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Participant
April 9, 2021
Question

can't save as pdf because of the background tasks

  • April 9, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 4853 views

Hi all, I have a problem with the background tasks. It is activating fonts, but i cant export de file as a pdf because of this. I get the remark that it cant be saved as a pdf, because it is used for the background tasks. I cant delete the background tasks, so i dont know what to do.

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2 replies

Community Expert
April 9, 2021

Hi Lindy,

what's your version of InDesign and operating system?

 

As a workaround you could export the PDF by supressing any background process.

Warning: You'll need admin rights for steps [3] or [4]:

 

[1] Quit InDesign.

[2] Create a blank text file named exactly:

DisableAsyncExports.txt

 

[3] For Mac OS users:

Open your InDesign app in the application folder with a right click with "Show Package" and go to: Contents/MacOS/

Copy the file DisableAsyncExports.txt to that folder.

 

[4] For Windows 10 users:

Copy the file DisableAsyncExports.txt to the folder where your InDesign exe file resides. E.g. to

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign 2021\

 

If you want to revert to background processing simply remove the text file.

Example PDF export showing a progress bar with more detailed information with my German InDesign on Windows 10:

 

 

Alternative:

Use the export function with an InDesign book file.

Create a book file, load your document to the book file and export.

That's also a method to export to PDF with a foreground process.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

hammer0909
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 9, 2021

Go to Window > Utilities > Background Tasks and see if you can cancel the background task there.