Publisher shuts down when book exports

[n.k.0508]

Hi there! 

I'm having certain issues while trying to export a portfolio from Publisher 2 (current version 2.4.2). I created a book out of 4 chapters which all contain some tiffs, pngs and a lot of pdfs. All sources are linked up. I'm a quite short on knowledge when it comes to all the processes around the export and creating of pdfs, so i am seeking for help. 

Everytime i start the export it will go on for roughly a min or so but then the program shuts down. There is no crash report or anything else. Apparently the lock.data is still active so i am a confused. I've added a screenshot of my export settings. If anyone has an idea or similar issue, i'd love to hear about anything that could help. 

Edited April 16 by n.k.0508

[Hangman]

Hi @n.k.0508 and welcome to the forums,

The first setting to change would be the Rasterise Nothing setting since you have tiff and png files in your document which will be rasterised. Also check a little further down, just above the Passwords section to see whether 'Tagged PDF' is checked and if it is, uncheck it and see whether that allows your file to be exported without Publisher shutting down.

You can manually delete the Lock file once Publisher has shut down...

If that doesn't work can you Save your document using Save as Package... zip up all the files and folders and upload the .zip file so we can take a look at what might be causing the problem.

Let us know how you get on...

[n.k.0508]

HI @Hangman, 

Thanks for the answer! I've tried as you said, but sadly it didn't change anything. So i have attached the .zip folder.

If there's anything missing, let me know!

Portfolio_04_2024.zip

[Hangman]

Hi @n.k.0508,

Okay, there seem to be a few issues but the good news is I've managed to export your .afbook to a PDF file. Please check the attached file to make sure it looks correct... I noted that some of the Placed PDF files contain low-resolution images so don't reproduce very well, e.g., SWOT Schwächen.pdf and SWOT Stärken.pdf in the chapter FE Neu, Is that intended?

Issues

• You should ideally store all your assets on your internal Hard Drive rather than a Cloud Drive such as OneDrive. This avoids potential synching issues when both working with and exporting the document. Having said that, I don't believe this is the cause of Publisher hanging on export in this particular case...
   
• With the assets you provided several files in the .zip are incorrectly named once unzipped, I suspect this is again down to the files being stored on OneDrive... Note the Umlaut and the Eszett in the file names are misinterpreted. You may not see this at your end as this may be a direct result of saving the files from OneDrive... I corrected the filenames and relinked the files.

SWOT Schw„chen.pdf
SWOT St„rken.pdf
šbersicht Grundrisstypologie H”fe.jpg
Bauko š4 EF Endabgabe-II S�dost.pdf
Bauko š4 EF Endabgabe-Fassadenschnitt.pdf
Bauko š4 EF Endabgabe-II Grundriss.pdf
Schnitt 2_Geb„ude.jpg
Perspektive B�ro.png
IP_34_REN_auáen.tiff

• I've not tested in any great depth so far but it appears that the cause of the crash when exporting is down to the placed PDF files on Pages 5 and 6 of the 'IP Neu' chapter being set to Interpet rather than Passthrough. Coincidentally owing to missing fonts in the placed PDF files I had already changed all Placed PDF files in the other chapters to Passthrough so I would need to go through and check whether this is causing issues in general and if so report this as a potential bug.
  
  Once the placed PDF files on Pages 5 and 6 of the 'IP Neu' chapter are set to Passthrough (and quite possibly the other PDFs across all chapters) your file exports correctly.
   
• I also experienced a slightly odd issue which I've not seen before where initially the 'FE Neu' chapter didn't open when opening the .afbook and when I attempted to add it manually I received an error telling me it was a 'Duplicate chapter' even though it didn't appear in the list of open chapters and I'd deleted the Lock file for the chapter after a previous crash.

 

I've attached an updated version of your .afbook file along with the updated .afpub Chapters so I'd be interested to know if you can now open and export the file without Publisher crashing. I've also attached the exported PDF.

I hope this helps...

Affinity Publisher Files

Portfolio.zip

 

Exported PDF File

Portfolio.pdf

[n.k.0508]

Hello again @Hangman,

First of all thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate this. Yeah, I was familiar with potential problems concerning the hard drive or cloud and already took care of that (or at least I thought so, I'm gonna go through that once again). 

I will run the export once again on my device, but I think the problem on page 5 to 6 in the "IP Neu" Chapter are the pdfs, that contain other pngs which were used for some depth in the design. Since i dont have them on my device it may cause problems in the export once set on Interpret. 

Again thank you for your help and I will give you an update as soon as possible. 

[n.k.0508]

Update: The export finally worked! Like you said before, after changing the pdfs on pages 5 and 6 to Passthrough the export went through. I kept the rest of the pdfs on Interpret, so apparently these were causing the issues. Thank you very much!

[Hangman]

That's no problem at all and it's great to hear that everything is working with your file again and you can now export it without issue...

Thanks for confirming that only the PDFs on pages 5 and 6 are causing the issue, that's helpful to know, you've saved me from needing to test further...

[stokerg]

Hi @n.k.0508,

While I don't get a crash, exporting your afbook file does cause my Publisher to just hang.  I can cancel the Export but after that, the rest of the interface just doesn't respond to my clicks.

I'll get this written up and logged with the Developers  

 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @stokerg,

This is the crash report generated when exporting the file in case it helps to identify the cause...

Affinity Publisher 2 Affinity Store-2024-04-17-120149.ips

[n.k.0508]

Hi @stokerg,

Yes, I experienced this aswell while exporting. Somehow this diverted into the crash problem described above. A few months ago i had comparable issues in a different project, but they just disappeared after trying again the next day. 

I appreciate the help 🤲