Cannot export indesign 2017 file to pdf

[Deborah54]

hi! i am working on file that for some reason will not export to pdf. never had this issue before.

the file size is 205 mb, no embedded images. using a MacBook pro, sierra 10.12.6. the alert i get has no specifics. can anyone help? thanks!

[Barbara Ash]

You say that there are no embedded images. Does that mean that there are no LINKED images? Sometimes the PDF will fail if there is a linked image that has gotten corrupt. That is the most common cause. In that case, you would need to replace that linked image.

It could also be caused by a corrupt font. What type of fonts are you using?

[Deborah54]

hi barbara! i have no embedded images, just linked images. the fonts i am using are one from typeset (FreightBig Pro) and Oregon LDO Extended, which is a font i have used before. i would have no idea which image is corrupt. do you know how to tell if an image is corrupt? thanks again for taking the time to answer my query.

[Barbara Ash]

Laubender's divide and conquer suggestion is the only way. Since pages 2-150 failed, you'll need to divide those pages. Keep dividing until you narrow down which page is the problem.

[Laubender]

Hi Barbara,

I don't think a specific page is the problem since she could export the whole document successfully in chunks of 10 pages.

Supressing background export would be the next thing I'd try.

Regards,
Uwe

[Deborah54]

hi barbara,

i divided the document into sections of 10 -20 pages at a time which i exported successfully to PDF. however, when i attempted to do them all at once it wouldn't export and the background export bars kept moving even after the document closed.

could someone please give me a step by step way to suppress the background export? i am at my wit's end to be honest.

[Laubender]

Hi,

here are the basic steps to suppress background export:

Mac OS:

1. Create an empty text file and save it with the exact name: DisableAsyncExports.txt

If you do this with e.g. TextEdit.app, make sure, that you switched from formatted text to text-only text using cmd+shift+tab with text edit and TextEdit will offer you a txt suffix and not rtf when saving.

2. Go to your Applications folder. You should see a folder named Adobe InDesign CC 2018.

Inside this folder is the file Adobe InDesign CC 2018.app

3. Select Adobe InDesign CC 2018.app and bring up the context menu with ctrl+click

4. Use the menu command: Show Package Contents

Now you can see into the app's folder structure.

5. Move the text file from step 1 to Contents/MacOS/ so the full path to the file is now:

/Applications/Adobe InDesign CC 2018/Adobe InDesign CC 2018.app/Contents/MacOS/DisableAsyncExports.txt

A screenshot from my German InDesign after I moved the text file in:

That's all.

Now InDesign does all export functionality in foreground showing e.g. a progress bar when exporting to PDF.

No need to restart InDesign 🙂

To revert to background tasks, just move the file DisableAsyncExports.txt out of Adobe InDesign CC 2018.app.

Regards,
Uwe

[pelicanmanufacturing]

I had a similar issue with 2018 a few weeks ago, but mine would crash on saving or exporting, I fixed it by making a new indesign file to the same size and just copying and pasting all page's from the broken document to the new document, seemed to work fine after that

[Barbara Ash]

That's an indication that there was something corrupt in the InDesign file.

Another thing to try, for Deborah54, would be to save the InDesign file as IDML, close the file, and open the IDML in InDesign. That sometimes works.

[pelicanmanufacturing]

but I didn't remake anything? Pasting it all into a new document fixed the issue, if something I pasted was corrupted wouldn't this new document then be corrupt? the IDML didn't work for me at the time also

[Barbara Ash]

There may have been something corrupt in the InDesign file itself. I have had the same experience that on rare occasions, pasting it into a new document sometimes fixes it.

[Deborah54]

i was successful at exporting pages of this document to PDF if i did it in sections, i.e. pages 1 - 10, 11 - 20, and so on. i exported 150 pages successfully this way. however, when i attempted to do pages 2 - 150 the export failed. i have 16 GB of memory and i have 737 GB of storage available of 999.32 GB. do i not have enough memory to export a 205 MB indesign document?

[Deborah54]

hi barbara! i just tried saving as an IDML file but got the same alert that it failed to export to PDF. i am at a loss as to what is corrupting this file and how i find out.

[Laubender]

Deborah54  wrote

hi barbara! i just tried saving as an IDML file but got the same alert that it failed to export to PDF. i am at a loss as to what is corrupting this file and how i find out.

Hi,

you could use a technique called divide and conquer:

Export first half of pages. Export second half of pages.

Any problems with that?

Hopefully only on one of the two parts.

Then go on with the one that is not working and do the same with that.

If you are lucky you finally end up with a single page that contains the issue.

Another method is to export to PDF not using the background process.

Matthew Laun on "How to disable the background process":

Re: Background PDF export Help

Regards,
Uwe

[Deborah54]

thanks for the info on background PDF export help. i noticed that the posting is from 2011. will it work on indesign cc 2017?

[Laubender]

Deborah54  wrote

thanks for the info on background PDF export help. i noticed that the posting is from 2011. will it work on indesign cc 2017?

Yes, it will…

If switching to foreground export is solving your problem is just a test away 🙂

You could always change that back.

Regards,
Uwe

[Deborah54]

thanks but divide and conquer didn't really work.   i was successful at exporting pages of this document to PDF if i did it in sections, i.e. pages 1 - 10, 11 - 20, and so on. i exported 150 pages successfully this way. however, when i attempted to do pages 2 - 150 the export failed. i have 16 GB of memory and i have 737 GB of storage available of 999.32 GB. do i not have enough memory to export a 205 MB indesign document?

[Geоrge]

Re: Closure of Indesign when I try to export a file

[Deborah54]

i restarted both indesign and my computer. didn't solve the problem, but thanks.

[rohit_ID]

Hi Deborah

Can you please share your file at rdubey@adobe.com?

I can try figuring out what the exact cause might be and will suggest to resolve the export issues.

Thanks

Rohit

[Deborah54]

hi rohit!

thank you so much! this has been driving me mad! the file is about 205 Mb. i think that is too large to send through email. i have an account at hightail.com. can i send it to you through that?

thanks again!!!

[rohit_ID]

Hi

I have never tried file sharing from hightail.com and don't have any account either. If it is similar to dropbox ,you can upload the file and share the link of the file. Otherwise you can share on the dropbox as well , if that would be ok for you.

Thanks

Rohit

[Deborah54]

hi rohit,

i just sent the direct link to the file to your email address. thanks!

[Leann_Berger]

I just had this very issue with a user this afternoon. If you can figure out exactly which page is causing the problem, look for a linked image on that page that registers zero K in the Link Info (see attached). This is the ID file corruption that's causing the problem.

Once you re-link to the very same file, the file size will register correctly and your file will export correctly.

How did I discover this? The corrupted link was not displaying properly. Sometimes as scrambled pixels, sometimes as a black box, but occasionally correctly as in the screen capture above.

[Laubender]

Hi Leann,

wow. Size: 0 bytes is indeed a strange case.
Any idea what happened?

Btw: What version of InDesign on what OS was this?
Is the image stored on a server? If yes, what is the protocol that is connecting the server to the client machine?

Regards,
Uwe