8GB RAM. I don't know what to tell you. If it's a new machine and you get a refund, I would certainly do so. Adobe is hardly moving the goalposts by requiring what is a reasonable amount of system memory.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

MS Office and Adobe Suite are grapes and grapefruit when it comes to the system resources they require. What you might have been able to squeeze by on with Office or small ID documents is not going to be enough when ID needs more working memory for larger docs, more images, etc.

Sorry. I know it bites.

[oliviac93871777]

It's just annoying when it's worked perfectly well on the current version of indesign for the past 7 months that I've been working on the magazine. There was no need to upgrade, no need to change it, everything was good. But now the upgrade means I have to replace my entire set of computers. Grr! 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

8GB and less was below recommended minimums, so it was surprising you could do much more than load very slim docs.

Nearly all laptops can be upgraded in RAM at modest cost. You will probably find overall app speed and productivity increased as a result.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

8GB RAM is the bare minimum that is required by Windows itself - even if M$ says otherwise. 

[Barb Binder]

Hi Olivia:

Memory is not terribly expensive, and like the others on this thread, my approach is to add as much as possible when I make a purchase to allow for future upgrades. You can likely upgrade the memory on your existing computers, but not in time to meet your deadline. 

Let's focus on the deadline: why can't your designer reinstall the last version? What glitches is he running into, exactly? He should be able to install both the current version and the previous version from his CC desktop app. If he needs an older version to be compatible with you, let us know and we can give you information to help him obtain the installers, which are no longer available on the CC app. Let us know which version you are using.

He should also have learned from this experience to disable auto-updates, and to check with his clients before installing a upgrade, or at least disable the checkbox to remove the previous versions when he does upgrade.

~Barb

[oliviac93871777]

Thanks all. I think we're sorted for now - my designer has grabbed an older computer with an older version of indesign so we can work around it for this month. Guess I just need to bite the bullet and upgrade my computers for future months. Thanks for your help 🙂

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

What exactly is the model number of your laptop? What brand?

If like you've said it's almost new - a year old - you should be able to install AT LEAST another 8GB - unfortunately, it may mean that you'll need to buy 2x brand new 8GB sticks if you have 2x4GB - but I can bet that you should be able to go for 2x16GB.