Problems making a PDF from Indesign CS5

[Teddy_Boi_Toronto]

Hi friends. I have recently switched to CS5 and I find that I usually need to close the program and then reopen it before I can make a PDF. It says it is working in the background but all it does is spin without creating the PDF. Anyone else having this problem? 

TED

[jdnorman]

@ Matthew -

I'm in the same boat as Gavin. It's not one particular file, but rather a buildup to not being able to export PDFs after a handful of successes with any number of documents. Transfer the file to another Mac in our studio, and it exports fine. Restart the Mac, the problem file exports fine, but two or three exports later, the same problem crops up on a document that was exporting fine before.

I've called Adobe tech support a number of times on this. It's never been escalated - in fact, I spend the first 10 minutes of my call convincing the support rep that I have a retail product and not a corporate licensed product, which occurs every time I call. Once past that, the rep sees my history, sees that I've been advised to delete the "datastore" folder located here a number of times -

HD / Library / Application Support / Adobe / SING / Mark II / Datastore

Has me do that again and export a PDF, which works, and then is pretty quick to let me go. I know it's a temporary fix, and sure enough, within a few hours, I'm back to where I was: Random files failing to export, causing InDesign to crash. In every case, running a script that forces ID to export a PDF in the foreground works. I've resorted to that now, and avoid the background task. Without that foreground script, I'd honestly be dead in the water. It's not just exporting PDFs, either - it's exporting .idml documents, anything that resorts to a background task.

I understand that this is difficult to diagnose - everyone has different extensions/configurations/whatevers that create a unique situation. I'm running ID 7.0.3 on a MacBook Pro, OS 10.6.6, 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB memory.

Thanks for watching the forums.

[camiczoernie]

Great to know you guys are on it. I agree with Gavin and jdnorman that the

hanging is idiosyncratic and doesn't seem related to a particular file.

Oddly, when I first installed InDesign CS5 in March of 2010, I don't recall

having any problem exporting to pdf. I can't remember exactly when the

problem started, but it wasn't until the end of the summer that I remember

CS5 hanging when I exported a pdf. Currently I'm running ID 7.0. I will

download the latest update to see if that resolves the problem. Thanks.

[claidheamdanns]

I will send you some files tomorrow at work (at home I am still on CS3, which runs like a champ). Hopefully we can nail this down. Do you need any log files, or anything like that, or just a packaged InDesign folder?

[MatthewLaun]

Packaged file, status of Preflight and custom Preflight profile if in use, and PDF export settings used.

Cheers!

matthew

[claidheamdanns]

Will do. But no crashes yet today [crosses fingers].

[Thomas Dearie]

I should note that Matthew was very responsive here in this forum, but I can also confirm your impression that the issue is widespread and seems to be dependent on circumstances rather than on one user or another.

I have contact with numerous students and designers every day and a day doesn't go by that I don't field a question about this issue. Update 7.0.3 does not solve the issue in the cases I'm dealing with. (It's also been on the top of Adobe's "Top Support Issues" for a long time.)

I generally refer them to Bob Levine's suggestion of forcing ripping to the foreground by adding the document to an InDesign book. (Kudos to Bob for thinking of this straightforward workaround.) The method is not ideal for a number of reasons, but it does turn a disaster into a mere nuisance.

I think enough time has passed without a resolution to this that we should have an update that allows users to turn background ripping off.

[jdnorman]

I would definitely agree - the option to simply disable background tasks would seemingly be one way to offer a quick fix here.

[claidheamdanns]

Perhaps then, we (or Adobe) ought to question, why is background ripping not working now, when it was working fine in previous version? Perhaps a comparison review of the program code that handles this is merited?

[Stix_Hart]

claidheamdanns wrote:

Perhaps then, we (or Adobe) ought to question, why is background ripping not working now, when it was working fine in previous version? Perhaps a comparison review of the program code that handles this is merited?

Previous versions did not have background tasks.

[claidheamdanns]

Hmm... I could have sworn you were wrong about that, but I went back to CS4 and tried exporting a PDF, and you are absolutely right -- it does it in the foreground. I stand corrected.

[claidheamdanns]

Okay, Houston, we have a crash file packaged to send, but on site mentioned, you can only post 100MB, and the compressed folder is 100.6MB.

I'll upload it to YouSendIt and PM you a link.

[claidheamdanns]

More information to add to this: the same exact file that I sent you last night had more type changes this morning.

