Participating Frequently

Answered

InDesign - Export to PDF and Packaging crashes InDesign

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
October 17, 2025
2 replies
864 views

Hi, I am on a Mac Sequioa, using the latest version of Indesign.

When I removed a hyperlink, InDesign crashed, it recovered but now I can't export to pdf or package the project.

Its 90 pages long. I was able to export page 26-27 only. Everything else does not export.

Its a shared file, so my couterpart tried and was able to package if he chose not to save the pdf.

But I need the pdf.

I was able to export an older file, so its definitely this file. What can I do to recover the file to be able to export it and package it?

There is no error when it crashes, just a pdf pop up that says this file cannot be opened. I have it checked to view pdf upon export. I list what I am doing at the time when it crashes. Exportng to pdf or trying to package.

Any help is appreciated!

Import and export

Correct answer Eugene Tyson

@Manan Joshi has given a helpful tip there, but if it's still not working then why not just export the PDF after it's finished packaging?

Package it without selecting the PDF portion while packaging.

Once it's packaged, make the PDF from the packaged folder and save the file in the folder.

E

Eugene Tyson

Correct answer

Community Expert

@Manan Joshi has given a helpful tip there, but if it's still not working then why not just export the PDF after it's finished packaging?

Package it without selecting the PDF portion while packaging.

Once it's packaged, make the PDF from the packaged folder and save the file in the folder.

L

Lindsey2018Author

Participating Frequently

Ok that worked! Thank you. I did need to update the assignements again. But was able to export the entire document to pdf and place in the proper folder for review.

L

Lindsey2018Author

Participating Frequently

You never mentioned InCopy was involved. Typically when you're done with a file being used in an InCopy workflow, you would delete all of the InCopy stories and assignments before packaging and archiving.

We package as a backup to a different location - typically a native desktop in case of crashes vs the shared drive.

Are you saying its better not to package until the the publication goes to print?

It has not created duplicates before, only this time when we got the corrupt file error.

Each time it recovered it created a new incopy file.

We did delete those and reassign the entire publication again for the final review phase.

Which is where I was able to package without the pdf then open the packaged file and save a pdf.

Each time I open the Packaged file now, it gives me the attached error.

I don't want to create duplicate incopy files. That will be confusing for the editors.

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

Try isolating the exact pages that are causing the crash. You could try exporting the document to IDML and then resaving it back, that helps resolve some document corruption. This could also be a font corruption issue or an image issue so check that as well.

-Manan

L

Lindsey2018Author

Participating Frequently

I did save at IDML, then again as INDD. It told me that fonts were missing and were Helvetica Nothing.

Updated each to Helvetica Regular (all were links within the document)

I had to delete all the Incopy duplicate files and reassign.

Now I get an error on one page, but there are no links on that page. No errors in the preflight, no broken links in the links panel or hyperlinks panel.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded