How to Troubleshoot Adobe InDesign Crash issues

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

Even though InDesign has plenty of attractive features, several users are experiencing repeated crash problem with the app. It’s true that you can’t catch the exact cause for repeated crash 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 crashing issue of Adobe InDesign permanently.

Methods to Troubleshoot Adobe InDesign Crash issues:

Method 1: Begin it again

Many times, simply restarting InDesign app will fix this issue. But, I recommend you to 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, which you have installed then 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 InDesign crash. So, have a look at them.

Method 4: Revive settings

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

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

  • Restart InDesign application
  • Hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Cmd + Ctrl + Opt + Shift in Mac)
  • Hit Yes button in 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 IDML file
  • Reopen the file
  • Save back as standard InDesign file

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

Method 6: Recovery folder

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

After effects:

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 InDesign crash then restore the file from “InDesign Recovery” folder. If the file is not present in recovery folder then use this Mac photo recovery software to restore your deleted 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 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
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John Harris

Senior Editor, Content Analyst and a fan of exceptional customer service. John develops and publishes instructional and informational content regarding partition management, Windows hot-fixes, data management and computer troubleshooting.

As a tenured data recovery specialist, John shares exceptional insights and blog posts about data loss and data recovery across any storage device. With 8+ years’ experience in writing for Data Recovery for both Mac OS and Windows OS computers, he is an avid learner who always wants to polish and simplify the data recovery process. John passes his free time playing Chess and reading Science Fiction novels.

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