It was the first file of the day opened in InDesign CS5 and it hung on making the PDF.

After crashing out of the program and restarting it, it made the PDF in about 6 seconds.

[claidheamdanns]

Well, it looks like I'm back to locking up on every second document again today.

I've not heard anything at all back since sending in that last test file.

[ChrisH94]

I'm merely adding my lone voice here. New installation of CS5 InDesign (and rest of suite) on new computer (Win7 64 bit). Latest updates in place for Windows and Indesign (7.03). Open and work on CS4 file that is somewhat critical for work, and everything behaves as it should - until pdf export. Makes no difference if I try Adobe-supplied settings or my own tweaks, working from presets: the export hangs at 0 (in the background tasks panel) for a single page output (or any output). I can continue to use Indesign, but not save any changes etc because the file is in use. Every time, no exceptions. Exported as IDML and imported again; no change.

I can report that the script linked a few messages back for forcing a foreground export worked first time - perfect (though a pain to have to save a pdf by this route instead of simply getting on with life and work, and I have lost faith in CS5 over this and will probably revert to CS4 for other jobs, itself a pain given that I'll be working on an old computer). This pdf export really does need a fix - can not Adobe add the ability to turn off all background tasks and thus revert to CS4 behaviour? Perhaps that's simplistic but I'd like to be given choice ...

Summary: pdf export broken; forcing foreground creation solves it while adding another layer of fiddling (for me).

[Peter Spier]

Chris,

Your problem may run deeper than just the PDF export. Opening legacy files directly in CS5 has proved in some cases to be prone to hidden problems which often don't show up until after you've been editing for a while. I recommend exporting all legacy files to .inx from the original versions, then opening that rather than the .indd in CS5 when doing a conversion. This is more reliable than exporting to .idml from CS5 after problems show up.

[ChrisH94]

Thanks Peter

In this case, quite a lot of work has been done on this file since opening it in CS5 (it's a magazine destined for print), so reopening the original CS4 file is no longer an option. I understand your message though - wish I'd have known of this problem before getting to this point. I don't ever buy into 'new' software upgrades when they first appear because of hassles such as this, and naively thought that such a major issue would not still be so prevalent.

Would an export to IDML, open and save in CS4 and export from there as IDML to reimport into CS5 have any benefit? All I can state as certain is that a foreground pdf creation works fine.

Chris

[Peter Spier]

It certainly won't hurt, though I would suggest .inx rather than .idml from CS4. If you've used any new CS5 features, they'll get mangled, though, and check line ediings carefully after a round-trip.

You did say, though, that foreground exporting was working all right, so maybe you shouldn't waste time on this one. Let me ask, though, if you routinely take an old issue and "recycle it into a new one? That's a flawed workflow, too, prone to creeping incremental corruption.

ID is the most stable and eliable layout program I've used, but it isn't perfect, and the more times you save a file the more likely it is that some corruption will creep in. Most of the time this isn't fatal, and you may not even be aware that it's there, until one day, on deadline of course and when you've just finished editing the entire issue, the file suddenly stops working and gives you nasty error messages about being "damaged." We see this here at least once a year.

Far better to make a template with the styles, swatches, and static content, and keep repeating, but not permanent, content in a library or folder of snippets, then open a new file froom the template for each issue and drag in the repeated content. This is probably just as fast as going through and deleting unused content from the previous issue, and insures that every issues starts out as a clean copy of the template.

[ChrisH94]

I tried out the round-trip, reimporting from a .inx, but there was no difference in the end - the pdf creation still hangs in process, though Indesign does not (but won't allow anything to save or further export).

I can't truthfully claim to be 'clean' in never reusing an old file and updating it, but this particular file was recently created from scratch in CS4 but partly worked on before importing into CS5 for completion. It still isn't completed so I'm thankful that I fund this error at this stage, instead of right on deadline. Slapped wrist for not reverting to a template every single time, but it's a separate issue to this one (in that if I can foreground export with no difficulties, then it's something within Indesign that isn't working as it should for background export, as far as I'm concerned).

Thanks for your added info.

Chris

[Peter Spier]

Have you looked at Matthew Laun's posts on the previous page of this thread? If you're up to date (patched to 7.0.3) and follow his instructions for restarting, and the file still fails to export inthe background, he's going to want to see it.

[ChrisH94]

I'll look back at that earlier post asap - thanks for that note ...

