Indesign (Beta) PDF conversion to Indd not working

[Lucas&]

I have installed the beta version of InDesign to try the feature to convert PDF to InDesign files.
When trying to open any PDF, InDesign won't do anything. 

In my team, one of my coworkers can open a PDF, while the other has a similar problem. It starts to analyze the file, but after that, it closes.

There is any reason why it works for some of us, but not for the rest?

[Mike Witherell]

Did you setup a user id email?

[Jay26079195ii3f]

I suggest you avoid using this feature. Its wonky, unstable and I have had InDesign crash several times losing days worth of work. While Adobe likes to call it Beta, its more like an alpha where it should not even be in the regular release of InDesign. I have given it many tries and have given up completely. Stick to PDF to Word then InDesign or use one of the 3rd party plug-ins that truly work like a charm.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Lucas&,

Thanks for sharing this, and I completely understand how tricky it can be when a new feature doesn't work as expected. Could you please confirm which exact version of the InDesign Beta you're using and also the details of your operating system?

I just tested the PDF to InDesign file conversion feature on my end, and it seems to work fine here. It would help to know if this issue happens with all PDFs or only certain files on your side.

If possible, could you also share a sample test PDF file that you’re unable to convert? That way, I can check it on my end and help move this forward for you.

Looking forward to your update!

Abhishek

[Jay26079195ii3f]

@Abhishek Rao I hate to be the grim reaper here but the PDF files are not difficult that I have used and Canva and other existing 3rd party tools for InDesign convert these fine. The one request is please stop using us customers as test subjects for something that is not even ready for usage. I have sent may files and seriously I need to work and earn a living and satisfy my customers. Not be a test freak for Adobe. I dont need a patronizing response either. The Adobe license is AS IS. which means if somthing goes wrong oops sorry and we customers and users get stuck. So, please pull this feature or just spend some money buying one of the existing solutions. Its probably cheaper than the US$20 billion FIGMA deal that never happened.

[Lucas&]

Hi
The version of InDesign (beta) I'm trying is 20.4, and my operating system is Windows 11. I tried with all kinds of PDFs, created from InDesign, Word, and other software, and nothing happened. I tried to open the files by dragging them, opening from File>Open, and from the open file button. As I mentioned in the original post, my coworkers have also tried, and for one of them, it seems to work perfectly. For the other two, at least it starts the conversion, but after that stops and nothing happens, that's all I know.

Thanks for the response, I hope this information helps

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Lucas&,

Thanks for confirming. Could you share a link for a sample file here after uploading it to a file-sharing service, so I can check it on my end?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

@Lucas& said: "… When trying to open any PDF, InDesign won't do anything. …"

Hi @Lucas& ,

what is your localized version of InDesign (Beta) ?

Currently I'm also testing InDesign (Beta) 2025 v20.4.0.59 and PDF conversion with mixed results.

Tried one PDF with PDF Producer "Microsoft: Print to PDF", PDF Version: 1.7 (Acrobat 8.x), 110 pages, on our server to open. No other document was open at that point.

Result: InDesign tried to convert the PDF and finally crashed.

After restarting InDesign it opened TWO InDesign documents recovered from crash and the conversion process.

One with one part of the PDF. Another one with another part of the PDF. Some parts of the PDF are missing all in all.

And before someone asks:

Sorry, I cannot share the PDF or the resulting InDesign documents of the conversion process.

Well, I repeated the conversion process. This time with the PDF to open from my Desktop.

The conversion process was initialised and started a good part, about 10% to 15% of the conversion process took place, but in the end InDesign (Beta) crashed again. With the exact same results as before.

So I do not think, that Server vs Desktop makes a difference.

Machine details:
MacBook Pro (16", 2021), macOS 12.7.6, 16 GByte RAM, Chip Apple M1 Pro.

About 60 GByte free internal disk space at that time.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )