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Question

PDF exported from Indesign show up with 0 bytes on Google Drive

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Two of our colleagues are experiencing the same problem: when exporting a PDF from Indesign directly into Google Drive Desktop, the files for other colleagues are showing up as 0 bytes.

So when exporting to PDF, the PDF is always 'damaged' because it has 0 bytes, while the 'background tasks' in Indesign aren't showing any problems.

Next, when the owner duplicates the '0 byte file', it's working fine (🤯). The file get's synced and can be opened by all other users.

It's only an issue with PDF files exported from Adobe Indesign directly on Google Drive Desktop.

When we export to .jpg, .png there is no trouble at all.
When saving an indesign of illustrator file (not a PDF), it just works.

Does any one else have or have had the same problem?

Some info:

Macbook Pro m1 2020 - Ventura OS 13.2 (22D49)
Adobe Indesign CC 18.1
Google Drive Desktop version 69.0.0.0

Feedback I've received from Google:

I was able to check our internal database and I see that we are aware of this problem when saving PDF files directly with Indesign. It seems that the problem is caused by Indesign itself since it does not occur with other programs. But I hope the problem will be solved as soon as possible with an update of Google Drive for desktop or an update of Adobe InDesign. I think it would be useful to periodically check both programs for updates. Unfortunately there is no solution at this time. My advice for the time being is to save the PDF files locally and then move the file to a location in Google Drive.

My ticket: https://support.google.com/drive/thread/199174521/pdf-exported-from-indesign-show-up-with-0-bytes-on-google-drive?hl=en

Other users experiencing the same issue:

Alexander Walter

Participating Frequently

Similar problem with exporting an indd file to pdf on my Mac, running Id 21.4 on macOS 26.5.1. Resulting file size is 0 byte and doesn’t open when saving to my local drive. I’ve found a workaround in the export dialog of Id, saying the file should be shown in preview after finishing. It showed up just nicely and I saved the file with a different name in the macOS preview app. Guess this must be a problem with InDesign, I’ve never encountered before.

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leo.r

Community Expert

Try to grant Full Disk Access to InDesign in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Will it make a difference?

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Alexander Walter

Participating Frequently

Thank, Leo. Great idea but doesn’t change a thing. Now I’ve discovered that the following things are happening in the background. When the export dialog closes, also nothing shows up in the background tasks window of InDesign. The file size is 0. After a minute, there’s a second file created with .part at the end of the filename and before .pdf. The file size ist about a quarter of the content. After another minute the .part file vanishes and the .pdf has finished exporting, all while InDesign background activities says nothing at all. It looks like that I was too hesitant. I really don’t own a slow machine – M3 Pro Max.

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Shawn29018615wzw0

Participant

Problem Solved! Was having same issue on my mac. My pdf worked fine on my mac, but showed as 0kb on my synced google drive. I simply clicked, dragged and dropped the file from Finder onto my google drive in chrome. It said it already existed and asked if I wanted to replace it, and I clicked yes. Now it's there and showing the expected MB value. Cheers!

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Opi16B8

Participating Frequently

@Shawn29018615wzw0 Thank you for sharing that hack! Hopefully Google and Acrobat will implement a real fix so that we can have a one-step process of exporting a pdf instead of a 2-step process.

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Jim29371702vrx8

Participant

I still have a user that creates corrupted files with this two-stop process of saving locally and copying to Google Drive via the Finder. Has anyone tried an alternative to the Google Drive for Desktop app such as ExpandDrive?

Thanks!

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LXConceptAuthor

Participant

Google deleted my thread. Apparently, they didn't like the traffic of users with the same issue :(.

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Tom24935652ho3f

Participant

I'm also having the same issue - we just sent a whole bunch of out-of-date versions to print because of it. We're having to work around by saving EVERYTHING locally, but this is a massive pain right in the production. This is definitely some weird Apple silicon x Indesign x Google Drive issue which may finally lead to me migrating from Google!

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BobLevine

Community Expert

Almost every issue with cloud storage/sharing services that I've seen reported here is with Google Drive. OneDrive, Dropbox and even Adobe's own CC storage and sharing do not have the same issues.

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Melinda218582792gzm

Participant

Just want to chime in that I'm having the same issue. Been occuring for at least 3 months. It's extremely frustrating since other coworkers need to comment on my pdf files. I also received the same reply from Google. Let me know if you get any resolutions!! ty.

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Doug24590684glll

Participant

+1 we are encountering this same issue. Since latest indesign update, PDF files generated from indesign will not sync to google drive. They work fine from illustrator , so i am chalking this up to Indesign, NOT drive.

FYI this is mac specific too, we tried same process on google drive for windows and the file initially shows as 0kb, but then changes to correrect file size and subsequently syncs.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

That's not how troubleshooting works. If the PDFs are fine everywhere else, it's Google Drive that's the issue. That out of the way, if you'd like to provide full details on the issue and exactly what your workflow is, perhaps we can be of some assistance.

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Doug24590684glll

Participant

Thanks Bob. Yes, this isnt the most thorough of testing for sure. But the PDFs are showing abnormalities OUTSIDE of drive. Its clearly some strange interaction between MacOS, INDD, and Google Drive.

For details.

PDFs saved from indesign to desktop or any mac foider are showing as 0kb,
This is causing drive to think they dont have any content and wont sync them.
Duplicating the file in finder then causes it to show proper file size and then syncs

As stated by OP above, Google is saying its an adobe issue, Adobe is pointing at Google, and we're just scratching our heads here in the meantime LOL

Maybe we should all point at MacOS?

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Steve Werner

Community Expert

I'd suspect Google Drive is the culprit. Over the past few years, users of Google drive experience far more problems that any of the other cloud services. Using Dropbox, by comparison, is much more reliable.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

I concur. I use Dropbox and OneDrive and I've had zero issues with either.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

First thing I would check for is illegal characters in the file name. If that's okay, be sure that all users have any smart sync features turned off.

This certainly doesn't sound like an InDesign issue to me.

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