InDesign CS5 Packaging Problems

Question

Hi all,
Ok, after a scan of the forum, I saw a few topics that were close to the same problems I am having. Hopefully one of the Adobe techs can shed some light on this for me.
I am running InDesign CS5 7.0.3 on a Mac Pro running 10.5.8, 3ghz Quad Core Intel with 4gb of ram.
My situation:
I go to package a file with no errors in the pre-flight panel. It gets all the way through the fonts section, it gets all the way through the images section and then hangs at the very end of the package process. The progress bar goes no further than this and the only way out is to force-quit InDesign.
NOW, when I re-start InDesign, the recovery takes place and it has opened the file it just packaged (not the one I was originally packaging) and all links and fonts load properly. The file needs to be saved, so I overwrite the file and all seems fine. EXCEPT, when I go to re-open the file (which is now in its packaged folder on my desktop) - it won't open and InDesign hangs.
Fair enough. I move the file (only) outside of the folder on to my desktop - and get THIS! It opens PERFECTLY.
So to recap, it won't open from the folder but it will open from the desktop.
I thought it might be a permissions thing, but I tried giving all users read & write permissions and it still wont open from inside the folder.
The craziest part of all this is that it is only happening to a select few files, while others package without a hitch.
AND these are all files we have packaged before (granted, that was before we upgraded to CS5) but now even the older versions of these files won't package from within CS5.
My temporary work around is to export an IDML file, open that in CS4 and then package from there - which works perfectly.
Did Adobe completely change the packaging process in CS5? I've heard rumors CS5 was re-written from the ground up, so I am assuming something has changed causing problems with some files.
I consider myself a pretty advanced user of Adobe products and I can usually figure out major problems on my own, but this one is really throwing me for a loop.
Any insight and/or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!
- Joe C.

Answer 1

Dear Adobe,
We are using Adobe InDesign CS5: Version: 7.0.4, running on an Intel Apple Macintosh that is using OS X, Version: 10.6.7. This problem has also been exhibited on other Apple Macintoshes here.
We have read all the post and tried changing all the fonts, still resulting most of the time with the same problem.
1. When Packaging the process locks up with the message: Saving the Document… Open Document “Section 04.indd”. InDesign is now non responsive and hung up.
2. InDesign needs to be terminated with “Force Quit”.
3. When InDesign is restarted it is in the recovery mode and (2) windows open of the same file with an asterisk in front of the name, indicating that they need to be saved.
4. Once saved, restarting InDesign either results in a locked (hung-up) state or it will start up OK only to hang-up when packaging again.
Note: I have screen shots of these windows and original files if needed.
This is what I have found out…
1. If I uncheck the box “Copy Fonts (Except CJK)” in the window “Create Package Folder” I have no problems, except I now do not have the collected fonts.
2. If I change all the fonts to a known good font it might fix the problem sometimes.
3. Looking at the embedded fonts in the Illustrations, if I find a missing font and then replace it in Illustrator with a known good font and then save this illustration out as a new file and then re-link to this file the problem will go away.
The problem seems to be sporadic.
I think what is happening is during the packaging process; the fonts that are either collected, or embedded in the illustrations become corrupted by InDesign.
I have lost DAYS! With this problem and am trying to make a living using InDesign. I do not have the time to do all this troubleshooting on an Adobe product.
I find it curious that this is happening on both the Mac and PC platforms and find it even more curious that it seems not to be happening using CS4 InDesign like it is with InDesign CS5 as stated in the other post.