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Tech Computing

Adobe provides fix for InDesign crashes on new MacBooks

Adobe has offered a workaround to this issue by reimplementing components that Apple has removed from its APIs.

Topher Kessler headshot
Topher Kessler
2 min read

Recently a number of Mac users of Adobe's InDesign software found that after upgrading to Apple's new MacBook Pro systems, the software would crash and show an empty warning box after performing certain actions within the program. Adobe has addressed this problem in part by releasing a small software patch for InDesign, but also by recommending against certain OS X updates.

Initially it was unclear what caused the crashes, with the only correlations being that it happened on the latest Apple hardware that was using the OS X 10.7.4. After investigating the issue, Adobe found that in the latest OS X 10.7.4 update, Apple removed a component of an API that was used by InDesign for managing system icons such as those that appear in the warning boxes. As a result, the program crashes when attempting to access these icons.

The Adobe products affected by this error are InDesign and InCopy CS5, CS5.5, and CS6.

For now, Adobe is recommending two approaches for addressing this problem. The first is to avoid the latest OS X 10.7.4 update from Apple; however, for some users this will not be possible as their systems were shipped with OS X 10.7.4. For users who have already upgraded to OS X 10.7.4, the fix Adobe has offered is to replace the missing API components by adding them to the InDesign program package instead of modifying any system software. Unfortunately Adobe has not released an installer program to apply the patch, but has offered instructions on how to do it:

  1. Apply all available InDesign updates to bring it to the latest public release version.
  2. Download the missing icons in this ZIP file provided by Adobe, and unpack the ZIP file (you should see three icon files in a folder appear next to the ZIP file).
  3. Go to your Applications folder and locate the InDesign application file (likely within the "Adobe InDesign CS6" folder), and then right-click it and choose "Show Package Contents." A new window will appear.
  4. In the new window, open the Contents > MacOS > Required folder, and find the file "Application UI.InDesignPlugin." Follow this by right-clicking it and again showing its package contents.
  5. In this new window, go to the Resources > idrc_PNGA folder and copy the three files from the downloaded ZIP file into this folder.

After performing these steps, close the Finder windows and try using InDesign again. While this fix is a somewhat crude workaround, it should work to restore the program's access to the components that are missing from Apple's API. Adobe is working with Apple to address this problem in future updates to both OS X and the InDesign software.


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