Crash due to font issues

Last updated on Jun 2, 2026

Resolve startup crashes and font-related failures in Adobe InDesign using font management and system troubleshooting.

Font issues can cause InDesign to crash when opening or working in a document, usually because the app tries to load corrupted, incompatible, or improperly installed fonts. You may see a splash screen followed by a freeze, font‑related error message, or an unexpected quit, sometimes triggered when opening a specific file, scrolling pages, or editing text. In some cases, pink highlighting appears on affected text before the crash. These problems often stem from corrupted font cache files, which InDesign rebuilds automatically on the next launch, typically resolving startup crashes.

Quit InDesign completely.

Go to C:\Users\AppData\local\Adobe\Adobe\InDesign\<version>\Caches (Windows) or /Users/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/<version>/ (macOS).

Delete all files named AdobeFnt*.lst (such as AdobeFnt10.lst, AdobeFnt12.lst).

Restart InDesign to regenerate clean font cache files.

Wait for InDesign to complete its font activation process before opening documents.

To view the fonts installed on your machine, you can refer to the default paths listed in the table below. However, note that these paths are not the only place where fonts are found.

OS

Default Fonts Path Location

Windows

%windir%\Fonts

macOS

  • Library fonts: /Library/Fonts/
  • User library fonts: ~/Library/Fonts/
  • System library fonts: /System/Library/Fonts/