Audio Button Not Working in InDesign 2025 Interactive PDF

[analytical_Dusk16B8]

Hi everyone,

I'm using InDesign 2025 and trying to embed audio in an interactive PDF. I’ve followed the standard steps:

• Added MP3 files to the Media panel, following Adobe’s guidelines.

• Created a button, set the action to "Sound", and linked it to the appropriate MP3 file.

• Exported the document as an Adobe PDF (Interactive) with "Include all forms and media" checked.
  
  

The result:
The button appears as expected in the PDF (the cursor changes to a hand on hover), but nothing happens when I click it—the audio doesn't play. There’s no error message, just no response.

Has anyone run into this issue or have tips on how to troubleshoot it?
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:556d3070-641a-4a89-949c-75ab46b9837f 

Thanks in advance!

[BobLevine]

Is the issue with PDF or Publish Online. You're going to need to be very clear on this because it should work in Publish Online but multimedia in a PDF is a fool's errand at this point.

[analytical_Dusk16B8]

Hi - thank you for helping me.

Its PDF publishing. Do button not work in this case?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Not in PDF, no. Buttons with actions are not supported...

[analytical_Dusk16B8]

Thanks for clarifying this:-)

[BobLevine]

I'm sorry but you're not being clear. Are you trying to create a PDF or something for Publish Online.

As Frans points out, and as I said earlier, this won't work with PDF but it should work in Publish Online. So, please, help us help you. 

[analytical_Dusk16B8]

Sorry for not being clear. I'am trying to create a PDF. So it seems the best way to include and controll audio files in the pdf,  is then adding them in Acrobat after exporting the pdf from Indesign?

[BobLevine]

Actually, the best way is to not do it at all unless you have a small audience that will always use Acrobat on a desktop (and frankly, even there it's a crapshoot at best).

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @analytical_Dusk16B8,

Thanks a lot for clarifying and sharing all the details. I completely understand how confusing this can be. I checked this with the team, and it turns out that the issue is happening because Acrobat has mostly deprecated support for interactivity in PDFs. This is not a limitation on the InDesign side.

When creating an interactive PDF, there is also a blue banner that mentions 'Interactive PDF may not support playback controls for audio and video files'. Even if the setup looks correct in InDesign, playback actions often do not work reliably once exported to PDF and opened in Acrobat or other readers.

The good news is that this use case works perfectly fine if you use Publish Online instead of exporting to interactive PDF. So, I recommend using Publish Online to share your document if you want to include audio playback and other interactive elements.

Let me know if you try this and how it works out for you.

Looking forward to your update!

Abhishek