Cant open IDML in CS 6

[sevvydb]

I have been working on projects in the new CC 2018 version of InDesign, saved it out as an IDML as to be able to open the work on another computer that has InDesign CS 6. However, when I try to open up the file in CS 6 I get a message saying:

Cannot open file " File name.idml". Adobe InDesign may not support the file format, a plug-in that supports the file format may be missing, or the file may be open in another application.

I have made sure all plugins are up to date on both of the versions as well as that no other applications are open when trying to open the file up in the CS 6 InDesign. There has been no success.

Please help, I have screenshots if necessary if that will help, as well as the files.

[jane-e]

Yes, post the screen shots

[Willi Adelberger]

How did you save to IDML? Did you omly change the extension or did you change the file type?

[Bill Silbert]

Is this the first time you've exported this file as an IDML? If you've been doing this as a way of going back and forth between the two versions that might be the problem as IDML export should be limited to a one time use (see IDMLs A Cautionary Tale ) .

If this is not the case I've seen in other threads that quitting InDesign and rebooting the computer may be able to help.

[Laubender]

Hi sevvydb ,

first thing I'd try is to open the IDML with inDesign CC 2018.

If that is not working something went wrong writing the file and I would do another export to IDML from the original InDesign document.

Or are you using special 3rd-party plug-ins with CC 2018?

If so and CS6 did not install that special non-Adobe plug-in, then it could be that CS6 cannot open the IDML without the plug-in.

That would be the worst case scenario which is very, very rare. Usually all IDML files should open even with InDesign CS4.

But to analyze the problem we need to take a look inside the file.

Basically an IDML file is a zip-container file with suffix *.idml. So you could do a duplicate of the file, rename its suffix to zip and you can look inside the file when on Windows with e.g. 7zip software. You can do that even without renaming, but do this on a duplicate. You'll find some folders and mostly xml files. The one I'd like to inspect is designmap.xml and perhaps preferences.xml to see if there is a trace of a 3rd-party plug-in.

Regards,
Uwe

[BobLevine]

I doubt this is a plugin issue. IDML typically strips that out. I still wouldn’t eliminate someone just changing the file extension.