FM 2015 Crashing on every File

[nancy33534756]

I am using FM 2015 in a Windows 10 environment.

I have run into this problem before, but never this bad.

I generated a PDF.

As per usual, the PDF is formed correctly but FM shows an error message : "FM ran out of memory."

I close FM. Every .fm file now has a corresponding .lck file.

• When I reopen FM, FM tells me the previous session ended badly and asks if I would like to restore it. I say yes. FM crashes.

• When I reopen FM, say that I do not want to reset the previous session, and attempt to open the book file, FM crashes.

• If I attempt to open an individual FM file by doubleclicking it in Windows explorer and opening FM with it, FM begins to open and then crashes.

• If I open FM and then attempt to open an individual FM file from within FM, FM crashes.

In the past after I've generated a PDF, I've had trouble with, say, one individual file that I had to rebuild. Now it appears that every single file has some kind of problem. FM crashes no matter what. I will have lost several hours of work if I have to go back to an archive copy I, thank God, made before I generated the PDF.

What is causing FM to crash. How can I trouble shoot. Thanks.

[Barb Binder]

Hi Nancy:

A few thoughts:

1. As you stated, when you crash with multiple files open, the .lck files will still be in the project folder. Open the project folder, change to Detail view in Explorer and click the Type heading at the top. This will sort the files by type, grouping all the .lck files together. Just click the first one, shift+click the last one and delete them all at once. Then try reopening FrameMaker and then the book, then a file or two.
2. If you can get the book and files to open again, how are you creating the PDF? File > Save as PDF or File > Print? If File > Print, are you printing to the Adobe PDF printer, or printing a .ps file and then distilling it?FrameMaker has many ways to generate a PDF—when one doesn't work for me, I try another.
3. FrameMaker 2019 has a completely redesigned PDF export. It has a modern interface and it is super fast. You might consider downloading the free 30-day trial and—working on a copy of the project folder/files—see if the Publish option works for you.

~Barb

[nancy33534756 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for these comments, Barb.

First off, if anyone has this problem, I finally discovered that the backup files work correctly. I opened each one and saved it as the regular .fm file. For good measure, I created a new book file and reimported everything. Now I have working files.

In answer to your questions:

1. I deleted the .lck files early on and still had all the crashes.

2. I used Save to PDF. I'll try printing to the PDF printer ... if I ever dare to try this again. This took hours, and even opening and resaving every file was time-consuming. I guess I'll try renaming the backups manually in Windows Explorer next time, if there is a next time.

3. We are not going to look into FM 19 at this time, because we're going to Flare. FM has too many usability issues, particularly with regard to the strange relationship of the .sts file to the .css file and the paucity of conversion settings, such as the inability to change the alignment of anchored frames for various outputs. Maybe we'll be back if Flare turns out to be equally problematic, and then we'd no doubt explore FM 19 or its successor.

--Nancy