How to Troubleshoot Adobe InDesign Crash issues

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Adobe InDesign is the most popular and industry-standard publishing application. It allows you to design and get digital premium documents as well as printable documents. You can even get a tablet-compatible outcome using InDesign. Due to all these benefits, most graphic designers and production artists are moving towards Adobe InDesign.

Even though InDesign has plenty of attractive features, several users are experiencing repeated crash problems with the app. It’s true that you can’t catch the exact cause for repeated crashes of InDesign. And many of you think of reinstalling the InDesign app, which may not be the correct solution always. But there are some easy ways you can try to fix the crashing issue of Adobe InDesign permanently.

Methods to Troubleshoot Adobe InDesign Crash issues:

Method 1: Begin it again

Many times, simply restarting the InDesign app will fix this issue. But I recommend you restart the computer itself.

Method 2: Plug-in

If InDesign crashing problem started after installing a new plug-in, then remove the plug-in. When there is a conflict between plug-ins that you have installed, then the Adobe InDesign application may crash.

Method 3: Font fight

This sounds crazy, but few people have really experienced this. A lot of fonts, older or mismatched fonts, damaged fonts, etc., can give rise to an InDesign crash. So, have a look at them.

Method 4: Revive settings

Resetting preferences is the technique that works practically in fixing InDesign crash issues, as entire custom settings will be reformed.

Note: This way wipes all your application preferences. So, first sync the entire settings to the cloud and follow the below steps to reset InDesign preferences.

  • Restart InDesign application
  • Hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Cmd + Ctrl + Opt + Shift in Mac)
  • Hit the Yes button in the reset preferences pop-up

Method 5: Culprit document?

If InDesign crashes when you try to open one specific document, then you can guess that that file might be the reason for the issue. If so, then

  • Go to File/Export
  • Save that document as an IDML file
  • Reopen the file
  • Save back as a standard InDesign file

This process removes minor corruptions, which makes the InDesign app crash.

Method 6: Recovery folder

Auto-loading of recovery files may cause the InDesign application to crash each time when it’s launched. So, go to the ‘InDesign Recovery’ folder and delete all files (ensure you no longer need them).

After effects:

A few users reported that Adobe InDesign crash deleted their large files while they were working on it. So, if your file is also deleted due to an InDesign crash, then restore the file from the “InDesign Recovery” folder. If the file is not present in the recovery folder, then use this Mac photo recovery software to restore your deleted Photoshop or InDesign file. If you are using InDesign on a network drive, then connect the network drive as an external device to your computer and recover deleted files using the same procedure.

Last but not least:

  • Don’t forget to create a backup copy of InDesign large files before you start to work on them
  • Save the file simultaneously while working on it in InDesign
  • Don’t install unwanted plug-ins
  • Close all other apps when using InDesign

If you are looking to create animation on your file in InDesign. Then, follow this article to help you create animations in Adobe InDesign.

About the Author: John Harris

With a decade of experience in data recovery, John Harris, Senior Editor at Remo Software, is your go-to specialist. His focus includes partition management, Windows solutions, and data troubleshooting, delivering insightful content that serves both users and search engines. John's expertise shines through in illuminating blog posts, untangling data loss intricacies across diverse storage platforms.…