"Failed to export pdf file" in indesign

[capstick13]

Hi all

I get this message “Failed to export pdf file in indesign” when exporting a 20mb indesign file. It doesn’t seem to like being compressed, manybe taking up to much virtual memory,

Has anyone had similar problems?

Or suggestions?

Thanks

Helen

[capstick13]

cs3 indesign, windows vista!

[Eugene Tyson]

I think there's something wonky on one of your pages that is causing it to crash:

Try the divide and conquer method.

Export the first half to pdf, then the second half.

Then half them again and again, until you find the problem page(s).

If both halves export just fine then just combine them in acrobat again.

But you might want to consider that your file might have a bit of corruption so check out this post:

(as always keep a backup of your file just in case)

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/526991

[capstick13]

Hi

thanks for the message. How do you export the first half and second half and put them together Theres only one page..its a exhibition panel!

thanks

Helen

[macinbytes]

Save a copy, start deleting stuff. get rid of placed files until you find which one is giving you fits. Most of the time it is a placed file. In some small cases you can create some strange things that won't export. I occasionally run into files where text boxes are create from lines, which I can't actually create if I tried.

More than likely it is going to be a placed file and it will likely be vector. A simple save as of them into a different format can cure it. Also see the sticky up top about round tripping should it not be a place file issue.

You could also just delete the top half and bottom half and whittle it down to a particularly ornery spot in your layout.    

[capstick13]

is there any way of checking whether files are corrupt more directly?

cheers

Helen

[Eugene Tyson]

Not that I know of. It's a process of elimination really.

[capstick13]

"Failed to export pdf" when you downsample large images while exporting to pdf (indesign)    - article I found

I found this article really interesting and believe it may be relevant to my problem. take a look....

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/406/kb406643.html

[Eugene Tyson]

It's really hard to know what your issue is.

If you want you can use File>Package on your document and then zip the folder contents and use a file sharing or ftp service to let us download the file and take a look.

It's really hard to know what the issue is without seeing the files.

[Eugene Tyson]

Sorry didn't realise you only had one page.

If you had 100 pages or 20 pages then you could export 50 or 10 pages at a time.

Something wonky with something on your page. Try as suggested above.

[FivePicaPica]

I usually trace it back to a corrupt .eps file or .tif.

If it's a long document you can often see the page where the PDF engine hangs before it crashes.

[Eugene Tyson]

That happened me on a 1,500 page book, it crashed around page 20, and I was searching the first 20 - 30 pages for the answer. Until I divided and conquered the pdf by halving it, and I eventually tracked it down to one of the last pages. That was weird.

[FivePicaPica]

That is weird. I haven't had that happen, but I have had it print the individual pages with no issues in a long document too. It made tracking down the corrupt file pretty difficult. I think I ended up opening evey linked file in PS or IL until an error message popped up.

[JJS SCP · Accepted solution]

Divide and conquer worked for me. I exported only the first half, then the second minus the back matter, and they exported fine. One page in the back then did not. I then fixed a visual problem I saw on the page and that somehow fixed the problem (I resized an image and a text box). I was able to export the page and the whole doc.

[Guest]

Probably completely off the wall, but do you have any background applications that might take ownership of that PDF before it's finished?

I have this situation with an automatic backup programme that, if it starts to back up the PDF before InDesign has finished creating it, effectively locks the file so InDesign can't complete PDF creation.

k

[linda jayne clark]

found the offending placed illustrator file by saving each page individually!! thx!!

[Guest]

I just got the same error and went through separating pages and remo

ving things, and when that didn't work I just tried changing the name of the document and it worked.  Go figure!

[damogran]

Hello All

I had this same situation on, and even bothered to create an account here to report it.

I found a solution after trying to "package" the .indd file.

When packaging the file, it reported about two pictures that were inserted as links to the document. Their type was a PNG-file.

I replaced the linked PNG:s with imported .BMP:s and voila, export to pdf worked fine.

just my 2 cents,

Damogran

[Clarerc]

What I did is to export the whole InDesign file as a JPEG.  By doing this, the pages in the document will save as individual files.  All you then have to do is to convert the files to PDFs and merge all the documents into one PDF file and open it as a PDF. 

This is by far much quicker and simpler than anything else I have tried, especially compared to trying to find the source of the error.

[BobLevine]

First, this is a five year old thread. Secondly, that is an awful "solution" since everything is rasterized.

[Clarerc]

Sorry, I just thought that it might still be a relevant problem, since I myself referred to this forum when faced with the same difficulty.  And I agree with you, it isn't the best action since it rasterizes it but I just thought that it could be a light at the end of the tunnel for anyone who had a huge document and needed to convert their document into a PDF really quickly.

[cb75002518]

Try exporting as an IDML and reopening. The IDML strips out any excess formatting etc. May not work for everyone, but worked just now for me! The new file from the IDML was able to export PDFs with no problem.

[pattyl00]

Not sure if my issue is the same as yours, but I kept getting the "Failed to Export PDF" pop up even with no errors.

Recently talked to a representative at Adobe. I was working on a 300 page book filled with PDF documents. The first issue that came up was missing fonts - InDesign picked up the text from my PDF files (even though it was the completely wrong font) but I had to download them anyways to clear that missing fonts pop up to export.

"Failed to Export PDF" still kept popping up and all the links were linking up. The rep (having full control of my screen) finally figured out that it was the PDF export settings, under Output. It was difficult for me to understand his English, but he mentioned something about the color of the PDF? Anyways - I attached a screenshot of what worked for me. Hope this helps!

[Peter Spier]

If that solved the problem, it was only coincidence. Color conversion should not affect the ability to export, and I certainly wouldn't want to convert work for print to RGB.

[cloud1950]

I receive the same error on my MacBook Pro with InDesign CC 2019.

The INDD file is 1442 pages. There are tons of .pdfs placed in this document.

FYI's:

• I resized all the images so that they fit the size that they are in the frame boxes.
• I didn't adjust too many .pdfs. (reduce size pdf)

I am trying to export the .pdf at 150 resolution and I thought by dropping the resolution from 300 it would export.

This is an interactive .pdf because there is a table of contents and I want the user to be able to navigate through this large document. I don't know if I split the .pdf in half if that would help keep those hyperlinks intact?

On a separate note, I think IND acts weird with the new Mojave.