"Extract Pages" Script Fails on Specific Page

Laclede-Record

I'm encountering a consistent issue with a custom "Extract Pages" script in InDesign, and I'm hoping someone here has seen something similar or can offer debugging advice.

Problem Overview:
The script works perfectly with all our bi-weekly publications, but it fails only on one specific document we use monthly. Here’s the behavior:

The script starts normally, extracting pages one by one.

As soon as it completes page 4 and begins processing page 5, the scripting window disappears behind InDesign.

From this point forward, the script halts execution silently. InDesign becomes fully responsive (as if no script is running), and a partially created temporary document is left behind.

No error messages, no crash reports — just a silent failure and incomplete output.

Reproduction Steps:
Run the script on the problematic monthly document.

Watch it script through the first four pages successfully.

On page 5, scripting UI disappears, and the process freezes (no progress, but InDesign is fully usable).

A temporary file is left open, but incomplete.

Additional Notes:
Attempting to run the script on just a subset of pages (e.g., 4–6) yields inconsistent results: sometimes it scripts only one page, sometimes none, but the temp file is still generated and then it freezes.

Under normal circumstances, while the script runs, InDesign is locked (as expected). During this failure, that lock doesn't occur — suggesting the scripting process has failed or been suspended.

This issue reproduces across multiple machines (Windows and macOS).

No recent changes to the script or InDesign version.

I’ve checked for:

Broken/missing links

Damaged glyphs

Overset text frames

Corrupt assets

Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Questions:
Could something in the content on or around page 5 be silently crashing the script engine?

Are there known issues with modal dialogs or background script windows being suppressed or hidden behind InDesign?

Is there a way to trace what the script engine is doing or hook into logs during execution?

Could this be a memory leak or JS Engine timeout issue?

Any ideas on where to look next, or tools to help pinpoint where the script is failing, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Laclede-Record

Tested on a copy of the document from 2024, and it scripted just fine. So this is something that has changed about the document within the last two to three months.

Ariel

Hi @Laclede-Record,
It sounds 99% likely from your description that the script is crashing midway. That would explain why a temporary file is left open (Extract Pages creates lots of temporary files).
First thing to try: Export the entire document to IDML, then reopen in InDesign. If there is some sort of document corruption, round-tripping like this can fix it.
Another thing to try: Select a different target folder for storing the extracted files. Choose something that you're sure you have full permission for, not on a network drive, and not a folder that is automatically backed-up by OneDrive, Dropbox, and things like that.
If that still doesn't work, and ExtractPages still crashes when run on the new round-tripped document, could you email me the .indd file? I'll take a look and see if I can reproduce the error on my end.

Ariel

Laclede-Record Tested on a copy of the document from 2024, and it scripted just fine

Hm, attempting to recreate this for you with my Version 1 file (prior to editing my Paragraph Styles), I am no longer able to do it, either. Perhaps it was an Adobe update issue? I've also since updated to the 2.0.9 ExtractPages edition (although I tested with 2.0.4), so there's no telling.

Ariel

FalconArt Gremlins...