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• • September 3, 2020 at 8:45 am #126821
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Hi,
    I know this has been debated, but the relevant posts are now either too old or closed. Please let me ask it again.
    I’ve been using InDesign CS6 on a Mac mini 2012 with 16 GB of RAM up until now, and everything worked fine.
    Now, I’ve migrated to a Mac Pro 2013 with 64 GB of RAM. The operating system is the same (High Sierra, Security Update 2020-04).
    I can now edit with no problems, and can also export relatively small PDF files. Bigger PDF files can’t be exported, because of an “Out of Memory” message, or problems in loading linked files (never the same).
    So, now that I have four time the memory, I have memory issues that have never had before.
    Any hints on a workaround? Saving separate sections of the Book is not working, because the PDF bookmarks are broken (not so the ToC ones shown in page, oddly).
    Thank you!
    Paolo

  • September 3, 2020 at 11:23 am #126823
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Maybe the typical error message that the Crash Reporter gives may help someone to understand what’s happening:
    “Application Specific Information:
    Assertion failed: (mach_vm_map(mach_task_self(), &address, size, 0, VM_FLAGS_ANYWHERE | VM_MAKE_TAG(VM_MEMORY_COREGRAPHICS_BACKINGSTORES), port, 0, false, prot, prot, VM_INHERIT_SHARE) == KERN_SUCCESS), function backing_map, file /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/SkyLight/SkyLight-312.103.12/SkyLight/Services/Windows/CGSBackingStore.c, line 191.”

  • September 3, 2020 at 11:25 am #126827
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I don’t think this has anything to do with how much RAM you have. 16 GB is plenty to export almost anything. (Unless your PDFs are in the hundred of megabytes or gigabytes large?)
    I’m guessing there is some other problem happening.

  • September 3, 2020 at 1:26 pm #126831
    Paolo T.

    Member

    David, thank you very much for your answer! While the book is quite big (over 1200 pages with text, EPS and small TIFF files), the resulting PDF is just 32MB. Nothing shocking. I’ve just generated it with a MacBook Pro 2015, with just 8GB of RAM.
    The same operating system (High Sierra), the same installation of InDesign CS6 (both cloned from the original installation from the original DVDs). The Mac Pro does seem to work fine with everything else. It can also generate smaller PDF files (for example, about one third or the above book).
    Very strange. I suspect some memory issue because it has troubles only with big books, and sometimes it says that it can’t load one or more EPS files (nothing big – just wireframe Illustrator drawings, with text updated to CS6).
    Paolo

  • September 3, 2020 at 3:42 pm #126832
    Paolo T.

    Member

    I’m repairing permissions in my Home folder. I’ll see if this is that classical case.
    Paolo

  • September 3, 2020 at 3:56 pm #126833
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Done, by following the instructions found in this page: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mac-disk-permissions-repair/
    Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The error remains the same.
    Paolo

  • September 4, 2020 at 12:14 am #126834
    Niels JÌürgen Pedersen

    Participant

    Perhaps your mac is running out of space on your harddisk? InDesign uses space there while exporting? Creating a small pdf from a very large document requires the same space as creating a large pdf – so secure that there is plenty of free space on your harddisk!

  • September 4, 2020 at 3:42 am #126835
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Niels, no, I think that the remaining 1.4 TB in the main SSD are enough even for InDesign! :)
    In the meantime I did another test. I rebooted the Mac in safe mode. It did its cleaning job at startup, and InDesign worked flawlessly. Panel opening immediately, PDF generated correctly. Only system fonts were enabled, and they were replaced to the extra fonts I used.
    When back to normal mode, InDesign immediately started flawlessly, the first panel I opened opened immediately, and then it took forever for anything else. Spinning ball everywhere.
    So, my guess is that I have a problem with fonts. They were probably not migrated correctly. I will have to try to reinstall them, and see if the problem is there.
    Does somebody knows if CS6 for Mac did use a special font for the UI, or is this just a system font? The former would explain the slow panel opening.
    Paolo

  • September 4, 2020 at 10:25 am #126843
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Ok, at least, I could solve the sluggish panel issue. In the usual way – cleaning the fonts.
    I went to Font Book, and meticulously removed any duplicate fonts. I didn’t simply deactivate them, but moved them away from the Font folders. The validity check had to pass any test, and result in all green lights.
    Then, I rebuilt the Font cache. In Cocktail I was careful to select the Adobe fonts among the user caches to be removed. Probably, I could have done the same with a safe boot, but this worked faster.
    Unfortunately, not yet resolved the PDF creation resulting in the Out of Memory message.
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 3:53 am #14331375
    Paolo T.

