InDesign crashes/freezes on launch all the time
Impossible to work. I have urgent jobs to do...

There are many internal as well as external factors that can cause the InDesign application to crash/freeze/hang.
A few workarounds are listed at https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html.
We would recommend you to upgrade to latest version as it is more robust.
If you still face this issue even after updating, please submit the crash report to us. (Guidelines to submit crash are available at https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/submit-crash-reports.html)
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Brian O'Kelly commented
What a joke!
Crashes randomly
Menus not working or opening adobe site in safari
Luckily keyboard commands still work
Adobe should be billed by all of its users for wasting our time with this garbage
Worst release EVER!! and I have used it since the beginning.
Time for a change at the top of the development team.
and all the way down. DOn't you test this at all!
SHAME ADOBE take the money and give us rubbish -
Jeff Ford commented
Hello,
We have just received new Dell 5420's and being corporate they need 2017 Indesign 64bit to work with our other software. The error receiving is the PlugPlugOwl.dll crash which I do know that was fixed in the 2019 version. Also, to get 2017 InDesign to launch we found out you can take the 2019 version of the PlugPlugOwl.dll and replace the 2017 version.
Now where I am totally lost and have no idea why this makes sense.
2014 InDesign Works
2019 InDesign Works
2017 InDesign 32bit Works without transferring the PlugPlugOwl.dll
2017 InDesign 64bit does not work at all unless you transfer that .dllSo, why on god's earth the only thing I need is 2017 InDesign 64bit does not. What is so different from the 32bit InDesign and the 64bit InDesign?
The question may come up, If the transferring of the PlugPlugOwl.dll from 2019 to 2017 works so what's the problem. The problem when doing this I do not get the option of creating a new document with Template's also it doesn't show the Recent work will appear here like shown in the picture. All I get is a black screen.
The image is coming from a working 2017 InDesign on a later model Dell.
We cannot change PC's or upgrade to 2019+, we can not also use the 32bit version due to the other software that is needed for News PapersAny Ideas on this?
Thanks
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Anonymous commented
I've had this problem myself, but was able to resolve it by turning Private Relay (see the Apple ID panel in preferences) off. InDesign then loaded and ran as before.
Before I did that I had cleared all my caches and restarted the machine. Note that I have a 2020 Intel Mac.
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Claire Williams commented
1. v17.0
2. Open on 14" MacBook running MacOS Monterey
3. Expect application to open
4. Application does not open but gets stuck on loading screen – see picP.S. I have tried restarting the MacBook, reinstalling InDesign and installing an older version of InDesign – v16.4, but have the same result.
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Tracy Moon commented
Agreed. InDesign 2021 has brought my design business to a standstill many days. Including today. Of all days. PLEASE HELP US.
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Carley commented
My inDesign application will not open. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, restarting my computer, and even downloading an older version to see if it would fix the issue, and it hasn't. The application opens with the intro screen, then goes to what looks like it should be able to open a new document, but it doesn't load. I have tried to use the "new document" feature to pull up a blank page and no luck.
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Roberto commented
Open with Rosetta
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trichter commented
We have the same issues (InDesign and Illustrator) with one Mac out of 7. Were you able to fix it?
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Mendi commented
Always when InDesign crashes I click 'automatically send report..' and even though that window appears again each time InDesign crashes .
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Anonymous commented
Agree with A. Cathalifaud. I'm having huge issues with InDesign crashing.
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Mark commented
InDesign version info attached (Mac OS 10.15.7).
I've been dealing with persistent crashing while trying to open ID files. For certain files, the beach ball of death appears for an extended (and sometimes endless) period, at which point I force-quit and open the file again. On the second attempt, the file always opens properly. This happens with most, not all, ID files — so I literally have to restart ID 30+ times a day. No fun.
