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

[chiara_7538]

Hello,

After updating to InDesign 2025, I have noticed significant performance issues. The program has become much slower, and every time I try to create a PDF from a book, InDesign crashes and closes entirely.

Can you please help me?

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[Abhishek Rao]

Hi Beth,

Thanks for the update! I wanted to let you know that a bug has already been logged regarding this issue, and the product team is actively working on a fix. I’ll keep you posted on any updates as soon as I have more information.

If you have any other questions or need further assistance in the meantime, feel free to reach out!

Best,
Abhishek

[Anders29505733o195]

Is there any news on this? Thi sproblem has persistet for some time now. And everyday I press the "Check for updates" button in CC app, just hoping there is an update awailable. I really hope it comes soon 🤞

[matthias_der_burg]

I´m encountering the exact same problem. Indesign crashes after the interactive PDF has correctly been exported. Books that worked in previous Indesign are now crashing Indesign 2025.

[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

[Artur308985675ggp]

Hello, I just discovered that you can open the 2025 file with InDesign 2024. The software offers to "convert," which is equivalent to downgrading without going through the IDML path. Then, I got an error when exporting the PDF and a warning telling me which page was causing the problem. I deleted that page, and voila! Problem solved.

[Laubender]

@Artur308985675ggp said: "… The software offers to "convert," which is equivalent to downgrading without going through the IDML path."

Hi @Artur308985675ggp ,

actually no!

The "convert" process goes through an IDML process, but this is hidden for the user, because it is done on a server instance of InDesign Server in the Adobe cloud. After the IDML is written in the cloud, the conversion service presents the user the opened InDesign document for its particular version of InDesign.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[QJessi1974]

I am having the same issues. It crashes when exporting a book as an interactive PDF, but will complete the conversion when I save it over as a printable PDF. While I can do this temporarily, we use interactive handbooks with linked information sheets and documents for all our divisions and this will become a problem long-term. I've reported the crashes and it is linked to my work email address so I'm hoping for Adobe to resolve this issue very quickly.

[leo.r]

Yes, I can reproduce it, too: InDesign 2025 crashes when exporting books to Interactive PDF (but not regular PDF).

p.s. crashed with any book i tried on both macOS Ventura and Sequoia.

[Abhishek Rao]

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

[leo.r]

We're currently testing the files provided by the community

By @Abhishek Rao

To reproduce the crashes I'm experiencing, you can simply create a new book that contains a single empty newly created InDesign file. Exporing to Interactive PDF will still crash.

[ingridc95498361]

Hello

I'm experimenting the same issue with 2025 and it is the version not any problems with the settings. It is crashing right after exporting to interactive PDF (though it does create the PDF currectly, in my case I don't have interactive elements, I just need to save at a lower resolution). 

It is exporting to high res (print) PDF just fine (no crash).

IMPORTANT: with both versions, no matter what I do, it is not defaulting to the folder where the .indb file is but it is "stuck" defaulting to saving the file to a previous folder (non related with the project). I've created a new Book, saved it and still, while saving the pdf it is not defaulting to the location of the .indb.

I've installed  version 2024 again, converted the indesign files (reverted to this version), and it doesn't have ANY issues whatsoverve, exported interactive PDF, high res and it is defaulting to saving in the same location the .indb is located.

Hope this helps to solve your glitch guys, this is a real pain. Will work on 2024 until this issue is resolved.

[RoséJellié]

I'm in the same boat.

Upgraded to v20.0 (2025) and kept crashing upon exporting book (.indb) w/ 7 documents to interactive PDF. Downgraded to 19.5 (2024) to get my work done. Dealine approaching and can't export books to interactive PDFs. I know better than to update too early — should've waited for bugs to get worked out before v20.0. Can't believe I've done this to myself.

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).

[leo.r]

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.

[James25541434ggaw]

Same here. Although I'm not exporting a book but a new file made in 2025, a single page pdf, crashes every single time. Cannot export any pdfs…

[leo.r]

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.

[James25541434ggaw]

Thank you for the attention to that, I must have missed it reading through the thread. No, I am attempting to export a print pdf, not an interactive. My InDesign auto-updated just last night, 10/30/24 to 2025. Thank you

[Natalia5D09]

I experienced the same issue. I read through the entire thread, and it pertains to my 600-page document. I had no problems exporting it using the 2024 version of InDesign, but now it won't export at all. Instead, it crashes, and upon reopening, one of the files has been duplicated 150 times as "Untitled" files. I have submitted the crash every time. I really hope this gets fixed soon. Our work has been delayed because of this issue. 

[diane_1995]

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.

[mania79]

Hi diane_1995,

to be able to open a file with InDesign 2024 you must first save it in .IDML format.

[diane_1995]

I converted my InDesign 2025 files to .IDML format, uninstalled InDesign 2025, and opened InDesign 2024. When I try to add files to a new book in InDesign 2024, the IDML files aren't shown as readable files in the folder where I created them. Any advice would be appreciated - or a fix to InDesign 2025 so that it will export interactive pdfs without crashing.

[mania79]

Before creating a new book in InDesign 2024, you have to save again your .idml files in .indd format. 

[mania79]

To summarize, try this:
- Open InDesign 2025 and save the .indd files in .idml format
- Open .idml files in InDesign 2024 and save them again in .indd format
- Create the book in InDesign 2024 and add the new .indd files, which should now be visible.

[diane_1995]

Thank you. I finally rebuilt the book in InDesign 2024. A VERY tedious process, but it worked. I definitely won't be updating to InDesign 2025 again.

[mania79]

You're welcome 😉 

And yeah, better to wait until the release of built 20.1 before upgrading. I did the same mistake.

[Laubender]

@mania79 , well, yes. The developers are already working on a fix.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )