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Answered

"Failed to Export PDF"

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 12, 2018
32 replies
101447 views

Working on a file in InDesign (13.1) and when I try to print it fails, and when I try to export it as a pdf it says "Failed to Export to pdf" with no explanation. I tried turning off downsampling, but that didn't help. Even deleted all of the photos to test doing it that way, but still no luck.

It seems to be a problem with this particular file, not with memory, because when I tested the issue by opening a different, much larger and more complex file, it exported just fine.

Tried packaging it as well, and also got the failed to create pdf error, which seems to make it not package the file, either.

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

Correct answer Derek Cross

Try removing any document corruption by saving it as an IDML document, renaming it and reopening it and exporting as a PDF/X-4.

M

Manevera GmbH

Participant

Hey there! I had this problem as well. For me it occurs after my employee packages the file on mac. I am able to package it on Mac but on Windows it shows the error. I have one workaround and one solution that work for me:
Workaround: Package using mac.
Solution: Replace the image on the page by dragging it onto there again from the links folder. Good luck!

Rishabh_Tiwari

Community Manager

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing the workaround that works for you. Can you confirm if you're experiencing an issue only while packaging the file or while exporting it as well? Please also share the version of InDesign & OS. We'll try our best to assist you.

Thanks

Rishabh

M

Manevera GmbH

Participant

Hiya!

Sorry, I should have clarified - It also happens when exporting the PDF. I usually package the file, it fails, then I try to export the PDF and it tells me in the Background Tasks "Failed to Export the PDF file.Possible cause of failure is present on spread with page number "2"." - it will then continue to list pretty much every single page that has a picture on it, unless I relink everything manually. After I do this, it will remove the corruption and I will no longer run into an issue.

I use Adobe Indesign CC 2024 19.1

My OS is Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19045

Cheers,

Izzy

B

brachab37662650

Participant

I had this same problem and none of these other solutions worked. I ended up exporting all the pages to jpg as an annoying work around but I saw that 1 of the pages with a large image on it didn't export. I resized the image and saved it in a new file format in Photoshop. Must have been a corrupt image. Exporting to pdf worked for me after that.

S

SabrinaRC

Participant

Hi all,
I know this is an old thread but I came across this problem today within two of my files. I tried everything suggested below +more. My problem was as simple as my images were corrupt, I simply deleted them and imported them once more and fixed this problem.

F

Frank Petro

Participant

A helpful tip to identify the problem pages is to export as an interacrtive PDF. the dialog box will tell you page by page what is exporting, and when/if it fails, the page it stops one is where your issue is.

O

Oskar Walin

Participant

It turned out that I had one image in my doc that was a bit weird, had a passcode or something and was coming up grey in my doc. Once I had got rid of that I could export

allergyresearchgroup

Participant

Was having the same issue with a 140-page catalog file. I just turned on the include Hyperlinks option during export and it worked fine. No other setting changes or workarounds needed.

L

Lynder

Participating Frequently

In my particular situation with a file, it had a lot of photos and a lot of text. It was suggest to my printer that I rebuild the document. Before I did that I highlighted everything and found some corrupt files that were buried under the background so I could never see them. As time consuming as it was I did rebuild the file and it cleaned everything up. I did try exporting as an IDML file but wasn't succesful with that process. Wanted to share how I solved this issue.

C

CDZ °__°

Participating Frequently

Hi everyone,

we're currently experiencing the "Failed to export PDF" issue too (we're Mac OS based)

As a team, we're working on testing multiple solutions : IDML saving, Mac OS Security and Privacy parameters checking, testing export on ID CC2019 and CC2020, everything with no luck so far.

One only clue: as we're Mojave-based (10.14), I upgraded to Catalina (10.15) and it seems Mac Os offers an additional "Files and Folders" parameter in Security and Privacy, that doesn't exist in 10.14.

My upgrade allowed me to achieve pending exports, but workmates using older Macs won't be allowed to go 10.15.

It seems Adobe teams marked the issue resolved on InDesign 15.1.2 update, but no luck for now. Any ideas if the case is still open ?

Regards

Gisela Dias

Participant

Hi everyone,

I just experienced the "Failed to export PDF" issue with 3 indd files which I already had used and exported from with no trouble before. My collegue opened and exported the same files easily and he has the same Mac OS, same Adobe version and same computer configuration. It's very odd.

Did you get any results, Paul?

I have tried all kind of solutions metioned and no-mentioned, but still get the same trouble.

L

Lynder

Participating Frequently

I am so grateful that I found this. I have spent the last two days on the phone with Adobe and got nowhere. I followed your instructions and it worked beautifully. Thank you so much. This is definitley a valuable site and will continue to use instead of calling Adobe.

Bohdan Chreptak

Known Participant

The only solution that has worked for me thus far has been to SAVE AS over the original file.

Hasn't failed me yet...

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