How to delete the InDesign preferences
When InDesign is behaving erratically, deleting preferences (also referred to as “trashing preferences” or “removing preferences”) often solves the problem.
It’s a good idea to make a backup copy of the preference files called InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData. Instead of removing your preferences, you can copy these backup files over the problematic corrupt preference files and not lose any customizations.
Perform the following step as per your OS:
Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
Note:
Replace [#] with the product version as 15.0 or 14.0. Replace [language] with your choice of locale like en_US or jp_JP.
Various program preferences and default settings are stored in the Adobe InDesign preferences files. These files, including the InDesign Defaults file, are saved each time you exit from InDesign. For manual deletion or renaming, the location of the preference and cache files are as follows:
| macOS | Windows | |
Preferences | ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version [#] |
|
Cache | ~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version [#] |
|
InDesign Defaults | ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version [#] |
|
InDesign SavedData | ~/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version [#] |
|
Re-creating the InDesign preference files restores settings to their defaults, so you lose custom settings associated with the old preference files.