    Member

    I also tried to export without any color conversion, and with no color profile included. No way.
    I’ve reinstalled all the fonts, removed a couple occurrences of an obsolete font, but there is no way to make it export a big PDF.
    I’ve seen that the same issue is lamented by some CC2020 users, so, even upgrading is not a solution.
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 4:00 am #126848
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Something I must add, to be more precise: “Out of Memory” is only one of the messages I receive. Some other times it is “Failed to export PDF”. Others, that there is problems exporting an EPS or reading a TIFF. All these linked files are of small size (~100K TIFFs, 1-2MB EPSs, all with text updated to the AI CS6 file format).
    In any case, since exporting works fine with smaller books, or in safe mode with no extra font allowed, I would continue to investigate on the fonts. All the ones used in the book have been reinstalled. There are no duplicate fonts. What else should I check?
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 6:03 am #126849
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Just tried with a third Mac (a Mac mini 2012), that was the direct ancestor of the new Mac Pro 2013. InDesign open from the Mac mini, data on the Mac Pro. All fine.
    So, it’s something in the Mac Pro.
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 1:50 pm #126858
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Wow, it sounds like a really frustrating problem!
    One of my favorite troubleshooting techniques is to log in to a different account (even the Guest account) on the Mac and try running InDesign from there. If the problem goes away, then it’s probably something in the main users’s “Library” folder (or something associated with that user account.
    Have you tried rebuilding InDesign’s preferences file?
    https://indesignsecrets.com/resources/faq#143

  • September 5, 2020 at 5:55 pm #14331377
    Paolo T.

    Member

    I don’t see my recent messages, but I’ll try again. Thank you for the hints, and I’m sorry if it seems I didn’t answer.
    I decided to try by letting Font Book deactivate all non-standard fonts. The PDF is exported (with replacement fonts). Now, I’ll try to reinstall one at the time the missing fonts.
    At least, it will be an exercise in cleaning my font library!
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 5:55 pm #126861
    Paolo T.

    Member

    David, yes, I tried several times deleting the preferences, resetting the export presets, checking the various options, saving to different locations. It seems there is no way to make it export large PDFs.
    It seems really to be something in the Library, since booting in safe mode lets me export the PDF (but without the extra fonts). I’ll try the Guest user soon. I don’t know if it the same as the safe mode, or it adds the content in the top level Library.
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 5:55 pm #14331376
    Paolo T.

    Member

    David, yes, I’ve rebuilt the preferences more than once. It makes no difference. I will try logging as the Guest user, but booting in safe mode let me export the PDF, so it revealed that it is very likely something in the User/Library. But what? I’ve reinstalled the fonts and regenerated the preferences, reset the export presets. I can’t think of something else.
    I see others have had the same issue during the years, but I can rarely see how they solved it. At a certain point, they simply disappear.
    Paolo

  • September 5, 2020 at 5:55 pm #126867
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Ah… sorry about that… sometimes messages get “caught,” especially if you post several in a row.

  • September 6, 2020 at 9:40 am #126869
    Paolo T.

    Member

    Sorry for the triplicated message!
    But I’ve finally a good news: it was for sure something in the fonts. As I said, I let Font Book deactivate all the extra fonts. Then I added the reliable ones. I left out the most dated, or the one from obscure developers.
    At the moment, everything works fine. I’ll add any other fonts, one at a time, and check what they do to the system.
    So, InDesign CS6 is continuing to work fine on my High Sierra systems. Thank you for your kind moral and technical support!
    Paolo

    • September 6, 2020 at 10:49 am #126870
      David Blatner

      Keymaster

      WOW! That is awesome news. I hope everything keeps working great.

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