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Sometimes when I export an InDesign file to pdf, it will work once, then it will say "Out of Memory" halfway through the export and lock everything up. I am forced to kill both InDesign and Distiller with Task Manager.

I am using "print booklet" with a document preset and a pdf preset.

InDesign CS4 on Windows7 x64, i5 with 16gb RAM and 2gb GPU. I have a RAM meter, but the RAM meter never even reaches 1/4 (lots of RAM).

Like I say, it works once, but locks up the second run. What memory is it out of?

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It could be a bug in InDesign. Did you run updates on it? –  Bigbio2002 Jan 14 '13 at 23:36
I have, it's CS4. I don't remember having this problem with CS4 a month ago. –  BGM Jan 14 '13 at 23:41
Maybe it's a plugin or other addin. –  Bigbio2002 Jan 15 '13 at 0:01
You're out of ram. –  Chipperyman Jun 1 at 23:58
I suppose if the RAM meter ever maxed out (did you read my question?) I might think that too. –  BGM Jun 2 at 13:14

2 Answers 2

I believe Indesign CS4 is a 32bit application, so even though your system has lots of RAM, InDesign cannot use more than about 3.5GB. Likely you are seeing a small memory leak that is causing InDesign to use all of the RAM that it can see, and this is causing the Out Of Memory Error.
I know that some portions of Creative Suite install 64 and 32 bit versions (PhotoShop has done this for several versions) But I'm not sure if CS6's InDesign does this or not.

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Yes, it is 32bit. If it were a memory leak, that would explain why the output would work once but not twice. Any clue how to fix it or what is causing the leak? –  BGM Jan 14 '13 at 23:45
I have 16gb of RAM on my computer, and 2gb on my graphics card, and I can see in the RAM monitor that there is plenty left. I don't see how it could get "out of memory". –  BGM Jan 30 '13 at 15:56
This isn’t exactly correct, by the way. With 2/2 memory split, a 32-bit application can use up to 2 GiB of memory. With 3/1 and compatible applications, it’s 3 GiB. With advanced techniques like AWE, this can be increased substantially, though I doubt consumer software would support this. –  Daniel B Oct 16 at 8:28

From the Adobe Indesign Help page:

"InDesign CS5 introduced PDF export as a background task via multi-threading capabilities. Some third-party and InDesign native operations become confused by this new method and result in a hang."

There's good workarounds on their page and this one: http://indesignsecrets.com/a-new-workaround-for-that-pesky-background-export-issue.php

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He is/was using CS4. –  Daniel B Oct 16 at 8:29

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