The "Cannot Place File. Invalid PNG file" bug is BACK in the LATEST RELEASE OF INDESIGN 17.0!!!!!

Report · Oct 28, 2021

Please can someone get back to me so that I can understand why this is happening when exporting to PDF in the latest version of InDesign 17.0! I reverted to the previous version changed nothing in the InDesign file and it all worked and exported fine?

Report · Oct 28, 2021

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this trouble. I checked on my machine, there are no issues exporting PDFs with PNG files in it. I would request if you could share a few more details to investigate this issue:

Operating System
Is the issue related to a specific document?
Where you are saving the exported files (Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System/ External HDD)?

We're here to help!

Regards,

Srishti

Report · Nov 01, 2021

Hi Srishti,

Thanks for getting back to me, I think the issue seems to be isolated to one particular InDesign Document as I had to export a number of different documents at the time, and only one of five failed.

I can't seem to resolve it though, still getting the same message even after resaving all of the images in Photoshop and updating the linked image files in the InDesign document?

I am currently running Windows 10 Pro and I was saving the PDF exports to a folder on our company One Drive?

Many thanks for your assitance.

Kind regards,

Andy

Report · Jul 11, 2022

Having the same issue.

OS - Windows 10 Pro

InDesign Version that works without issue 16.4.2 x64

InDesign Version that throws "Cannot place this file. Invalid PNG file." error is 17.3 x64

Seems the issue (bug) was introduced when moving to version 17 - is there a fix?

At this time I continue to use the older more stable 16.4.2 x64 but would like to take advantage of new features and other bug fixed.

Report · Nov 18, 2021

We are experiencing similar issue with invalid PNG file error when trying to print or export to PDF.

Were you able to resolve this? How did you identify which PNG file(s) was/were invalid?

We have not had issues printing to or exporting to PDF in the past. Is it a bug with the latest version (17.1) of Creative Cloud?

Thanks for any feedback or insight you might have.

Report · Nov 18, 2021

Hi together,

could you attach one sample PNG file that once worked, but does not export to PDF in InDesign 2022 version 17.0 ?

I'd like to test this on my Windows machine where I have all the latest versions of InDesign installed.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi all,

I still have this same issue in InDesign 2022, ver 17.3. (Mac OS, ver 12.4).

Every time I open the document with hundreds of PNG's files I get this annoying message. I saved again most of those PNG files with Photoshop 2022, ver 23.4.1, and this message appears again and again.

Kind regards,

Yair

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Yair,

share one PNG file that does not behave and we can see into the issue.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Uwe,

Thanks for your quick response.

As mentioned before the attached PNG is just one of hundreds picts.

Thanks,

Yair

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Yair,

I'm on Windows 10 with InDesign 2022 version 17.3.0.61.

Saved your PNG to my harddisk, placed it to several sizes in InDesign, saved the document, re-opened the document, exported to PDF/X-4 without downsampling images and doing no color conversion.

I had no issue at all.

Nor error message, no bad behavior.

Download my test files from my Dropbox account:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5n9haqh1h5welu/220623-1-IssueWithPNG-UweLaubender-NO-ISSUE.zip?dl=1

Could that be a bug with the MacOS version of InDesign?

Do you get an error message when you open my InDesign document?

How did you place your PNGs? There are several options. I did it like that:

[x] Use Transparency

(x) White Background

That's the default for this option. From my German InDesign:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Uwe,

Thank you very much for your detailed response.

I’m using Mac platform and this issue I mentioned, occur only on one particular InDesign file containing about 200 pages.

It's an 6-7 year old file I work with daily and It occurred much often since I upgraded my OS to Monterey.

Unfortunately I thing I have to rebuild this to a new file and place all PNG’s from beginning.

Thank you again for your kind help.

Best regards

Yair

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Yair,

before you rebuild your document from scratch, try the following:

Export that InDesign document to IDML, open the IDML file as document in InDesign and save it to a new name. Perhaps this will help…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Uwe,

Thanks again. I'll try this advice also.

I'll let you know if it helped.

Kind regards,

Yair

Report · Jun 23, 2022

You should also try placing that .png into a brand new file to see if it's image related or .indd related. It might be something in the file path to the image -- odd character, etc.

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your kind advice.

I'll try it also.

Kind regards,

Yair

Report · Jun 23, 2022

See this thread on Monterey’s security settings:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-won-t-recognize-png-files-can-t-quot-pl...

Report · Jun 23, 2022

Hi Rob,

Thank you.

I'm quite sure I read it before I upgraded to Monterey. I was quite worried about this issue but hoped for some solutions in the latest releases. I'll absolutely read this again.

Kind regatds,

Yair

Report · Jun 26, 2022

Hi Rob,

Thank you very much for the absolutely important reminder: to read carefully before and after upgrading!…

This is a simplest process to do and everything behaves normal like before.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-won-t-recognize-png-files-can-t-quot-pl...

This advice saved me lots of waste time.

Thanks again and well done,

Yair

Report · Jul 12, 2022

Is the PNG file saved on DropBox?

Report · Jul 12, 2022

No Willi, the file is saved in the hard drive.

Report · Jul 12, 2022

My PNG problem solved in the moment I made this process I mentioned above. Here again:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-won-t-recognize-png-files-can-t-quot-pl...

Report · Jul 12, 2022

@Weekender said:

"Having the same issue.

OS - Windows 10 Pro

InDesign Version that works without issue 16.4.2 x64

InDesign Version that throws "Cannot place this file. Invalid PNG file." error is 17.3 x64

…"

Hi @Weekender ,

can you please share a PNG file sample that is working with InDesign 2021 and does not with InDesign 2022?

I'd like to test a workaround. I'm also on Windows 10 Pro with InDesign 16.4.2 and 17.3.0.

If you cannot share the file in the forum, write me a personal message.

Just click my user name and use the blue message button.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Report · Jul 12, 2022

Morning Uwe,

Appreciate the assist. I've attached a small sample.

My solution thus far is to keep using the old version.

Thanks for taking a look.

Pat

Report · Jul 12, 2022

Hi Pat,

two of the four PNG files are placeable with InDesign 17.3.0.61 on Windows 10.

The ones I could not place are:

1-puzzle-page-answers.png

July Standard Ad.png

And yes, all four PNG images can be placed with InDesign 16.4.2.153 on the same machine.

That's for now…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Report · Jul 12, 2022

Hye Uwe,

All of those files can not be placed on my system in the version 17 :]

Over 50 are not placeable, I sent you just a couple.

Can you see a difference in any of these files? What is your opinion on
"Why" this is happening?

There's a problem as indicated by others and something material changed
with how version 17 works with PNGs from version 16.

If I'm able to post a video I will.

Thanks!

Pat