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meredith_3339
meredith_3339
Participant
January 29, 2026
Question

InDesign 21.1: export to PDF - corrupt/damaged

  • January 29, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 76 views

Originally posted this on Jan 21 and post has disappeared likely due to the migration:

I have the latest update 21.1 and ever since I have been having issues converting pages to PDF from a file I am creating using InDesign. When I try to convert certain pages to PDF, it either will create the PDF but it is corrupt and when I try to create the PDF again, it says there is a background task running and that task is preventing me from doing anything else. Ultimately, I have to End Task and restart the program. It will work for a bit then I will have the same issue again. This is happening daily. I have not been able to pinpoint which background task is causing the problem. 

Running on PC, Windows 11 v23H2

**NEW** Since my post last week, I found the issue but have no control over it. I always use File > Export within the same document when I export pages to PDF. Sometimes the Export to Interactive PDF window shows up and the export works properly. However, sometimes the Export to Adobe PDF window shows up and the exported file is damages. How do I stop this from happening?

1 Attachment

Adobe Issues Update 21.1.pdf

    1 reply

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 29, 2026

    Hi ​@meredith_3339, 

     

    Thanks for sharing the details, and sorry this has been so disruptive. To start, please update InDesign to the latest 21.2 version and check whether the export issue still persists. If it does, please try manually resetting the InDesign preferences by following the video in this Helpx article: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

    It would also help to know whether this happens with a specific file only or with all files, including a newly created document. Please confirm whether the affected file contains any linked AI, PSD, or INDD files, or if it only includes images and PDFs. If possible, feel free to share a sample affected file for testing. You can package the file and share the packaged folder via a public cloud service like Drive, Dropbox, and share it via DM on the community if it’s confidential.

    As a next step, please try saving the file as IDML, then open that IDML and save it back as a new INDD under a different name, and test exporting that new file to PDF.

    If the issue continues, please try isolating it by exporting the first half of the document and then the second half, narrowing it down further to see if a specific page or spread is triggering the corrupt export or background task behavior.

    For reference, here’s a similar community thread discussing PDF export issues with background tasks that you may find helpful:
    https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/while-trying-to-export-an-indesign-file-in-to-pdf-getting-background-task-alert-887786?postid=887786#post887786

    Please let me know how it goes after trying this.

     

    I’ll be happy to assist further and look forward to your update.

    Abhishek

    meredith_3339
    meredith_3339Author
    Participant
    January 29, 2026

    Updated to 21.2. Will keep you posted. Thank you for your reply.

      pixelmatt_r58e4e7
      pixelmatt_r58e4e7
      Participant
      January 30, 2026

      I was having the same issue. I tried the fixes that have been suggested but none of them worked. I had reset my preferences, saved as an IDML and tried exporting, Packaging my file - but had no luck.

      I have just found the one thing that has worked. I was trying to export the file as which only has 3 pages as separate PDFs as each one is a slightly varied. I ended up not selecting the “create separate PDF” option and exporting the file as one PDF. This was the only way I could successfully export as PDF using Indesign 21.2.

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