InDesign 2022 freezes while exporting to Epub

[mcckp]

I have a .indd file I created in 2021 that used to export just fine to epub. However, I fixed a typo and tried to export it again and InDesign freezes every single time. The program does not crash, it just gets the little rainbow circle of death. It lasts for hours until I force quit. I've tried changing the fonts. I've redone the hyperlinks. I redid the TOC. I changed every setting imaginable in the export window. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the program. Nothing works. Please help!!!

[Derek Cross]

Reflowable or FXL ePub?

[ianl90727017]

I am having similar issue with Indesign doc freezing when I open the Hyperlink window. I have renstalled Indesign, I have stripped all the hyperlinks from the doc and saved it. Opened doc and added all the hyperlinks back in. Saved it and went to lunch with everything working fine. Computer went to speel over lunch break. Come back to the same doc to continue work opened the Hyperlink window, and I am back to square one again. Any ideas?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It's a bit of a long shot, but "fix" the document with this process: save or export to IDML, close, open the IDML file, resave it as a regular INDD file under a new name. That is a general process to purge "file bloat" and do a form of reconstruction that often fixes many different small glitches and problems. It's fixed EPUB export issues in a number of cases as well.

Beyond that — does the document have end notes? They can be problematic.

[ianl90727017]

Thanks for your help, I am turing now, its just take 30 mins to save the IDML file. and now thinking about opening it.

Fingercrossed

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

None of that is normal, unless it's a really gigantic file with a lot of embedded graphics. (And even then.) There's a chance that the process might fix it all, though.

[Derek Cross]

Which version of InDesign and OS?
How much RAM and spare hard disk capacity do you have?

Is the document for a print or digital publication?

[R. Tafoya]

Following. I am having the same problem with InDesign export to EPUB non-responsive with the beachball spinning for hours. I want to convert a print book file to an eBook. The book I'm exporting DOES have endnotes. Advice? I'm a pro print designer, but new to EPUBs.

Running Mac OS Big Sur, 16gb Ram, InDesign 2022.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Same quick check/solutions. First, from a copy of the book file, delete the end notes section and try again. If it exports (usually within a minute or so, if not seconds), it's a bug in the end notes.

Possible fix, and a fix for many other little glitch-problems, export the file to IDML, then open that file and resave as INDD. Try the export again. This often fixes small corruptions in files that don't manifest until you try to do something like an EPUB export.

[R. Tafoya]

Thanks for the quick response.

I experimented with one of the chapters (a copy of course). I converted the endnotes to footnotes and exported that chapter. Worked just fine.

I do have IDML version of the book files and may try your suggested fix.

But first I'll try this: in each chapter convert the endnotes to footnotes, then export. The trouble with this is I'll have to reformat some of the layout.

I also read somewhere that InDesign 2023 may have fixed this bug. I'll let this thread know if I'm able to fix it and how.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There were some fixes in v18 but this problem has deeper roots than ID''s handling alone. I haven't had a chance to test any complex exports with v18.2 yet.

You don't necessarily need to convert the end notes, but that the conversion let the export go forward does pin down the problem. If you want to retain end notes, you can rebuild the links, one or a few at a time, until the export succeeds. Obviously, that's a solution suited to five or a dozen notes, not hundreds.

The IDML trick is to clean up a corrupted or bloated INDD. Export, re-open, save under new name purges the junk from the file and often fixes many small linkage and detail faults. It's not necessarily the same thing to just go to an IDML file from some prior step.

Just for completeness, the end note problem most often stems from docs imported from Word. There's something about the import and conversion to ID that results in these links that work well enough within ID, but don't export correctly. Again, not sure if the new version has fixed that specific problem.

[Vyrdolak]

James Gifford, I really have to thank you. I was having the exact same problem with InDesign 2023 freezing up trying to export to epub 3 (208 endnotes!) and your suggestions helped me resolve the problem. It's a job for a client and I was getting worried, because this had never happened before. I exported the file to IDML and then saved it as a new INDD file, and changed the endnotes to footnotes, which made InDesign reformat them, and then exported to epub, selecting endnotes to be at the end of the section. It worked! Any remaining glitches I can just code out in the html files--it was getting the whole monster into the package that I rely on InDesign for. Thank you!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Happy to be helpful; I try to always make sure my answers have enough context that later searcher/readers can apply the info to a similar situation.

EPUB is such a frustrating format. It should be as easy as hitting Print or an export to PDF, but it's a tightrope walk from beginning to end, just to get a technically (never mind artistically/esthetically) acceptable result. So many little hurdles and almost any grit in in the source file means failure.

More and more, I am surprised it won out over other formats, has persisted so long and has gone over a decade without significant fixes to its aging elements. 😞

But there being no second viable format, it's Hobson's choice.

[derekwatson]

I am having the same issue having made text changes to a book. The previous version exports fine, no end notes. I have tried exporting to idml and in both InDesign 2023 and beta on Mac with the same problem, crashes just after export begins.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Zeno it. 🙂

Working from a copy, delete half. Try the export. If not, delete the other half, try again. When you isolate the problem, divide that half into halves and run each on its own. You can whittle it down to a page or so with some iterations, and that should point you to a bad link, illustration, etc.