InDesign cc2018 crashes when saving and problems with autosave

[liladude]

Hello,

I use InDesign CC 2018, it says 13.1 x64 on a Windows 10 laptop with a 4K screen.

Recently the program keep on crashing, especially when I export the pdf and idml version of the file, which is extremely annoying.

Most of the time I am presented with the recovery each time I reopen the file but it is acting in a relly weird manner.

I regularly save several time when I am working, and I often do a "save as" like "file_20180915AM.indd" "file_20180915PM.idml", so that I should have different versions of the file at different step. The problem is that if the first thing I do in the morning is to open the "file_20180914PM.idml" and save it as "file_20180915AM.indd", and after this I keep on manually saving the new file during the morning, and right after the pdf export it crashes, when I reopen the program I am presented again with the "file_20180914PM.idml" with all my morning modifications on it and my last SAVED file is unusable. I happened to upload the indd file to google drive while it was still opened during my morning session and the uploaded file fails to open totally!

I think I have already experienced this pain with CC2015, and I had to open the file, save as, close the file, reopen it in order to have a usable indd file, but this is insane to me. I may be the only one that keep on versioning their files while working, but this is not how saving is supposed to work, I believe. Is this just my problem?

Thank you everybody,

regards

Lila

[Bill Silbert]

IDML is a format that should ideally only be used for either a one-time trip to an earlier version of InDesign or as a one-time method for removing possible corruption from a file. It should not be used over and over again as part of a file-saving process. It is possible that constantly saving the file as an IDML and then reopening it is causing corruption. Please see IDMLs A Cautionary Tale for more instances of issues with IDMLs.

[liladude]

I am sorry it was not clear. I need to export to idml my models because some of the team still has Indesign CS.6 and even though each person does their own projects, I am the one that create the team model (university journal, 160 numbers that need to be moved from online to printed...). I was just reporting that crashing occurred while saving as pdf or idml, not that this is my standard saving!

[Bill Silbert]

OK then. As long as the same IDMLs have not been used repeatedly then there are some other things to try.

First of all you mentioned that you are using a google drive as part of your workflow. There have been many reports here of incompatibility of google drives with InDesign. I would suggest doing and saving all of your work locally and at the end of each work session then exporting your .indd files. As far as I can tell from the reports that I've seen this is a problem that is more likely to be solved by contacting google.

If that does not work and since you said that this problem has been only occurring recently—possibly as a result of updates to the google drive but also possibly the result of some corruption in your version of InDesign—then there are some standard trouble-shooting methods that you can try.

Trashing Preferences

You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create  new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

Uninstalling and reinstalling InDesign

In the app section of your Creative Cloud desktop app click on the “V” next to the app’s (InDesign) name and choose the “Uninstall” option from the pull-down menu that appears. After you’ve run the uninstall then use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems  . Then reinstall the program through the Desktop app. Before you reinstall, once again trash all preference files to make sure that your install is completely clean. Then launch InDesign and see if the problem persists.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this. I would like to know if the steps suggested by Bill worked for you, or the issue still persists.

Kindly update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

Thanks,

Srishti

[liladude]

Thank you everybody for your suggestions. Luckily I have not experienced any crash recently, and I'm keeping my finger crossed.

My main issue is that when I start a session with a file (filenameA.indd) and rename it (namefileB.indd), if the session crash I am usually presented with filenameA.indd recovery that contains ALL the modifications I did on filenameB.indd.

I used to dismiss the recovery, since I had saved filenameB.indd few seconds before the crashing, but then I realized that the saved file was "damaged" and I could not open it.

