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EddieV 10025
Participating Frequently
Dec 27, 2021 11:20 PM UTC
Answered

InDesign Crashes when trying to export a Reflowable EPUB file

   I am trying to export an InDesign file as a Reflowable EPUB file. When I attempt to do this, InDesign become unresponsive and I get the spinning beach ball on my Mac. I can export this file as a Fixed Layout EPUB file. This file is for my students who are using a variety of devices, which is why I want a Reflowable EPUB file and not a Fixed Layout EPUB.

   My InDesign file was created from a 19-page Word file (docx). Cover is set to None. InDesign freezes when attempting to create either EPUB 2.0.1 and EPUB 3.0 files. I have tried rebuilding the InDesign preferences, but that does not help. Last week I did not have this problem.

   I am working on a Mac running Big Sur 11.6.2. InDesign is version 17.0.1.

Thanks,

EV

dean.p
dean.pCorrect answer
Inspiring
Jan 8, 2024 10:53 PM UTC

Another update and Workable Solution for me.

Didn't have to export the doc to an IDML file. The culprit was the Endnotes... Nothing I did could export the endnotes without Indesign totally crashing. But I found a workaround....

  • Save your doc as a new Indesign doc (Like myfilename_Footnotes)
  • Convert all the Endnotes to Footnotes (Menu: Type > Convert Footnotes and Endnotes).
  • Don't worry about overtext, beacuse it'll still export
  • Now export as ePub, and check (under Text) Footnotes placement either "in Pop-up", or "End of Section"

 

15 replies

R. Tafoya
Participant
Jun 30, 2026 10:11 PM UTC

THANK YOU ! I had the same spinning beachball problem and found your question when I searched for help. Converted the endnotes to footnotes and placed them at End of Section. SOLVED ! 

Thank you.

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Kelli Jae Baeli
Inspiring
Mar 9, 2025 9:31 PM UTC

Same problem.

So, after exporting to IDML, HOW DO I OPEN THOSE? There are a TON. I'm working on a book, so i guess it creates a lot of them. Can't possibly open that many. this time it didn't do that, it created one file. But i couldn't find a way to delete this comment

Okay, so I tried that--saving as IDML, opening that, and saving it as ID file again--even cleaned up some missing fonts and checked everything. No errors.
BUT THEN I GOT THAT CRASH AGAIN. (I posted this all to another thread, and found all this while still trying to work it out. The crash always has:
<crash exception="EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" exceptionCode="0xc0000005" instruction="0x00007FFFE22DB498">
<backtrace crashedThread="0">

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Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
Mar 9, 2025 9:59 PM UTC

As this thread is several years old it might be better starting a new one. Include your version of InDesign and OS and how much RAM and spare hard disk capacity you have.

Does InDesign crash when you save a file or when you export to Reflowable ePub?

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Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
Dec 28, 2021 7:22 AM UTC

Assuming you've correctly formulated your Reflowable ePub (producing Reflowable ePubs is not intuitive), I suggest you divide the InDesign document in half and export each half as an ePub and see if you have a half that is ok and a half that isn't and keep dividing and checking until (hopefully!) you isolate the issue.

In the meantime maybe produce a PDF version for your students!

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James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
Dec 28, 2021 6:57 PM UTC

I don't think I've ever had an EPUB export crash ID, no matter how badly flawed or how many errors it generated. OTOH, the current release seems to be stuffed with crash-test dummies, so it could be a (mostly) unrelated problem.

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Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Community Expert
Dec 28, 2021 4:46 AM UTC

I had this problem with previous versions but not the current one. To get rid of the influence of older versions here, I recommend to export as IDML, open that, save as INDD and export from the current version.

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manal shanableh
Legend
Dec 28, 2021 12:56 PM UTC

this will be helpfull for me i had this problem also.

 

thank you

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