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James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
February 8, 2022
Answered

Why do INDD files bloat over time?

  • February 8, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 4419 views

Is there any simple reason that ID files slowly bloat over time, sometimes to absurd sizes? I know most "intelligent" doc formats keep adding app data like undo content, macros, etc., and Word is absolutely terrible at ever cleaning out or removing any of it. Cutting the content to a new file is often the only solution.

 

But I just had an experience with an INDD file that shocked me. Working on a long-time, episodic project (the book in the footer, actually), I started getting frustraing problems with EPUB export. Tried every fix including a wholesale cut and drop into a new doc. No go. So I did a laborious move of content to a new INDD file, which of course meant time rebuilding the TOC and some other details... but bingo. All of the quirky problems went away. Time well spent.

 

Then I compared the files. The new one is about 440k. The older one was a whopping 9.5M! What does ID do to keep adding junk to the basement when a document is edited and maintained over a long period of time?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer TᴀW

The extra stuff is the "undo" information, which is stored with the document (even though it's unusable as soon as the doc is closed).

Doing a "Save As" will clear out this bloat.

It's been like this forever AFAIK.

Ariel

4 replies

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 9, 2022

IDML cleans up the document and rebuilds it, Save As doesn't, it just adds an extra layer of data. So if you want to clean up your file and start with a blank slate and avoid the build up of crud that can cause document corruption, Export your file as an IDML document.

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPressAuthor
    Legend
    February 9, 2022

    I haven't fully explored Bob's information above, but here's my results, from experimenting before I made this post:

    • Original file, with EPUB export issues: 9400k
    • IDML export: 430k
    • IDML save-as: 430k
    • Save-As: 4600k

     

    None of the save-as'es fixed the glitchy issues, so I moved the content to a new file (in sections; a wholesale move didn't fix things), which started out in the ~500k range again.

     

    After a day of fairly minor work, text editing mostly, it's back to 7500k. But without glitches (again) (yet).

     

    Sigh.

    T
    Tana Reiff
    Known Participant
    February 17, 2024

    I was only suggesting the metadata bug was a possible cause—sorry the script didn’t work. The bug has been discussed and is listed in Adobe’s bug history—see January 2019 (version 20.0.2) release on the bug fix page:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/fixed-issues-history.html

     

    I don't believe PS — under Windows, at least — stores historical data for work files separately

    Here‘s an example with 65MB of metadata—look at File Info>Raw Data—if I place this file 5x, the ID doc will bloat to over a Gigabyte:

    https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/7ea0589d-b86a-4fdf-65cb-e9add7cc119a

     

     

     


    I'm two years late to the conversation and not techie enough to even ask for a solution. Just wanted to add to the conversation that I've had a possibly related problem with InDesign files exporting to incredibly bloated PDFs after replacing .jpg images with smaller files. The InDesign files were smaller but the PDFs were 5x larger - from 96mb to over 500mb. I did a Save As every time, sometimes more than one, and it still happened. The PDFs did not increase in size each time. They simply quintupled. I was trying to submit a high-quality PDF to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and followed all their guidelines but KDP came up with error messages on the upload, or the upload succeeded but the file processing failed. The numerous bloated PDFs look fine. I finally went back to the 96mb PDF without all the replaced photos, even tho it would print a lot better if I could replace the photos. If anyone else has experienced this, maybe I could benefit for the next time.

    Dave Creamer of IDEAS
    Community Expert
    Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 9, 2022

    Besides the undo's and metadata, I wonder if some of the bloat is a "fast save" feature. Acrobat used to have this problem; in order to save faster, the software did not rewrite the file during save, but simply recorded the changes. 

     

    An example I used to use in my classes was to have a PDF with 100 pages and deleting 99 of them. A proper save would leave just 1 page--a "fast save" remembers the 100-99 pages even though once can't access the deleted pages. (A proper save would be the equivalent of a save-as.)

    David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 8, 2022

    Hi @James Gifford—NitroPress, There also can be a problem with placed images bringing Photoshop ancestor metadata into the document. If that’s happening the metadata has to be cleared out of the placed files.

     

    Ancestor metadata bloat usually is more extreme than your example—see this thread which includes a metadata clearing script, in it I posted an example of a single page ID doc, with one flattened PSD link, saving at 256MB:

     

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/is-there-a-script-to-clear-indesign-metadata-redundancy-or-the-clipboard-just-like-photoshop/m-p/12638735#M460299

     

     

     

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPressAuthor
    Legend
    February 8, 2022

    I have a few images in this doc (actually just one, placed at several different scalings) (plus a few small logo files) but it's not large and it's not heavy on metadata. The same image is in the newly rebuilt file as well.

     

    I just don't think I've ever seen a doc file do a ~20X bloat, not even the most corrupt, circulated Word doc. 🙂

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 8, 2022

    but it's not large and it's not heavy on metadata

     

    The bloated metadata is ancestor metadata coming from Photoshop and isn’t always obvious in the InDesign file. The problem you are experiencing might not be related, but there are a number threads in the Photoshop forum on the ancestor problem.

     

    This 8-bit blank 1920 x1080 pixel canvas weighs 65MB—the problem metadata is buried in the Raw Data:

     

     

    When this file gets placed, the Raw Data can replicate itself in the ID file:

     

     

     

     

     

    After running the ID script:

     

    TᴀW
    TᴀWCorrect answer
    Legend
    February 8, 2022

    The extra stuff is the "undo" information, which is stored with the document (even though it's unusable as soon as the doc is closed).

    Doing a "Save As" will clear out this bloat.

    It's been like this forever AFAIK.

    Ariel

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPressAuthor
      Legend
      February 8, 2022

      I figured undo was a big part of it. However, I 'Save As' at regular intervals to archive development versions, and in trying to debug the glitches I also did an IDML export/open. I'm not sure if any of those fixed the file size but none fixed the weird glitches.

       

      I'll keep an eye on Save As results next time.

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