"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

[BobLevine]

Bookmarks in a TOC will function in a print PDF. Be sure to enable it on export.

[cloud1950]

thanks Bob! even if you split it and put it together, will it still work?

[BobLevine]

Not likely, no.

[cloud1950]

Darn it. I tried exporting the pdf in segments to see where the issue is. The file is 1442 pages and there were errors exporting from pages 200-500 and pages 1200-1300. Do you know a way to pinpoint the problem? I don't see any noticeable errors in the file, but maybe I will try to look at the links found on those pages..

[BobLevine]

Divide and conquer. Just keep splitting it in half until you find the problem.

[cloud1950]

I did find where there is a problem, but where are the errors listed or shown in InDesign I guess is what I am asking.

When I preflight, everything checks out OK. I think that is what is confusing me.

[Laubender]

Hi cloud1950 ,

what do you suspect that the problem is?
A placed graphic perhaps?

Regards,
Uwe

[cloud1950]

HiLaubender​

yes, I think it is the .pdf that was placed on those pages. The only thing I have on those pages are headers and footers from the master pages and I don't think that is the issue since it is used throughout.

I am opening the .pdfs in Acrobat, but not sure how to tell if there is an issue with them. One .pdf I scanned in and it is roughly 65 pages long. Just having trouble pin-pointing the issue with the placed files (pdfs). I wonder what it is.

Thanks for your concern.

[Paolo T]

I have the same problem with an older version of InDesign. I’ve been using it on a Mac mini 2012 with 16 GB of RAM up until now, and everything worked fine. Now, I’ve migrated to a Mac Pro 2013 with 64 GB of RAM. The operating system is the same (High Sierra, Security Update 2020-04).

Yet, with more memory and a more powerful computer, I've a big book that I can no longer export as a PDF in the new Mac. I've tried with another Mac (with the same OS and fonts installed), by accessing the book from remote, and it worked fine.

I've restarted the Mac Pro in safe mode, and it worked fine (despite lacking the necessary fonts). I've cleaned the fonts, repaired permissions, deleted ID's preferences with Cmd-Opt-Ctl-Shift and manually, removed ID's temp font lists, and there is no way to make this big book be exported. Smaller books and documents are fine.

I'm following this thread, but I see that there is not yet a solution. Saving separate sections of the book is not working, because the PDF bookmarks are broken (not so the ToC ones shown in page, oddly).

Paolo

[Paolo T]

Solved!

It was for sure something in the fonts. I let Font Book deactivate all the extra fonts. Then I added the reliable ones. I left out the most dated, or the one from obscure developers.

At the moment, everything works fine. I'll add any other fonts, one at a time, and check what they do to the system.

So, InDesign CS6 is continuing to work fine on my High Sierra systems. Fonts are always the second thing to see, after the preferences. Or maybe the first one.

Paolo