Why does my workspace keep resetting, and not saving?

[TypoMan23]

Every time my iMac crashes/restarts, ID will revert to the default workspace setting. This has only recently starting happening in the last week or so.

This means I have to manually reset everything to my preference - every time.
It's incredibly tedious, how can I stop this from happening? 
Any help appreciated, thanks.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

How often your iMac crashes?

Have you had any updates recently - OS or InDesign?

What is your OS and InDesign version?

[TypoMan23]

Thanks for the reply.
Crashes several times per day... it's old and on its last legs. 
Yes few days ago I updated ID to 18.5.2
Using MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 (long story, but unable to update to anything newer than this, so updating is not an option).

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Check this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo...

[Barb Binder]

Hi @TypoMan23:

Losing your workspace is one issue, losing your preferences as another.

You can create a custom workspace, but then you should save it. After you get it looking exactly the way you want, choose Window > Workspace > New Workspace. This will save a file on your hard drive that InDesign will read and load after you close correctly and re-open.

Separately, you can set preferences. For example, you might go to the Preferences dialog box and set the Color Theme to Dark. 

InDesign writes all of this information to your drive when you close InDesign correctly. And it reads it the next time you open it. When InDesign crashes, it does not get the opportunity to write all of your preferences to your drive.

I would go ahead and set up your workspace and save it, and then close InDesign and reopen it. Then set up your preferences the way you want them, close InDesign and reopen it. At this point it now has the files ready to go. It should come back to this state, even if you crash. However, because you've taken the time to save these, you can also manually reload them. For example, if you crash and InDesign decides to reload the Essentials workspace. You can always go to Window > Workspace and choose your saved workspace from the list. 

~Barb

[TypoMan23]

Many thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

I am losing both the workspace and preferences, regardless of whether I save my own custom workspace or not.
I have tried saving my workspace but that does not work. I name a new workspace as my name, and then after a crash/restart - select it.

It has not saved many of my preferences. For example, I prefer the light set-up and everything has reverted to dark view. Also, I prefer the application frame hidden, and it comes back. All the settings I have disabled have come back on.
So every time this happens, I have to go back and manually reset to my liking.
I shut down last night (no crash) and then now when I have started up, it has reverted to this:

 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@TypoMan23

Please check this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/pl%C3%B6tzlich-fehlermeldung-beim-lesen-von-verk... 

[leo.r]

So every time this happens, I have to go back and manually reset to my liking.
I shut down last night (no crash) and then now when I have started up, it has reverted to this:

 

By @TypoMan23

in addition to other suggestions, try to create a clean mew user account in System Settings and work from there. will it make a difference?