So my workflow is like

-open filenameA.indd

-save as filenameB.indd

-keep on working and saving

-upload (not synced) a saved copy of filenameB.indd to google Drive

-try to create filenameB.idml

-CRASH

-reopen indesign

-find filenameA.indd recovery with all day modifications

-dismiss it and open last saved version of filenameB.indd

-filenameB.indd fail to open because program says it is damaged

-download uploaded filenameB.indd from drive

-try to open downloaded version of filenameB.indd but fail like local one

I remember this happened to me with CC2015, so I started to close file after renaming, and reopen it to avoid the risk. Most of the time I have both filenameA.indd (old version) and filenameB.indd (working version) opened at the moment of crash, so when the program present me with a recovery with a wrong name I forget this can be my working file and dismiss it ...

I have no idea if the uploaded file that was not working for me could work for someone else, unfortunately I have deleted the version from my drive.

I hope this can help clearing the issue. I have a deadline right now, so I'll be working all the weekend and I will report how it goes!

regards

Lila

PS: I forgot to mention I am using the Italian version of the program.

[liladude]

Updating after 12 hours non-stop: InDesign CC2018 crashed again while I was saving the file as PDF. After reopening I found a recovery, and luckily both the recovery AND the saved file were working.

Another file I had created this morning, saved from a file converted from an older version, is now refusing to open.

I'm pretty sure I had saved and closed the file before the crashing. I don't have another CC2018 installation where I can test if the file is really corrupted or it's just my pc acting strange!

--Update--

I used my second licence, after closing the first laptop, and tested opening the file from another pc, but I got "impossible to open file" again. So the problem is in the file, not in the program.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this. Could you please confirm where the files are saved(Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System /External HDD)?

If the file has linked objects, from where the files are linked (Creative Cloud/ Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System /External HDD)?

Create a new file, save it on Desktop and open it tomorrow and check if that works or not?

Regards,

Srishti

[liladude]

Hello,

I'm back here because again the file I have worked on last week is "impossible to open"

4 hours of work, saved on a PDF, are now no longer available.

My pc has two hard disk, a SSD where the program run from, and a SATA where I save the data. All linked objects are in a subdirectory that exist inside the same folder as the indd file. No cloud connected to the folder, all I do is copying the file once they have been saved.

I experience this randomly happen a bit too often for a professional program and I am loosing really too much, despite being so careful on saving and saving with a new name quite often.

I am pretty sure last time I had saved the file and closed indesign I had no crash on my way. The file is not a 0Kb file, it is there but simply won't open.

I cannot afford this in my job and I am really going to think carefully about keeping indesign in my work if this is not solved.

Let me know if I can give you reports on any sort, or send a damaged file.

[Srishti Bali · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

We are very sorry to hear about this. There are multiple factors both internal and external to InDesign application that can lead to document corruption. Please email your InDesign file to corrupt_indesign_docs@adobe.com and we will take a look at the document.

If the file is larger than 10 Mb, you can zip (and password protect) the file and upload to Creative Cloud account (or Dropbox) and send us the document link.

Regards,

Srishti

[liladude]

I have uploaded a file right now. I was under the belief that the problem was caused by me trying to export a file right after having saved it. Unfortunately it happened again today and I am absolutely shocked because I have lost 3 hours of fine tuning. I have moved to InDesign 2019, and kept 2018 bacause I was not sure the new edition would work well. Today I noticed 2019 had changed my units (reverted back to mm) and cleared some preferences in my scripts, so I saved everything, closed the program, opened 2018 to check the proper configuration, closed 2018 and my file is no longer available. 39 MB og NOTHING! According to my file, it was only saved once, at 9 AM when I first created it with "save as" from a previous file. I am devasted, I have a deadline and your program is causing me unbelievable damages. I can add I had to open the original file during my work.

So here is what happened

I opened fileA

Saved it as fileB

worked on it, changed, saved several time

opened fileA again for reference

closed file A without saving

saved file B

closed program

my fileB is gone and according to my pc all my "save" never occurred, since its date stamp says 3 hours ago

[liladude]

After a few weeks, assistance answered the file was too damaged for saving, but this did not solved the problem. I have updated to 14.01, I'll report if it happens again.