InDesign CS3 Error - "Failed to export PDF"

Many users have encountered this mysterious problem with Adobe InDesign when trying to export to a pdf file. Web searching shows that various strategies have helped some people but not others.

Possible solutions are summarised here with links to their sources. You may have to search the linked webpage to find the relevant part, since some pages contain several solutions.

General strategy

The general strategy employed by users seems to be to try exporting a few pages at a time until you locate which page or pages are the source of the problem. Sometimes exporting the document in sections solves the problem, and the resulting PDF files can be stitched together in Acrobat to create the finished product.

Firstly you should try loading a different InDesign file and try exporting it as a PDF. If it exports fine, the problem is with your file - if not, you may have a problem with your computer configuration, installation, permissions, memory, disk space, etc.

Adobe made some suggestions

in their April 2007 TechNote Troubleshoot problems that occur when you export documents to PDF (InDesign CS, 1.0-2.x) with stepwise instructions for many of the remedies.

If you want to check that you're using all the recommended InDesign settings for export,

there's an excellent step-by-step guide called "Configuring applications" with screenshots of all the dialog box settings available free from the pass4press website.

1. Try this first - close and restart indesign

just close and re-open InDesign! - Ben Slater, using CS3, found that a document that "Failed to export PDF" could be exported in smaller sections (50 pages per time), but that when the error reappeared for a particular section all he had to do was to close InDesign, open it again and load the document, and then that section would export successfully. Worth a try...
user 225B400446FB6F0F992015B9 finds the same thing. On the Adobe user to user forums - in creating PDF in CS3 - out of memory / Failed to export he/she says "We experience difficulties creating a PDF from large documents (either many pages and/or many images) OR when creating lots of PDF's straight after one another. After a while, InDesign then says "out of memory" or simply "Failed to export". So I assume InDesign saves its working files somewhere, and that space gets clogged up? Only closing and restarting InDesign works to free up the space."
if that fails, try rebooting. Joe Mallette reports that to be the only way of getting one document to export: "To put it bluntly, I had to reboot my machine after every print in order to get these 4 banners printed to PDF in hi and low res versions. I have no idea why." - 21st Jan 2008
Adobe's TechNote suggests allocating more memory to InDesign if you're using Mac OS9.x. It also suggests closing other applications (including non-essential programs that may be running in the background) to free up computer resources.

2. Simplify a copy of the document - remove unnecessary elements

Adobe's TechNote suggests making a copy of the document and trying the following simplifications to the copy
- remove items on the pasteboard or on hidden layers
- merge all the layers
- reduce the number of fonts
- if you applied transformations to images in InDesign, try instead applying the transformation externally (for example, in Photoshop or Illustrator) and saving the transformed image, then place the transformed image into InDesign
- use Single-line Composer instead of Paragraph Composer or Multi-line Composer
Ryan Ware simplified by copying each page into a new document: "We simply copied and pasted each page into a new indesign document and the links worked. We then exported the pdf and it was smooth sailing." - August 2008
Trinity suggests exporting the file as an InDesign Interchange file (.inx) then reopening it as an InDesign file to iron out any corruptions or quirks in the file. - November 2008
James Becker emailed to say that, "For transported documents, the links to images get munched, inDesign wont report a problem however it can't find the links making the download image feature of the PDF generation fail. By relinking all your images the program can find the links and all is happy again."

3. Grouping / Overlapping / Cropping / Crossing the fold

make sure you haven't grouped images across the fold: ungroup them if you have - Martin McClellan had the error message back in 2005 from InDesign CS and writes, "So, like any good troubleshooter I start tearing the file down bit by bit, and exporting each page individually to see where the problem is. Ah! I found it -- turns out that I had some images stretching across two pages across the fold. Those images were grouped. I ungrouped them, and problem fixed. The file went out the door at 4:15 a.m."
a Text Box going over the spread can cause this error - Val Evans, 2005
a stray image frame hiding behind another caused this error - Wendy Wibbens, 2005
two images overlapping on the same layer - Oliver, 2006
photoshop psd files positioned so that they overlap - Warren Bingham was working with two-page document with four placed Photoshop files. He found that "Whenever any of the psd files overlap, the file won't export and I get an error from InDesign: Failed to Export the PDF file. If they are not overlapping, they export just great." - WB, April 2004
overlapping tiff images, particularly with transparent backgrounds, or even eps files - also rotated images can cause this problem - Cam Allen (Solace Design), April 2004
picture box with a drop shadow close to the gutter of a spread: "moved the picture slightly away from gutter and it solved the problem" - Doug, 2006
PNG file placed in picture box that was too small and cropped it: "all I had to do was pull out the side so the image was exposed and it was fine" - Andrew, 2006
linked Illustrator document which contained small grouped elements and spanned two pages over a fold - Bas, 2007
grouped elements not even spanning across a spread, but on an individual page - Mark, 2007

