InDesign won't save to pdf

[pamn34206088]

My Indesign document won't export to pdf. I've tried several times and each time Indesign closed itself before the pdf was ready. I turned restarted the computer and Indesign asked me if I wanted to recover the document (which I had saved in Onedrive). I recovered the document, saved it under another name and tried again, but still no good. This time however Indesign didn't shut itself down. What on earth is happening? This has never occurred before and I've been using it successfully for several years.

[boots_n_patches · Accepted solution]

the following might help others who wish to assist you:

1. state the exact version of indesign
2. state your operating system and the exact version of it
3. when did you last successfully export-to-pdf?  have there been any os-updates or program-updates since that  time?
4. the last time you successfully exported to pdf … was the *.indd file located on ms-onedrive or locally (on your physical computer)?
5. did you try saving the *.indd  file as an *.idml file … and then exporting to *.pdf file?
6. there's alternative offsite storage systems online … have you tried any others?

additionally … have  you  cleared  your  *.indd  program  preferences?  others  on  this  forum  may  suggest  performing  this  step.

let's  continue …

try creating new *.indd file, single page, and one small text element … use the following parameters:

• disable facing page … disable master-text-frame
• 8.5" x 11"
• margins and bleeds set at 0.0"

highlight your text with mouse-cursor:

• choose "arial-regular" for font (18pt) … make sure text-frame is slightly larger than your word "hello"
• choose 100% black color only
• choose "none" for character styles … and "basic paragraph" for paragraph styles

save this new *.indd file to local-drive (on your physical computer). export to pdf … successful? close document and quit program … initiate program and open same local document … export to pdf … successful?

now, open local *.indd file and save file to ms-onedrive (off-site storage). export to pdf … successful? close document and quit program … initiate program and open same ms-onedrive document … export to pdf … successful?

if successful, try adding more elements that will adequately fit on the single page … save *.indd file to ms-onedrive … export to pdf … successful? if successful, add second page and try same routine … successful?  now,  include  a text-thread  from  the  first  page  to  the  second  page.  yep … by  now,  you  know  the  routine.

if successful in above scenarios … it's time to open your official document. the file is located locally … open the *.indd file and delete all pages, except the first page … delete all text elements from that first page … save *.indd file locally using filename "test01.indd" … export to pdf … successful? close document and quit program … initiate program and open same local document … export to pdf … successful?

now, open local "test01.indd" file and save to ms-onedrive (off-site storage) … export to pdf … successful? close document and quit program … initiate program and open same off-site document … export to pdf … successful?

best  practices:

1.) personally … i'd  always  work  locally … copying  file  to  ms-onedrive only  when  imperative.  if  your  environment  mandates  you  store  files  offsite … copy  the  file  locally  and  export  to  ms-onedrive at  end  of  file-work  or  shift-end.

2.) personally … i'd  work  only  with  commercial  open-type  fonts.  google-fonts are fun … but pose inherent risks in using them (security risk … unstable … etc.).  yes … fonts  can  be  a  vector  for  exploits  'n  attacks.

3.) understand  your  images … only  large  enough  to  fit  at  100%  dimensionally … *.tif  or  *.png  format … cmyk  gamut  if  printing  to  press.

4.) lots  of  things  can  be  done,  and  are  done,  with  indesign … imo,  maybe  some  of  those  cool  features  are  not  robust  enough,  or  particularly  suitable,  for  ms-onedrive  activities?

well … that's  about  all  i  got … peace  out.

[pamn34206088]

So sorry I didn't get back to you. Thanks for all the information. I am the somewhat amateur editor of a church magazine and really a bit out of my depth with all the technical stuff! However, I've been using InDesign for about 4 years,having taught myself with a bit of help from a graphic designer who used to produce the publication for us, and I had absolutely no problems exporting to pdf in the past. I have a number of pages in my publication which don't change each month, so update the same file every time - this may have been the problem? After your post I ended up saving as an Idml file which did work. I'm going to start investigating your various steps in the next week or two. Thanks for your help anyway.