Publisher V2 - Can't place a large PDF book again after placing it once

[RustyDawn]

I have a 111MB PDF file with 400 pages, which I can Place successfully in a newly created Publisher document's 400 pages one by one.

Issue is when, I want to place it again for some reason, it won't work, I see this Place dialogue forever loading. It's not like all my PC resources are fully uses.

If I try with smaller PDFs in same document, it works. It's just that that same 111MB PDF is not able to be placed.
To troubleshoot, I deleted every content in the problematic Publisher file, just like a fresh document, but with just 1 page. And still it can't import it.

Only solution is, create new document again!

 

[RustyDawn]

And not only this, I found that once the file is broken, it fails to Place anything. Can't even place images. Frustrating. Just reinstalled the app and same result. See GIF.

 

 

 

[RustyDawn]

Here's the problematic file in case you need.

LSM2-II.afpub

[Lee D]

@RustyDawn I'm not having any issues placing large PDF files into your document on my systems. 

Have you tried using Document > Add Pages From File instead of placing? Another possible workflow is to open the large PDF directly in Publisher and then save as .afpub, then try inserting into your other file?

You can also try resetting the app to defaults, just in case.
Hold down the the CTRL key and open the app, when the reset options appear release the key. Leave the default options enabled and click the Clear button.

[RustyDawn]

18 minutes ago, Lee D said:

@RustyDawn I'm not having any issues placing large PDF files into your document on my systems. 

Have you tried using Document > Add Pages From File instead of placing? Another possible workflow is to open the large PDF directly in Publisher and then save as .afpub, then try inserting into your other file?

You can also try resetting the app to defaults, just in case.
Hold down the the CTRL key and open the app, when the reset options appear release the key. Leave the default options enabled and click the Clear button.

The whole idea of placing a PDF instead of opening in Publisher was that I don't have fonts so I want to maintain the layout and design as it is.

I was able to place small documents and images later in that file I had shared here, but again, the core problem remains. I can't place that 111MB file (basically a large PDF file) again into same document once it's placed. The Place dialogue keeps loading. I'm sure it's some bug.
 

[RustyDawn]

Also, does Add Pages feature Places the items of Opens them? When I tried it, Publisher freezes.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Lee D said:

@RustyDawn I'm not having any issues placing large PDF files into your document on my systems. 

I tried placing a 47 MB PDF of the GraphicConverter 11.8 User Manual (https://www.lemkesoft.info/files/manuals_gc11/Manual_GC11_EN.pdf) into the OP's document in APub V2 & got a "Place" progress bar that I let run for 10+ minutes or so & finally had to force quit the app to recover. 

I tried the same thing with the 36 MB concept-master-nature-users-guide.pdf (available at https://www.scribd.com/document/809683823/concept-master-nature-users-guide) & it loaded immediately. I only tried with a few other PDF's in the 10-30 MB range but all of them loaded immediately as well.

[Oufti]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

I tried placing a 47 MB PDF of the GraphicConverter 11.8 User Manual (https://www.lemkesoft.info/files/manuals_gc11/Manual_GC11_EN.pdf) into the OP's document in APub V2 & got a "Place" progress bar that I let run for 10+ minutes or so & finally had to force quit the app to recover. 

I also tried, with a 114 MB PDF file (made with ID6 and some pages containing loads of vectorial illustrations with myriads of small elements, I knew it was heavy enough to freeze my former MacBookPro 2010 for 1 minute or 2 whenever I wanted to show next page…), and after about 10 minutes I had to give up, forcing APub to quit, since all my memory had steadily been used, largely over the installed physical RAM: 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Oufti said:

... after about 10 minutes I had to give up, forcing APub to quit, since all my memory had steadily been used, largely over the installed physical RAM: 

For me with the GC manual PDF, I checked & memory use was not steadily climbing, & IIRC APub was using about ½ of the available CPU power. So I'm not sure what accounts for this inability to place certain large files.

[R C-R]

Well, FWIW I created a new 1 page 1 Master afpub file & placed my 47 MB GC manual in it. I got a notice asking if I wanted to link it because it has a large amount of embedded image data. I declined & it opened fine in less than 1 second.

So there must be something about the OP's LSM2-II.afpub file that is wonky.

[RustyDawn]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

Well, FWIW I created a new 1 page 1 Master afpub file & placed my 47 MB GC manual in it. I got a notice asking if I wanted to link it because it has a large amount of embedded image data. I declined & it opened fine in less than 1 second.

So there must be something about the OP's LSM2-II.afpub file that is wonky.

