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Known Participant
May 1, 2025
Answered

Reflow 3.0 ePub export TOC (RSC-005) error/bug since last update

  • May 1, 2025
  • 14 replies
  • 5985 views

Hello,

I'm a professional book designer. Since last Friday's update, all eBooks are exporting with the entire TOC generating (RSC-005) errors--every link. I'm exporting 3.0. I reexported an older project which was good and it has same errors. This is a BUG. I had tech support access my computer, and he says it's not and that Adobe doesn't care about 3rd party verification. However, VENDORS do and have rejected the eBook. 

Can anyone help? My business is dead in the water until this is resolved.

Thank you, Christine

 

 

Correct answer HARSHIKA_VERMA

Great. This is a known issue and should be fixed in 20.4 when it's released.


Hi All,

Thank you for your patience. As rightly mentioned by our expert, the fix for this issue is available in the InDesign PreRelease build(v20.4.0.025) and above. Please check if the issue is now resolved.

Go to: Download/Update the latest InDesign PreRelease build in Creative Cloud under the “Prerelease” category(Refer to “Prerelease_CreativeCloud.png” for reference)

Please apply to the InDesign PreRelease in case you don’t have access to the InDesign PreRelease build – https://adobe.ly/43vbhzm

If you still encounter any issues, please drop a mail to sharewithID@adobe.com

Note: I am also merging this post with the main post for better tracking of all the impacted customers.


Thanks,

Harshika

14 replies

New Participant
June 20, 2025

Simply open the file in ID 2024 and export using that program. It 100% worked for me.

New Participant
June 20, 2025

(RSC-005): /OEBPS/ebook_REFLOW-1.xhtml: Error while parsing file: element "a" missing required attribute "href"

 

I've exported from Indesign. 

Inspiring
June 17, 2025

Hi all, when i make a toc in Indesign and use text anchors when creating it, my epub checker reports multiple errors. If i remove the text anchors all is fine.

 

Why does this happen?

 

these are some errors 

 

ERROR (RSC-005) at "9789403137193test.epub/OEBPS/9789403137193test-5.xhtml" (line 10, col 83):
Foutmelding bij het verwerken van bestand: element "a" missing required attribute "href"

ERROR (RSC-005) at "9789403137193test.epub/OEBPS/9789403137193test-6.xhtml" (line 10, col 89):
Foutmelding bij het verwerken van bestand: element "a" missing required attribute "href"

New Participant
June 9, 2025

I found a work around. I opened my file in ID 2024 and exported it there. Worked fine. I hope this fix happens soon in the 2025 version.

New Participant
June 4, 2025

What can I do to fix this error in my InDesign epub? It says “error while parsing file:element "a" missing required attribute "href" - error -  RSC-005. How do I fix this directly in my InDesign document?

BobLevine
Community Expert
June 4, 2025
quote

 It says “error while parsing file:element "a" missing required attribute "href" - error -  RSC-005. How do I fix this directly in my InDesign document?


By @Maude_Motovilov1371

 

Where are you seeing this error? There are some known bugs with InDesign 20.3.1. Roll it back to 20.0.1 and try that.

New Participant
June 4, 2025

The error came when checking my EPUB in Pagina EPUB checker.

New Participant
June 3, 2025

What can I do to fix this error in my InDesign epub? It says “error while parsing file:element "a" missing required attribute "href" - error -  RSC-005. How do I fix this directly in my InDesign document?

kglad
Community Expert
June 3, 2025

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.



<"moved from using the community">
jane-e
Community Expert
June 17, 2025

@Maude_Motovilov1371 

 

Your post was moved to the dead Adobe Digital Editions forum, while your question is about InDesign and ePub. I've moved it again to the InDesign forum where you are more likely to get help with your issue.

 

Jane

 

New Participant
May 22, 2025

The problem seems to be the inclusion of a ' target="_blank"' statement in the local link URL.

 

Removing all instances of the targeting statement from your id-only URLs (e.g. using Sigil or other html editor on the ePub contents) eliminates the problem with validation. Hoping this note saves folks the headaches and uncertainty of installing a pre-release program or rolling back versions. 

New Participant
June 16, 2025

This worked amazing for me, thank you so much!

Inspiring
May 15, 2025

I build my e-books in InDesign from a blank mobile file.

I use the content recovery tool to copy text, images, etc., from my "paper" book to my e-book.

I've always done this, and I've never had a problem.

Today, Epub Checker is giving me a lot of errors (screenshot attached).

So yes, I can take each HTML file and clean it up, but I'd like to understand where the error is coming from?

Can anyone help me, and do you have a faster solution than mine for cleaning up my HTML files?

Thank you very much.
Have a nice day.
Anne (France)

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
May 16, 2025

Bonjour Anne,

Many are noticing this problem. The bug seems to be in the 20.3.1 version of InDesign. 

Either go back to an earlier version, or update to 20.4. The 20.4 version promises a fix for this code problem.

