can't save as pdf because of the background tasks

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 )

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