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Peter Spier
Community Expert
Peter SpierCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 19, 2009
Question

Troubleshooting 101: Export to .idml or .inx to clear file corruption

  • November 19, 2009
  • 28 replies
  • 223025 views

Sometimes a particular InDesign file may behave badly (if all your files are doing strange things, see Replace, or "trash" your InDesign preferences ). In such cases the first thing to try is export to .inx if you have CS, CS2 or CS3(InDesign Interchange format) by selecting File > Export… and choosing .inx from the file type dropdown, or if you have CS5 or later export to .idml. The resulting file should then be opened in ID and saved as a NEW .indd file.

Interchange format was set up to allow users to open files in a version of ID one release earlier (minus, of course, new features) than the one in which they were created. It reduces the file to the bare minimum of information needed to recreate the layout, and as a side effect it often strips out minor corruption that will cause strange behavior but is not bad enough to prevent the file from opening. Other things Interchange Format can help with are removal of stubborn unused swatches and references to missing plugins.

The  .idml (InDesign Markup) format was introduced in CS4  and in that version you have your choice (.inx is listed as CS3 interchange) and is the replacement for .inx going forward. My non-scientific intuition says that .idml is slighlty less effective than .inx at solving problems, so I would opt for .inx in CS4 as my first choice, but I also would not dismiss .idml out of hand if I suspect document corruption.

Updated 12/14/2011

Message was edited by: Peter Spier

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    28 replies

    Show previous replies
    C
    chris180
    Participant
    May 4, 2011

    I have several documents that I export to PDF using data merge. All of the documents have been exporting very nicely each and every time I use them with the exception of one. Today when I tried to export it, CS5 crashed. So I cut and pasted and made a new document, thinking that might work, but it still crashed. So I tried exporting the document as a IDML. I opened the IDML file and tried to export it using the data merge to PDF and it still crashed. Any ideas on what else I might try, besides redoing then entire 23 page document?

    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    May 4, 2011

    Chris, please start a new thread for this. Give complete details about OS and version of ID along with a screen capture of the layout and a description of what you've done so far.

    C
    chris180
    Participant
    May 4, 2011

    Thanks. I will do that tomorrow. I have some other projects that I need to work on for work right now. But I did say I was using CS5 and I am using Vista as my OS.

    A
    Anonymous
    April 12, 2011

    Hi! I did this as you mentioned, and the file became much much smaller! So right now I can just continue my work using the new indd file is that right?

    M
    MUJason
    Participant
    April 12, 2011

    Yes.

    BTW: I have had no crashing problems since updating to CS5.

    A
    Anonymous
    April 12, 2011

    okay thank you very much!

    R
    reddvinylene
    Known Participant
    March 5, 2011

    My CS3 file went from 2mb to 1,7mb in CS5. Sweet


    A
    Anonymous
    December 22, 2010

    Hi, I'm not seeing this option in CS5 under File>Export. Am I missing something?

    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    December 22, 2010

    Did you read the update note at the bottom of the topic post? In CS5 .inx has been replaced with .idml.

    A
    Anonymous
    December 23, 2010

    I did not see that - thanks for pointing it out.

    korinsama
    korinsama
    Participating Frequently
    September 1, 2010

    oh dear god, thanks a lot, it fixed all the problems i had with a CS4 book opened in CS5, for an unknown reason the document had locked anchored object that was making CS5 crash everything i was trying to touch the anchor, the idml file fixed the problem, i can now choose to unlock the graphic (this action was grayed out before)

    plus it solved a problem i had with the text box inset option, couldnt change the right and left inset... now i can..

    just sad that it cannot auto-convert itself properly..

    A
    Anonymous
    July 6, 2010

    That worked. Thanks so much. You just saved me an unbelievable amount of work.

    S
    screensalad
    Participant
    April 1, 2010

    Thanks. Worked for me also. CS3 asking for missing CS2 plugins.

    M
    MUJason
    Participant
    December 17, 2009

    This was extremely helpful. I crashed about a dozen times after updating from ID3 to ID4 before discovering this fix. I still don't exactly understand why this worked—I'm dim that way—but it did.

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