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des1gnertofullstack
Inspiring
November 10, 2020
Question

Digital Editions on PC not opening epub file that works perfect on Mac

  • November 10, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 275 views

Any trouble-shooting advice? I'm very frustrated with the removal of flash from media controls in Adobe Acrobat and Reader.

 

We have a very long book laid out in InDesign that has been shared as an interactive PDF for 7+ years. As the media controls (play, pause, stop etc) are flash components, the functionality is being removed as a PDF in Dec 2020, and much of the controls have already been stripped.

 

From Adobe reps, I've been told to export our large book from InDesign as an epub file. I've done this. From the InDesign preview panel, all the media functions are shown as expected. On my mac, within Digital Editions, the exported epub file's media also functions as expected.

 

However, on PCs the Digital Editions program refuses to even open the file.

 

The error provided by Digital Editions is also not helpful.

 

It simply reads:

Unable to open "file name".epub

Errors were encountered in this item.

 

The Digital Editions Version on the PC is Version 4.5.11.187303

 

What is the next step in solving that we need to provide the client and our audience a file with embedded media interactivity exported from InDesign.

 

Also to note, the InDesign option to publish to online is NOT an option for us because this method flattens the text so that the text is no longer searchable. The search functionality is a MUST as is controlling who has access to the publication, so password protection is also a must and is currently not available.

 

Thank you.

 

 

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    D
    des1gnertofullstackAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 20, 2020

    It's been 10-days. I was told via chat that an Adobe rep would reply in 24 hours. The exported .epub file from Adobe Indesign is appearing not cross-platform friendly when opened with Adobe Digital Editions. On one PC, the client's PC, Adobe Digital Editions simply says "Unable to open file". Another PC opens the file and plays video and audio, but will not search the text of the book. On the Mac where the InDesign file resides and is exported, that mac's Adobe Editions, opens the file correctly, plays the media, and searches the text.

     

    I can not troubleshoot because Adobe Editions provides no details of the errors. No log. No way to see the problem. Is a technician willing to take a look at our file and to test what the error is? Perhaps you will uncover a bug that could be fixed. We are stuck. Frustrated. And unable to provide a solution to our client.

    D
    des1gnertofullstackAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 10, 2020

    As a follow-up, I downloaded and ran the free Pagina ePub Checker. There were no errors and the ePub file was validated. Now, there were codes shown for my fonts which are Mac file fonts. Looks like perhaps best practice is to convert the used fonts to .otf and .woff files for embedding. Also, this file is a fixed format, embedded font epub file that is simply saying ERROR and can't be opened on a PC running the latest Digital Editions. I'm searching for a way to find the error and solve for the error.

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