Troubleshooting 101: Export to .idml or .inx to clear file corruption

This was extremely helpful. I crashed about a dozen times after updating from ID3 to ID4 before discovering this fix. I still don't exactly understand why this worked—I'm dim that way—but it did.

Thanks. Worked for me also. CS3 asking for missing CS2 plugins.

That worked. Thanks so much. You just saved me an unbelievable amount of work.

oh dear god, thanks a lot, it fixed all the problems i had with a CS4 book opened in CS5, for an unknown reason the document had locked anchored object that was making CS5 crash everything i was trying to touch the anchor, the idml file fixed the problem, i can now choose to unlock the graphic (this action was grayed out before)

plus it solved a problem i had with the text box inset option, couldnt change the right and left inset... now i can..

just sad that it cannot auto-convert itself properly..

Hi, I'm not seeing this option in CS5 under File>Export. Am I missing something?

Yup...in CS5 it's export to IDML.

Bob

I did not see that - thanks for pointing it out.

My CS3 file went from 2mb to 1,7mb in CS5. Sweet

Hi! I did this as you mentioned, and the file became much much smaller! So right now I can just continue my work using the new indd file is that right?

Yes.

BTW: I have had no crashing problems since updating to CS5.

okay thank you very much!

I have several documents that I export to PDF using data merge. All of the documents have been exporting very nicely each and every time I use them with the exception of one. Today when I tried to export it, CS5 crashed. So I cut and pasted and made a new document, thinking that might work, but it still crashed. So I tried exporting the document as a IDML. I opened the IDML file and tried to export it using the data merge to PDF and it still crashed. Any ideas on what else I might try, besides redoing then entire 23 page document?

To my knowledge, (through CS4) you cannot Data Merge to pdf, but rather create a new file. I have exported to pdf immedialtely after creating a merged doc, but at that point it is not saved.

Are there images contained within the merge doc? I would look at those first.

Hunt and conquer method - Start eliminating half the document pages or elements at a time.

I am using CS5 and I do have graphics throughout the document. I will try eliminating the graphics and see what happens. I just find it wierd that I have been using this same document for the past 6 months, as well as the other documents, and yet today it decides to give me problems. @@

Thank you for the quick response.

Thanks. I will do that tomorrow. I have some other projects that I need to work on for work right now. But I did say I was using CS5 and I am using Vista as my OS.

Yep.  Worked for me.  Cheers

How about if you are working on a book?  Export is not

an option once you are in InDesign screen with the book file open but none of the component files open..  I have to export all 11 documents it is composed of?

Using CS5.    That would be File>Export and in that window, Save As Type> in popdown choose IDML (index design markup language), right?  Then I link the new files to the book and delete the others????

Thanks for your help.

wow 2 min to get an answer, very impressive!  It's a TOC problem

, won't recognize the headings in the section its in.  Sometimes erases all the other text except the TOC-- like maybe I did something when adjusting the frames and it thinks the whole document is part of the toc.  (it used to work just fine)   Someone suggested maybe minor corruption, so I was looking into your proposed solution..  I just had the frames idea in the past few min.

.   Where should I post this and what would u suggest as a heading

btw is there a seach function on this site?  can't find one

Great tips Peter. We recommend exporting to .inx (now .idml) as well to folks contacting us with corrupted InDesign files. If all fails, or if that is not even possible though, we as Markzware offer the Markzware InDesign File Recovery Service, whereby we attempt to salvage and recover your file for you. Just thought it important to mention this.

Friendly Regards,

David Dilling of

Markzware

Super helpful! I used the .idml extension since I'm running CS5.5 I've spent the past two days fighting a series of magazine layouts at my internship. I've been trying to get hyperlinks attached to the ads so we can upload our back issues to the iPad, but every layout from Nov 2011 onward would crash when I tried to add a new hyperlink. I tried your preferences-clearing method first (as well as some other methods I find on the web) in an effort to get the thing functioning long enough to use, but ultimately I just couldn't get the Oct 2011 layout to let me do anything, even with the preferences wipe. This little trick, though, fixed it. I've been attaching the links to the ads with ease. Thanks so much!

Deleted the hyperlinks and the file got tuned.

Awesome, simple solution! I was having trouble while exporting an interactive PDF (none of the buttons would work) but after making this, everything is working nicely!

What do you do if your crashes are caused when you're exporting to idml?

This is what's happening to me everytime I try to save back from CS6 [on my home Mac] in order to open in CS5.5 on my office's Mac. My copy of CS6 crashes on export to idml. I'm left with a 125 byte-sized idml 'file'. I've sent reports to Adobe several times now, and scoured the web for an answer with no success.

By the way, CS5.5 worked fine when saving to idml.

Hi, is CS6 crashing with EVERY file you try to export to IDML? Or is just one specific file? Make sure you have InDesign 8.0.1, which you can Update via the Adobe Applications Manager.

Cheers, David

Hi, is CS6 crashing with EVERY file you try to export to IDML? Or is just one specific file? Make sure you have InDesign 8.0.1

Yes. CS6 is crashing with every file. Single page or multiple pages. Newly created for the purpose of testing this issue or an older file that has previously given me no problems. It doesn't seem to matter, it crashes every time.

Needless to say, this is causing a massive problem for my work, since I have no purchasing control over the CS5.5 using office I work in. Adobe - so far - has not responded once.

worked for me. file>export>IDML. the elements were back but misplaced though . i had to rework the layout. anyone got better solution to this?

What if I can't even open the file in InDesign because it's incompatible? How do I open the file in order to save it as .idml?

The file was made using CS6 and I have CS5.5

@stefsrieder – Find someone who can open it for you.
Or install a 30-days trial version of inDesign CS6 (or CC), open the file in CS6 or above and export from that to IDML.

Uwe

I have this same problem but on my Photoshop please help!

I've just discovered that exporting to IDML is causing master pages to re-apply, leaving chaos in its wake for a colleague who has master elements that he must override on every page to customize (department/sections of the magazine have different color scheme but the same design elements).

I have tried exporting/saving the file to IDML from CS5, CS5.5, CC 2014 and the masters are re-applied in each case.

I'm on Mac OS10.7, my colleague is using 10.6 in case that is relevant.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

interesting...it's happening immediately on open but I tested a few documents and it's not happening with all files. The monthly pub is built from a template file and I wonder if the template itself has some kind of corruption in it causing this.