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tanttu
tanttu
Participant
March 11, 2026
Question

InDesign Fails to Export Full Document to PDF but Single Pages Export Successfully

  • March 11, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 28 views

I have a problem exporting to pdf. I can only export single pages. 

The document is 428 pages (41,9 MB) and mainly text. It has a lot of footnotes 6300 (!)

A few weeks ago I could export to pdf with the same text, I have only done some typographic changes. 

I have tried suggestions like: exporting to IDML, turn off Background Tasks, delete Preferences with no luck. 

The only way is to create a Book, add the indesign-file and export the book to pdf.
That works without any problem! But I would like to be able to export directly from the indesign-file.

I have Indesign 21.2 iMac 2020 with 40 GB RAM.

 

    1 reply

    Dave Creamer of IDEAS
    Community Expert
    Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 11, 2026

    What happens if you export around page 25 (1-24, 26-428)?

    Exporting from a book bypasses the background tasks, so I suspect it does have something to do with that, even though you did mention you turned it off. Can you post _how_ you turned it off?

    David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
      tanttu
      tanttuAuthor
      Participant
      March 11, 2026

      Thank you, good idea!

      Exporting pages 1-24 worked fine. 

      But with pages 26-428 it got stuck and I had to force quit InDesign.

       

      The error messages have pointed out different pages as the problem: also page 26, 48 and 3. 

       

      To turn off the background tasks I created an empty text file and save it with the name DisableAsyncExports.txt and placed it in the Adobe InDesign folder, as explained here: https://creativepro.com/a-new-workaround-for-that-pesky-background-export-issue/#:~:text=After%20downloading%2C%20unzip%20the%20file,background%20export%20on%20and%20off

      Dave Creamer of IDEAS
      Community Expert
      Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 11, 2026

      I would start from the back of the book and increment in 50-page sections. You can watch the Background activity panel to see what it is processing when it “chokes”. 

      David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
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