EPUB Interactivity Preview panel keeps freezing

[Bexigallio]

The EPUB Intereactivity panel keeps freezing as I'm testing animations. I'm running InDesign 16.3.2. (latest version in August 2021).

I'm on a  2015 macbook pro, running OS 10.15.7 Catalina.

I've uninstalled InDesign, deleting all previous preferences and settings. I've dumped preferences as I boot up InDesign, I've restarted the Mac numerous times, it works for a few previews, then stops.

Does anyone else have the same problem? Any other advice any one has to resolve this would be much appreciated. It's driving me crazy!

[Derek Cross]

Presumably this is a FXL ePub - have you tried viewing it on a reading app or device?

[Bexigallio]

No it's just an interactive document, that is being used for demonstration purposes. It's fine when I publish it online, but I just want to preview animation techniques before I do that. Here's the url to it published online. The graphics are simple, vector based. Animations are just 'page load' events. Nothing fancy.

[rayek.elfin]

What PPI resolution are you using to export it?

How many images are part of the animation, and what is their resolution?

How complex are your animations?

[Bexigallio]

I'm not sure why any image resolutions would be relevant. https://indd.adobe.com/view/6bd41e46-d787-4a6b-bc19-5ff797fdc04c 

is the published on line version. Nothing fancy.

[rayek.elfin]

It may matter depending on what size images are exported. For example, in your file InDesign included (generated) a PNG file with a whopping resolution of 5692x3221 pixels.

This will slow down rendering (even on my snazzy machine it hesitates a moment) but may cause problems in the epub preview as well. Every single time the file is previewed it will generate that file again - and again, and again. It slows down the previewing, as well as may cause video memory issues on older machines with older video hardware.

Which is why it is a good idea to never allow InDesign to automatically take care of images. Best is to change the object export properties to "Use existing image", for many reasons, but if only for instant previews in InDesign it is worth it.

Also, the size of the generated image assets (the above 2.png file is a good example) is decided by the PPI setting in the epub export settings. I've written various posts on this forum that explain best practices when creating FXL epub files in InDesign.

[rayek.elfin]

Here is a post that I've written about it (last post is mine - the long one!):

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/best-dimensions-for-fixed-layout-epub3-for-multiple-devices-...

[Bexigallio · Accepted solution]

I've just installed version 16.0 (the first 2021 version) and it's working fine now. Lesson learned. Don't update when you have a 7 year old mac, and Adobe re-write the software for a new Apple Chip.