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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[default8jm8dpa5xnya]

Seit dem neuesten Update stürzt InDesign fast jedes Mal ab, wenn man aus der Buchfunktion heraus alle Dateien als PDF exportieren lässt. Das PDF ist dann aber komischerweise trotzdem fertiggestellt und auch augenscheinlich unbeschädigt.

Hat noch jemand dieses Problem?
Kann man das irgendwie beheben?

[Bill Silbert]

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.

[leo.r]

Are you exporting to Interactive PDF by chance? If so, then it's a known bug in InDesign 2025. There's no issue exporting to the regular (Print) PDF.

Also, what's your operating system version?

[default8jm8dpa5xnya]

Thank you! That's my experience, too.  I didn't know that it's a known bug, so I hope they'll just fix it with the next update then. 

My operating system version is macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, but I just got a notification, that there's a newer version available so I'll update it asap.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to update you all on the issue regarding InDesign crashing when exporting PDFs from a book in InDesign 2025. I'm pleased to inform you that the fix for this issue has been released in InDesign version 20.0.1. 

Please update to this version to resolve the problem. If you continue to experience any difficulties or have further questions, feel free to reach out. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Best,  
Abhishek Rao  

[chiara_7538]

Hi @Abhishek Rao ,

I’ve updated to version 20.0.1, and I’m happy to report that I can now export interactive PDFs without any crashes. Thank you so much for your support—everything is working perfectly now!

Best regards,
Chiara

[saraheJP]

All issues resolved with the latest update and we can export interactive PDFs as expected. Thank you 

[fernando_5528]

Hola, tengo un problema con InDesign 2025 versión 20.0 para Mac.

Al exportar un libro o varios archivos de un libro a pdf interactivo, aunque lo exporta, no lo abre en Acrobat e InDesign se cierra utomaticamente, como lo hace también con libros que en la versión anterior se exprortaban perfectamente parece ser problema de InDesign y no de los archivos.

He hecho la prueba en dos Mac distintos y pasa lo mismo.

Adjunto pantallazo del cierre

Por favor, si alguien sabe algo sobre el tema,le agradeceria que me lo dijera

gracias

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

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.

[fernando_5528]

Muchas gracias, de momento es lo ue voy a hacer, esperrando que se solucione

mil gracias

[Abhishek Rao · Accepted solution]

Hello @fernando_5528,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing the details of your issue. It sounds like you're experiencing an unexpected crash when exporting to interactive PDF in InDesign 2025 (version 20.0).

To help resolve the issue, I recommend updating InDesign to version 20.0.1, as this version includes several bug fixes and improvements. After updating, please test the export again to see if the problem persists.

Let me know how it goes, and if the issue continues, we can explore further troubleshooting steps.

Best,
Abhishek Rao

[Aleksandar Andrejic]

Issue with interactive PDF exporting of a book is resolved with v20.0.1.
I had same issue as others and today after update of the InDesign everything works as expected.

[fernando_5528]

Efectivamente, con la v20.01, que la he actualizado hoy, se ha solucionado el problema

mil gracias

abrazos

[fernando_5528]

Efectivamente, con la v20.0.1, que la he actualizado hoy, se ha solucionado el problema

mil gracias

abrazos