InDesign 2024 Interactive PDF Failing to Export

[paigerunyan]

Hi, I'm hoping to find some suggestions as to why my interactive PDF is failing to export in InDesign 2024. I've searched other forums and have been troubleshooting, yet still haven't found a solution. 

My pdf is an ebook of sorts with interactivity in the TOC, buttons to play audio, and videos linked. It has 48 pages and each time I try to export, it goes well until the very end and says it failed to export and the issue may be on page 48. I've tried deleting elements from that page, as well as deleting the last page entirely, and I get the same issue, just with whatever the last page is after deletion. 

Any ideas what the issue could be? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance. 

[Eugene Tyson · Accepted solution]

It might be failing at the end but the problem could be anywhere in the file. 

Try divide and conquer - export page 1-24 and see if it exports ok - then try 25-48

Whatever side it fails on is where the problem is - then keep dividing it until you find the problem page/s.

If both sides export fine - then try 1-30 or 1-40 until it fails.

Other things you can try if this is not working

==========

If a document is not behaving well then try 

File>Export 

Choose IDML

Open the IDML in InDesign
Save the file as a new InDesign file with a new name
See if the issue persists.

========

Try resetting your preferences:

Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.
Further info and instructions here if needed:
https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

==========

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

[paigerunyan]

So interestingly enough, exporting 10 pages at a time worked successfully for me, for the whole document. But then, when I combined them using Acrobat, I lost the interactivity with the audio and video. Is there another way to combine them once exported in smaller chunks?

[Derek Cross]

You can't successfully distribute a PDF with audio and videos in it due to Flash becoming obsolete and the varying quality of PDF Readers. The best you can do is provide a hyperlink in your PDF to an external source, such as a YouTube or similar video.

[BobLevine]

I wouldn't blame it on Flash anymore. That's been dead for more than 10 years now. The number of substandard PDF readers is the real issue and even Acrobat is going to make the user jump through security hoops to play this stuff.

It's simply a horrible format for multimedia.

[Jennifer23414952lco5]

Let me know if you find the solution - my 2-page document is doing the same as well as hundreds of my other documents from last year.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Please try the suggestions shared in this discussion and let us know if this helps or if you need further assistance.

Thanks

Rishabh

[JR Boulay]

InDesign's interactive PDF export was made for PDF forms, it is completely useless when it comes to multimedia. For it to work correctly you should add the audio and video media with Acrobat Pro, after exporting to PDF.

See: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/using/rich-media.html

[Derek Cross]

As mentioned, given the number of incompatible  PDF Readers around, it is not normally recommended  to rely on adding multimedia to PDFs for wide distribution.

[JR Boulay]

We've already discussed this several times, there's no point going back to it. You won't convince me, and vice versa.