InDesign 2025 Crashes When Exporting PDFs from a Book (.indb)

There are a lot of threads about problems with CC 2025 / v. 20 on Macs - you should downgrade to 2024 / v. 19.5

You can have both - 2024 and 2025 installed together - so you can export as IDML from 2025 and open it in 2024.

Try resetting your InDesign preferences. This will restore the program to its defaults. After an update clean preferences can go a long way towards improving performance.

To reset preferences:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so: On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

I am experiencing the same issue with exporting to interactive pdf as everyone else on this thread - only after updating to the 2025 version of InDesign. It crashes every time. No problem with print pdfs. EXTREMELY frustrating! And I tried reverting to the 2024 version of InDesign but am not able to open my files.

Cannot export any pdfs…

By @James25541434ggaw

Just to make sure: do you have crashes when exporting regular Print PDFs, or only Interactive PDFs? So far the issue discussed in this thread only pertains to interactive PDF.

Downgraded to 19.5 (2024) now, I can't open my book files at all and risk corruption of .indd documents made with v20.0 (2025). FML

By @RoséJellié

Normally, this conversion to a lower version shouldn't result in any corruption. Plus make sure you have a back up of your documents (which you should always have anyway). It's the same as exporting your documents as IDML from InDesign 2025, then open IDML in InDesign 2024.

Thank you, @leo.r, for confirming that you've also been able to reproduce the issue. We understand how this can be a major challenge, especially for users who rely heavily on interactive PDFs.

We're currently testing the files provided by the community and have initiated an internal check with the product team regarding this crash. I'll keep you updated with any progress or insights we receive. We appreciate your patience as we work towards a resolution.

Thank you for your continued support and expertise!

Best,
Abhishek Rao

Hi @matthias_der_burg,

Thank you for reaching out! I understand how frustrating this issue can be. I tried reproducing the problem, and it worked fine for me, which suggests it might be specific to your setup.

To help resolve the issue, I recommend following the steps in the reference articles below:

1. Crash Troubleshooting: [Crash on Launch](https://adobe.ly/3YyWcdJ)

2. Resolve Slow Performance and Unexpected Behavior:  
   - [Performance Issues Discussion](https://adobe.ly/3C6bNbC)
   - [Slow Performance Solutions](https://adobe.ly/3Ahn8oL)

Please try these steps and let us know how it goes. If the issue persists, we can further investigate based on your feedback.

Best,
Abhishek Rao

for reference, I have just tried a packaged book onto my local machine, to check this isn't a network issue from our side. 

I have just submitted a report, but for reference, I have opened the packaged book file, ran an interactive PDF from the book drop down, as I have been doing normally, and it has crashed again. Still on Windows 11 Pro V.23H2. 

The operating system is Windows 11 Enterprise, version 24H2.