4. Correcting problems with Image Formats or fonts

convert all images to TIFFs - Mitch Wayne reports that "Adobe Tech Support indicated that all I could do was make images TIFFS" and found that converting to TIFFs worked
convert ALL the placed images to CMYK tifs - "OK after lots of useful suggestions I've solved the problem. Its really simple - I couldn't export the pdf from InDesign because it contained a mixture of RGB and CMYK files (jpgs and tifs), once I converted ALL the placed images with CMYK tifs, then laboriously re-attached them in the links pane, everything was OK." - Bob Cotton, Jan 2008
EMF pics could not be exported: converted them to GIF and it worked fine - Oki Alexander, 2006
EPS files that had been stripped of their color space; the document had been converted from Quark using Markware's plugin: "simply opening them up in Photoshop and resaving seems to have reassigned the color profile, and solved the problem" - Tyler, 2006
don't link to a pdf file - alex38 writes: "A SOLUTION! Indesign will not export as a pdf if there is a link within the document to another pdf. I wanted a vector image so I simply changed my linked pdf image to an eps in photoshop, relinked it and bingo - months of work saved." - 13 May 2008
re-save problem image from PhotoShop: "Try and export again, and WATCH what page it farts out at .... THAT'S the page you more than likely need to check ... take the graphic(s) on that/those pages back into Photoshop (or your image editing app of choice) and resave it - perhaps as another format. Every single time I've gotten those error messages, it's what worked for me." - cmp, 2007
Adobe's TechNote suggests replacing images you've transformed in InDesign (eg scaled, rotated, sheared, etc) with images transformed externally (for example, in Photoshop or Illustrator)
re-link all images manually - "Jane, The Menu Maker" says, "I clicked on each link, and did a relink; I found one that was unable to relink manually. When I relinked it correctly, I was able to create the PDF file, and print." - 26 March 2008
corrupt tiff files - Alex Elko found the problem was a corrupt/damaged tiff file - 25 April 2008
corrupt EPS file - Michael Garmahis exported his document page by page until he found the source of the problem - a corrupted EPS file. When he replaced it the problem was fixed - 30 April 2008
problem fonts - Trinity found that pages of her document with no text would export fine, and identified the problem as one of the fonts she was using, by a process of elimination. She copied a page that had a lot of fonts into a new document, then went through the fonts in turn, removing all occurrences of the font, until she identified the problem font. She even found that if a problem font occurs in a master page that is not actually used in your document, it can still cause InDesign to crash out of exporting. She says, "Once you found the font that's causing you problems, convert it to outlines and make the PDF. InDesign shouldn't crash anymore." - November 2008

5. Changing InDesign Options

turn off the option "Optimize for Fast Web View" - Laura Hickle had the problem after upgrading from CS2 to CS3 but this option solved it for her
switch export compatability from adobe 5 to adobe 6: now it's perfect every time - Sara, 2006
I solved the problem by packaging the project - Clint, 2007
Adobe's TechNote suggests recreating the InDesign preference files, which restores all settings to their defaults. Apparently, corrupt preference files can produce unexpected behaviour when exporting to PDF. The technote gives step-by-step instructions how to recreate these files.

6. Computer Permissions and configuration

published to a different internal drive and read/write permissions on new drive weren't set correctly: "changing permissions on the images in the Finder fixed it completely" - Dave Heinzel, 2007
try saving the pdf to the desktop instead - "I tried printing to pdf, I tried opening it in Acrobat and converting... Nothing worked! Then someone suggested that the folder was locked or something. I checked it, it was not locked! But when I tried to export to the desktop, it worked fine! I have not encountered the problem again. I am sorry if my solution won't help fix yours, but maybe try saving to the desktop like I did, if you haven't already." - Allison D Smith, Jan 2008
a problem can occur with Mac OS9.x with extra extensions and control panels. Adobe's TechNote suggests restarting the computer with only the Mac OS base extensions and control panels, and explains how to do it.
"create a new administrator user on your computer and have a try from there. it might work; for me it did!" - writes compiob, March 2008

7. Software Bugs

update your software. TeeJay says "You might want to upgrade to Indesign 5.0.1 if you have not already done so. The 5.0.0 version, which is the one on the DVD, there are several known bugs when it comes to exporting PDFs. I have experienced several errors also after exporting to PDF, or at least the guy down at the printing office did." - Jan 2008