I've reset preferences and even reinstalled ID from scratch, but no luck. One thing I noticed is that if I move the ID file to the desktop, it opens fine on the first try. I did some more experimenting, and now it seems that if one of the file's parent folder names begins with a number/pound sign, the error/hang occurs — however, when I remove the pound sign, the file opens fine (I begin my project folder names with the project number). In my case, the relevant parent folder is three levels up (e.g., #80-21 Project name > LAYOUTS > v1 > Project file.indd).
Soooo, I'm not sure WHY this is happening, but it may be an easy fix, and I'm guessing (?) this may be happening to other users as well. Hope this helps — fixing this would be a simple but major usability improvement on my end. Thanks.
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Anonymous commented
Its automatically closing even if its just newly open and without doing anything.
Can someone give some suggestions or help to solve this? Tried to do the "removing preferences" still no luck.Big thanks!
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Anonymous commented
Adobe behauptet, dieses Problem behoben zu haben "[Nur macOS] InDesign stürzt beim Start ab, wenn die GPU auf einigen Geräten nicht erkannt wird." Das ist nicht richtig! Indesign v16.3 stürzt immer noch beim Start ab. Nur v16.2 funktioniert. SB (Mac OS Mojave)
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Sander Adriaanse commented
Indesign on 2 of our imac's at the office keeps crashing. When opening Indesign at first it looks like it is working, but after a few seconds the loading icon pops up and we can't do nothing with Indesign anymore than just Force stop.. We have tried everything, from installing Indesign, deleting application folders, check disk maintainance.. nothing works. It's strange, because 1 of our macbooks hasn't got any of these problems. At first we had the same problem with Illustrator, but when unchecking the GPU performence this problem was gone.. does somebody know what to do? When trying to reach Adobe they just closed my chat..
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Sander Adriaanse commented
Indesign on 2 of our imac's at the office keeps crashing. When opening Indesign at first it looks like it is working, but after a few seconds the loading icon pops up and we can't do nothing with Indesign anymore than just Force stop.. We have tried everything, from installing Indesign, deleting application folders, check disk maintainance.. nothing works. It's strange, because 1 of our macbooks hasn't got any of these problems. At first we had the same problem with Illustrator, but when unchecking the GPU performence this problem was gone.. does somebody know what to do? When trying to reach Adobe they just closed my chat..
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pauline commented
Goodday! Since the latest update last week, I have very much trouble with indesign... especially with working with text... something you do a lot with Indesign
When I am adjusting or selecting text in normal textboxes or tabel boxes the cursor line freezes. You can move the mouse around the page and change to other programs... they are still working, it is not a computer freeze. but nothing left to do than force quit... On a busy day like ten times at least it is no fun... Feels like back 30 years ago... pleasssse is there something you can do
Looking forward to hear from you
Kind regards Pauline -
samiksha khandelwal commented
I have downloaded InDesign in June 2021. It is working really really very slow. Also making my computer too slow to work on.
I tried contacting your customer care through chat window of yours.
There the person says you have 4 gb ram that is why it is so. Also he send my the installation requirements where it says minimum 4 gb ram required.
I don't understand if it has to work so slow on 4 gb then why is it written only. Better say 64 gb required and no mention of 4gb to be made.
Is there any way this can be fixed ? -
Vicki commented
I can barely work on Ai and Id before it starts bugging out, I can start typing something and then a few seconds later it starts giving me the wheel of death, for about 15 seconds, then it lags, and then eventually it quits. I work ona brand new Macbook Air 2021. I can not even work on basic vectors without the lag?
I could capture the image when it froze for a while, but it ususally just a pink screen for a few seconds.
Please help, any advise will be greatly appreciated
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Darren commented
You seriously need to improve your testing. Photoshop - open for 30mins - crash, indesign open for 15mins - crash. Everything else is stable - just your applications. I've submitted so many bug reports - but nothing ever happens - it just goes into the void of Adobe.
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We posted a Beta build with Native support for Apple Silicon a few days ago.
You can find more details on the Forum announcement: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/indesign-beta-for-apple-silicon-inviting-users-to-test-and-share-feedback/m-p/11925459/thread-id/420337.
Please try out the new build and let us know if it works better for you.
Regards
Team InDesign