Trust me, my Publisher file has nothing special. Once it becomes problematic, it will remain wonky. I can repeat same bug with a new document as well. Like I clearly explained, to make the file behave like this, all you need to do is place that 111MB PDF into it. Once it's placed, try placing it again and you will see the infinite loading. 

[R C-R]

10 hours ago, RustyDawn said:

I can repeat same bug with a new document as well.

But as I explained, I cannot duplicate that with a new APub document on my Mac -- for me, even very large PDFs can be placed without problems in less than a second.

[RustyDawn]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

But as I explained, I cannot duplicate that with a new APub document on my Mac -- for me, even very large PDFs can be placed without problems in less than a second.

Okay. Did you place it once or tried placing same PDF twice in same document? The issue happens when you place it more than once. On first attempt, it's placed within seconds like you said. 

[mopperle]

OK, tried it under Windows 11 and AFPub 2.5.7 and a 235 mb PDF with 604 pages. It failed with your afpub file abov.

Then I created a new afpub file with 100 pages, placed the pdf, was asked to link to the resources and it placed nearly immediately. I repeated placing the same pdf six times without any problem, choosing different pages from the spread. The placed pdf is quite complex. If you are interested I can give you a downloadlink for the pdf

[R C-R]

36 minutes ago, RustyDawn said:

Okay. Did you place it once or tried placing same PDF twice in same document? The issue happens when you place it more than once. On first attempt, it's placed within seconds like you said. 

I just tried placing my 47 MB GC manual PDF three times in a new APub document, each time declining the suggestion to link the image content, & in each case that file loaded in less than a second. (Note that this is a 433 page document, so placing it only places one page, selectable from the Context toolbar  Spread: popup.)

If you have a larger PDF you would like me to test this with, you can attach it to a new reply & as time permits I will see how it works for me.

Also, as a test I opened the GC PDF directly in APub via the File > Open menu. This took about 8 seconds to load, not unexpected because it is loading all 400+ plus pages. If instead of placing it you do the same with your PDF does it open or hang?

[mopperle]

Yes, just opening it works also. although I prefer to place it, to keep the fonts.

The pdf I used can be downloaded here:
https://www.motionmountain.net/index.html

Scroll down and choose Volume 1

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, mopperle said:

The pdf I used can be downloaded here:
https://www.motionmountain.net/index.html

I actually was suggesting that @RustyDawn might want to post a large PDF to test with but I tried placing your suggested ~250 MB Volume 1 PDF file in a new APub document multiple times & it took less than a second on each try. As expected, it only loads one page on each try & each time I declined the suggestion to link it.

11 minutes ago, mopperle said:

Yes, just opening it works also. although I prefer to place it, to keep the fonts.

??? For me, both when I place it or just open it directly, it does not change how it handles fonts. It contains a lot of fonts I do not have so either way it substitutes others for them. But opening it directly saves the labor of placing it many times to get each page/spread into the document, so that is what I prefer.

[mopperle]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

??? For me, both when I place it or just open it directly, it does not change how it handles fonts. It contains a lot of fonts I do not have so either way it substitutes others for them. But opening it directly saves the labor of placing it many times to get each page/spread into the document, so that is what I prefer.

You are right, but when fonts are replaced, it sometimes has negative sideeffects on the layout. But of course with such a huge pdf, opening it would be the better choice.

But to get back to the TO: I tried to find out whats wrong with his afpub file, but no luck. Maybe I'm just not experienced enugh with the nature/settings/options within Publisher files.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, mopperle said:

You are right, but when fonts are replaced, it sometimes has negative sideeffects on the layout.

Like I said, for me either opening or placing has the same potentially negative side effects if a font has to be replaced because I don't have it installed on my Mac. So is it any different for you?

[RustyDawn]

On 1/24/2025 at 10:52 PM, R C-R said:

I just tried placing my 47 MB GC manual PDF three times in a new APub document, each time declining the suggestion to link the image content, & in each case that file loaded in less than a second. (Note that this is a 433 page document, so placing it only places one page, selectable from the Context toolbar  Spread: popup.)

If you have a larger PDF you would like me to test this with, you can attach it to a new reply & as time permits I will see how it works for me.

Also, as a test I opened the GC PDF directly in APub via the File > Open menu. This took about 8 seconds to load, not unexpected because it is loading all 400+ plus pages. If instead of placing it you do the same with your PDF does it open or hang?

It's weird because it worked as expected later that day. I was able to Place it again. I placed some pages first, then used Place again for same PDF to place rest of the pages. Let's ignore it as it's not something huge.