20.4 is not avaiilable to me here in Florida (yet), so I cannot promise that this is fixed with that patch version.

Mike Witherell
Inspiring
May 16, 2025

Merci beaucoup.
En effet, avec la version précédent mon epub fonctionne très bien, je ne pense jamais à essayer avec une autre version.
Je n'ai pas non plus la 20.4 en France.
Belle journée
Anne

Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 13, 2025

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks so much for all the details and for sharing the screen captures.

I reached out to the product team, and they've confirmed that the issue with the TOC generating RSC-005 errors has been addressed. The fix is included in our latest pre-release build 20.4.0.25, which has just gone live.

If you're already part of the pre-release program, please try installing the latest pre-release build and let us know if it resolves the issue on your end. If you're not yet enrolled, you can join the pre-release program by following the steps in this guide:
How to join Creative Cloud Prerelease Programs
Or directly here: Invitation to InDesign Prerelease

Once you've had a chance to test it, please let us know how it goes.

 

Looking forward to your update!

Abhishek

New Participant
May 3, 2025

Hi,

 

Before I installed the latest version of Indesign, I was not getting any errors in epub.
After installing the latest version, it started giving footnote errors.
I did not make any changes to my workflow.
I am using the same styles.

I tried the same file with indesign 2023 and 2024. It did not cause any problems.

When I export ePub, pagina checker gives the following warning.

 

ERROR (RSC-005) at: "SiyeriNebi5.epub/OEBPS/SiyeriNebi-45.xhtml" (satır 91, kolon 650):
Error while parsing file: attribute "target" not allowed here; expected attribute "about", "accesskey", "aria-activedescendant", "aria-atomic", "aria-autocomplete", "aria-busy", "aria-checked", "aria-colcount", "aria-colindex", "aria-colspan", "aria-controls", "aria-current", "aria-describedby", "aria-description", "aria-details", "aria-disabled", "aria-errormessage", "aria-expanded", "aria-flowto", "aria-haspopup", "aria-hidden", "aria-invalid", "aria-keyshortcuts", "aria-label", "aria-labelledby", "aria-level", "aria-live", "aria-modal", "aria-multiline", "aria-multiselectable", "aria-orientation", "aria-owns", "aria-posinset", "aria-pressed", "aria-readonly", "aria-relevant", "aria-required", "aria-roledescription", "aria-rowcount", "aria-rowindex", "aria-rowspan", "aria-selected", "aria-setsize", "aria-sort", "aria-valuemax", "aria-valuemin", "aria-valuenow", "aria-valuetext", "autocapitalize", "autofocus", "class", "content", "contenteditable", "datatype", "dir", "draggable", "enterkeyhint", "epub:type", "hidden", "id", "inert", "inlist", "inputmode", "is", "itemid", "itemprop", "itemref", "itemscope", "itemtype", "lang", "nonce", "ns:alphabet", "ns:ph", "onauxclick", "onbeforeinput", "onbeforematch", "onblur", "oncancel", "oncanplay", "oncanplaythrough", "onchange", "onclick", "onclose", "oncontextlost", "oncontextmenu", "oncontextrestored", "oncopy", "oncuechange", "oncut", "ondblclick", "ondrag", "ondragend", "ondragenter", "ondragleave", "ondragover", "ondragstart", "ondrop", "ondurationchange", "onemptied", "onended", "onerror", "onfocus", "onformdata", "ongotpointercapture", "oninput", "oninvalid", "onkeydown", "onkeypress", "onkeyup", "onload", "onloadeddata", "onloadedmetadata", "onloadstart", "onlostpointercapture", "onmousedown", "onmouseenter", "onmouseleave", "onmousemove", "onmouseout", "onmouseover", "onmouseup", "onpaste", "onpause", "onplay", "onplaying", "onpointercancel", "onpointerdown", "onpointerenter", "onpointerleave", "onpointermove", "onpointerout", "onpointerover", "onpointerrawupdate", "onpointerup", "onprogress", "onratechange", "onreset", "onresize", "onscroll", "onscrollend", "onsecuritypolicyviolation", "onseeked", "onseeking", "onselect", "onslotchange", "onstalled", "onsubmit", "onsuspend", "ontimeupdate", "ontoggle", "onvolumechange", "onwaiting", "onwheel", "prefix", "property", "rel", "resource", "rev", "role", "slot", "spellcheck", "style", "tabindex", "title", "translate", "typeof", "vocab", "xml:base", "xml:lang" or "xml:space" (with xmlns:ns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/synthesis")

Community Expert
May 4, 2025

Looks like target is not allowed in Epub 3

<a href="chapter2.xhtml" target="_blank">Next Chapter</a>

 

Try this

<a href="chapter2.xhtml">Next Chapter</a>

 

or this

<a href="http://example.com" rel="external">External Link</a>

 

or this

<a href="http://example.com" epub:type="external">External Link</a>