*** From the Archives ***
This article is from July 11, 2012, and is no longer current.
Adobe Investigating InDesign Crashing on 2012 Macs
UPDATE: Adobe posts workaround. See comments below.
Adobe has announced that it is investigating crashes in InDesign CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 when using 2012 Macintoshes which run the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors, and are running OS X 10.7.4. These include MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros and the new Retina MacBook Pros.
The problem was reported in a long thread on the Adobe InDesign Forum and on the Apple community forum. This is how it was first reported:
InDesign crashes in these two instances:
1. Trying to delete a page that has content. Right as the warning box comes up, it shows up without content (just the “Warning” title) and crashes.
2. When packaging a file, as it’s about to warn you about the perils of archiving fonts it does the same thing as above, and crashes.
A MacWorld article quotes Chris Kitchener, InDesign Product Manager:
“Adobe was recently informed that InDesign customers using the new Retina MacBook Pros are experiencing problems. As with any software compatibility issue with brand new hardware, we are still in the process of fully understanding the problem. We are talking with Apple and working so we can resolve the matter just as soon as we can.”
In the forum posting referenced above, Adobe support technician Scott Worthington, who has publicly been tracking the case on the Adobe forums since June 27, says ?At this time it appears the update is removing an API we use to control our use of system icons. At present the solution appears to be to rollback the update for the software to continue to function as expected. Other solutions are being explored to see if we can find a simpler answer.?
If you can you should roll back to the previous version of Mac OS X 10.7.3. But the newest computers listed above come installed with Mac OS X 10.7.4. User “arminvit,” who started the thread on June 15, found that they were able to address the problem by restoring their 2012 MacBook to factory settings and not installing the “MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) Software Update” available from Apple that includes OS X 10.7.4.
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Thanks, Steve, but you were a day too late: I spent all day yesterday setting up my 2012 MacBook Air and installing all the software. I can verify that both those activities that you mention do cause crashes. I haven’t found any others yet. Okay: No deleting pages, no packaging document with fonts.
Sorry I didn’t post it early enough for you! I don’t yet have a 2012 Mac (hoping for one later this year). It was the MacWorld and Appleinsider articles yesterday which grabbed my attention, and I thought our community should know about the problem.
InDesign CS6 crashes for me anytime a Warning dialog appears. I’m running CS6 on a MacBook Pro with Retina Display (10.7.4). I know the InDesign team is working on this and look forward to an update soon!
I’m able to use InDesign CS6 on my MacBook Pro 17 inch since I’m running Snow Leopard.
An Adobe tech person, Scott Worthington, reports on the Adobe InDesign forum that there is a workaround posted.
“Our engineers have provided a workaround that, while potentially complex for some, should allow for full functionality.
Essentially we’re asking those affected by this issue to place three icon files within the InDesign application file itself to bypass the check for the missing API.
Please take a look at the just published article and see if the steps and the files work for you.”
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/indesign-crashes-blank-dialog-boxes.html
@Steve: SWEEEEEET! That worked for me. Amazing.
I’ve never seen Adobe release such a deeply tweaky/techie solution. I assume they’ll release this as part of a dot release before too long, with a normal installer.
(By the way, those weird “unix executable idrc” files are just PNG images — you can see the little icons if you copy them to another folder and change the extension to .png.)
Thanks, this fixed the problem! I can now use InDesign CS6 on my new MacBook Pro.
The tech note I linked to on July 12 has been updated. It adds an AppleScript file which can automate most of the steps of fixing the copy of InDesign instead of doing it manually.
Thank you so much Steve! This is exactly what I needed!
Thanks for posting this as I’ve been struggling for a few days now with exactly this crash.
I needed to print about 200 copies of a 2-page document created in Adobe Indesign. I got around it by redoing my document with each page being its own separate document. It will be a hassle cause it is a double sided publication, but it’s workable for now. Just relieved it’s not something I did wrong.
Glad I found this thread, was just starting to think there was something wrong with my newly purchased macbook pro. Hopefully an update will be released soon because this crashing thing is really annoying.
@Tina: See the fourth comment above… they already released a fix.
@David – Oh yeah! Thanks!
I found another instance of Indesign crashing: When I try to export to PDF and in the “output” panel set the “destination” to any RGB profile. The warning windows comes up without any text and then it crashes.
Using CMYK profiles is OK.
InDesign CS4 will not print from files on the new 15″ Retina MacBook Pro. It crashes, and I’ve been sending the crash reports to Apple. But nothing has been reported back to me.
None of the other apps in CS4 Design Premium. We thought it was the software, then we thought it was the hardware, now I’m thinking it is a bad match between CS4 and the new Mac.
Anyone else experiencing printing crashes? Everything else seems to be just fine but I cannot print.
Thank you to Steve! The adobe fix worked for me. Running 10.7.4 on Macbook Pro. Very happy for the assistance!!
Thanks very much Steve this worked for me also.
I bought a new mac laptop in June and also found that InDesign CS5 would crash if I generated a PDF file that (don’t laugh) happened to have a text box containing a text over-run. Printing from InDesign would also produce a crash. Deleting a page that contained ANY elements would produce a crash.
I’m happy to report that after installing the OSX 10.7.5 upgrade AND also installing the latest Firmware update, all is good now. No more crashes.
Hi, I am trying to make an EPUB out of a longish book that I have already typeset, but when I try to delete a blank page, InDesign CS6 crashes, again and again.
I have actualized to the last Mac OSX 10.7.5. I have a few months old iMac, and I have also ctualized In Design, to no avail.
Do you have any suggestions to erase blank pages withouth having ID crashing on me?
Thank you,
Mariana
I am trying to make an EPUB out of a longish book that I have already typeset, but when I try to delete a blank page, InDesign CS6 crashes, again and again.
I have actualized to the last Mac OSX 10.7.5. I have a few months old iMac, and I have also ctualized In Design, to no avail.
Do you have any suggestions to erase blank pages withouth having ID crashing on me?
Thank you,
Mariana
Open “New – Book”
when list comes up and I click on the add sign it allows about two new chapters to be added then crashes. I need to get this book of chapters finished – Zedd
I have CS6 and I installed updates yesterday. I have 10.7.5 on a mac mini. I was not able to launch ID until I ran this script. Maybe there is an issue with the latest update? It was scary. I’m glad I found this fix.