I've been experimenting. Don't know how much this might reveal to anyone with more knowledge than me, but here goes with some (to me) odd results; someone might benefit.

Recap: my problem file is one started in CS4 and worked on in CS5. It will export pdf with a foreground script and a saved preset, but not the 'proper' export using saved presets and a background export.

I went back to CS4 and opened the original file. I stripped out all content from every page (guidelines, anything) but did not touch anything on master pages (there are about 12 of these in pairs, with linked graphic content and footer text and tint boxes and so on). I exported that as .inx and brought it into CS5. The background pdf creation worked fine (though I'd much rather have the older foreground where I could watch the export for a few seconds until the pdf automatically opened in Acrobat).

I then opened the CS5 file with page content and began copying/pasting each page into the new file. After every page, which variously contain linked photos, graduated tints and all sorts of elements, I ran the pdf creation and it worked every time. This could just mean that something was missed in the old file for copying over, or my creating layers again or other changes were instrumental in this. BUT:

With the old file still open in CS5, the pdf creation would NOT work. Background tasks stayed at 0 (once only I saw it reach 2%) and I was unable to close the file. The moment I closed that old file (which was saved and merely open in Indesign), the pdf was correctly produced. If I closed that file before creating the pdf, it proceeded immediately.

I also noted the creation of locked files (.idlk) for any file that had failed to produce its pdf in earlier tests, and that I cannot manually delete even with Indesign and Acrobat shut down (says they are in use in System).

[Hamb1e]

I really don't understand how Adobe has got away with releasing such an incredibly bad 'update' of InDesign and Acrobat. While Photoshop, Illustrator and all other programs seem fine, InDesign CS5 drives myself and my team to distraction on regular occasions, mostly for things that used to work fine in CS3 but are now broken or unstable. This needs to be fixed NOW. It's not about the odd machine having 'unusual' configurations, or errors creeping in because a file started out from CS3 or CS4 – stop with the excuses – YOU HAVE SCREWED UP INDESIGN CS5 – admit it and get it damn well fixed. Millions of people have spent thousands of hard earned dollars 'upgrading' to this software - the least they can expect is that it works as well as previous versions at a MINIMUM.

[Peter Spier]

If you had bothered to read the thread, you'd have seen that the only Adobe employee here is Matthew Laun, and he actually HAS BEEN working on fixing this. Most users no longer experience problems exporting to PDF since the 7.0.3 update, but apparently there are still some unidentified problems. The only way to solve those problems is to be able to reproduce them, and the only way the engineers can do that is if they see your files that 100% of the time display the error. or if less often you can identify a set of circumsatnces or steps that will 100% of the time cause a failure.

Have you done anything to help solve the problem, or do you prefer to yell at your fellow users?

[Hamb1e]

Apologies Peter – a foolish rant at a late hour where I am (Bahrain), after experiencing significant difficulties with CS5 again to make a pdf for a job, required to be signed off tomorrow, to go to print on Sunday. I do of course appreciate those like Matthew Laun who take the time to help users. I'm not usually the ranting type – it's just a reflection of how let down I feel with CS5, from a company I have always supported. I have indeed been in touch with someone from WinSoft, who service Adobe out here to try to resolve these issues, but still have regular problems with both InDesign and Acrobat. 30 seconds after I wrote my comment here in fact, InDesign crashed again. But point taken – it's been a long day here, so I'm going home now and will try again in the morning. Have a good evening!

[Peter Spier]

I have to tell you that using the ME version adds a whole additional layer of complexity to the issue. Winsoft writes the code to handle most of the RTL functionality and it copuld also be somewhere in there that your problem lies.

Frequent crashing of any version of ID is not normal, however, and usually does turn out to be system related rather than a bug, but it's possible the work you do runs into whatever triggers a bug on a regular basis.

[goanna2]

I feel I am between a rock and a hard place with CS5. Following Adobe's instructions for a successful install, I wiped all previous versions of CS from my computer and installed CS5. Although I am experiencing more InDesign problems than just with pdfs, the problems are intermittent. I feel critcism of Adobe is valid and the frustration shown by capital letters in a post is understandable. Is any criticism of Adobe seen as a rant?

I have converted too many of my old CS4 files to CS5 to easily revert to CS4 - which would solve my problem. I could offer up one of my files for testing, but the packaged folder weighs in at 1Gb.