InDesign CS5 crashing on launch due to font auto-activator issue

Question

I was having a problem where all the jobs I had been collecting would no longer open in InDesign CS5 without crashing on startup. Just found out today it has to do with the new feature in CS5 that reads fonts from your "Document Fonts" folder. Once I renamed the folder the files started opening up just fine again. Is there a way to disable that feature in InDesign, or has anyone else found another workaround that doesn't involve renaming the folder on every job I collect?
I'm sure it's a known issue by now, but I didn't see anything come up when I did a search.

Answer 1

Same problem here. Whenever I want to open a packaged InDesign document which includes a Document Fonts folder containing some fonts which are identical to my system fonts (10.7.3 in my case) InDesign hangs. The best way to avoid these problems is to clean all system font folders and start managing fonts yourself. Check what fonts are needed for a certain document, avoid using fonts installed by the system. Although it is very generous from Apple, Adobe and Microsoft to give us a lot of fonts for free it is wise to manage them yourself. Check the following font locations:
~Library/Fonts
~System/Library/Fonts
~User/Library/Fonts (first make the Library visible: from within Terminal type the following command and press Return: chflags nohidden ~/Library)
Remove all fonts installed by Adobe (109 fonts) and Microsoft (154 fonts) to a differrent location. I manage them with FontExplorer 3.0 but you are ofcourse free to use any other font manager you prefer. Clear out any system font which is not needed by the system. Make sure the removed fonts can be enabled when needed. In FontExplorer you can create a set like 'Adobe CS5 Fonts' and put all Adobe fonts in there. This also counts for Apple system fonts which you remove. Create a new set in FontExplorer and call it OS Lion Fonts for example and move all fonts in there. I'd like to point out that I choose to manage fonts myself and I keep FontExplorer's capabilities to organaise fonts turned off (Preferences > Advanced > Organise font files). This way the Finder structure I use to manage my fonts (which is by foundry/designer) is maintained.
Clearing all unneeded fonts keeps the font list short and uncluttered which makes it easy to select fonts in InDesign or any other app. When you are designing things you want to make a selection of fonts you want to use in advance so keeping a lot of fonts available to the system is pointless in my opinion anyway.
Also, this process gets rid of a lot of fonts which you don't use/need  like Chinese or whatever other language fonts. It shortens the font list dramatically. Setup font auto activation/deactivation so that fonts are disabled automatically after reboot or when you close a document to prevent the font list from growing out of proportions.
Below is the list of fonts which I keep installed/enabled by default in my ~System/Library/Fonts folder:
Apple Color Emoji.ttf
Apple Symbols.ttf
AppleGothic.ttf
Courier.dfont
Geneva.dfont
HelveLTMM
Helvetica LT MM
Helvetica.dfont
HelveticaNeue.dfont
HelveticaNeueDeskUI.ttc
Keyboard.ttf
LastResort.ttf
LucidaGrande.ttc
MarkerFelt.ttc
Menlo.ttc
Monaco.dfont
Symbol.ttf
Times LT MM
Times.dfont
TimesLTMM
ZapfDingbats.ttf
I haven't checked Times yet but I think it can be disabled. If you think Times is causing problems and you rather want to activate it yourself when it is needed or you want to use it you can remove it from the ~System/Library/Fonts folder. Drag the font to the desktop to make a copy first. Next trash the font file. Enter your admin password end you're done. If a font is needed by the system it gets restored automatically and you get a notification like "The system font 'HelveticaNeue.dfont' had been restored. This font was removed. Mac OS X needs this font to display text onscreen."
If you don't use FontExplorer you can use Onyx to clean font caches when you are done clearing out unwanted fonts. Always reboot afterwards.
Hope this helps.