# Book Module - can't Export to PDF or Upload to Blurb



## MarkGottlieb

Lightroom 4.   This used to work - but won't anymore.  Does anyone know what I have wrong in my 92 page book that won't let it export to pdf or upload to Blurb.  If I create a new Book with a few pages it will work.  But - not on my big book I have created.   Mark


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum!

So does it give an error message or anything?  And none of the photos are missing (with question marks on them?)


----------



## MarkGottlieb

Victoria - thanks for replying.  No error messages.  It just starts - but the status bar in the top left corner doesn't move - ever.   And it just stays that way.  I have to cancel the progress after a time - since its making no progress.   There are NO "?" on photos.  All are complete.  I hope to really find a solution.  I've tried everything for a week.   If I make a new book - it will work.  So, why won't the one I want work?


----------



## Victoria Bampton

It certainly sounds like a bug Mark.  You could try the 4.1 RC which is available from labs.adobe.com, or hold on for a minute and wait for 4.1 to come out to see if that does the trick.


----------



## MarkGottlieb

I got it to work.  I tried the 4.1RC update.  That DID NOT do it.  I then after alot of experimenting deleted the first page of the book and the little bit of text I had on it - and recreated that one page.   Then everything worked fine.   Mark


----------



## waveydavey27

Hi Mark - I have exactly the same problem and, having just made our wedding book at 130 pages to give (at least a soft copy) to my wife on her birthday this week, I'm desperate to sort it out without building from scratch again!

Exports were all fine part way through the build, but have just stopped.  Clicking the export to PDF/ Blurb does absolutely nothing.  However, start a new book and it works fine.

I've copied the layout (without pictures) and that won't work either, so it's something to do with my present layout.  Have experimented deleting pages as you did, but still nothing.

I'm currently running the 4.1 RC update as 4.0 won't support some of the fonts I need.  Randomly if I uninstall and go back to 4.0 it works (but without the fonts I need).

Rather frustrating so ANY help/ further suggestions from anyone on this forum would be massively appreciated!

Unlike your issue, mine doesn't even start - pressing the export button does absolutely nowt!

Thanks in advance...

Dave


----------



## MarkGottlieb

I too had it such that when I pushed Export to PDF - or Export to BLURB - it appeared to start - but did nothing and sat there.  The progress bar in the top right never moved.  So - I found the culprit page by a binary search.  I first made a copy of the book.  (Right mouse on the book and chose duplicate - or something like that.)   Then I deleted the last half of the book to see if the first half would not work.  Still did not work.  I then copied the original again - and deleted the first half of the book to prove the second half was fine - and it was (I could export easily).  So - I knew it in the first half.  Then I deleted the last half of the first half.  Etc Etc - till I was down to a few pages.  Deleted the first page of my book - which had a bunch of text in it of big fonts.  And it worked.  I remade that page - and everything was golden after that.  Good luck.


----------



## fagrimo

*I'm having the same problem !*



MarkGottlieb said:


> Lightroom 4.   This used to work - but won't anymore.  Does anyone know what I have wrong in my 92 page book that won't let it export to pdf or upload to Blurb.  If I create a new Book with a few pages it will work.  But - not on my big book I have created.   Mark



I'm having the same problem. I have exported the book as a pdf for a trial when it was with 60 pages. Then I added 14 pages to the book and saved it. Now I can't export to PDF, JPEG or Blurb. When I click the button, it does nothing. Did you receive any help from others?
Tks,
Fabio


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Hi Fabio, welcome to the forum!

Does it still export other books?


----------



## fagrimo

Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi Fabio, welcome to the forum!
> 
> Does it still export other books?



Hello Victoria, tks for answering.

I think there is a kind of bug in the 4.1 version. When I start a new book, it exports to all files normally. The problem I was having appeared again with another book I'm trying to export. The one I wrote about, now is working. I followed some tips on this forum, created a copy of the old book, deleted some pictures and added others. I also re-imported all pictures, optimized Lightroom and updated the format for other pictures from LR 3 to 4 (when a "!" appear at the picture - But before, when I had the problem, there were no "!"). It seems that there is a bug concerning some caracteristics of some pictures or layout, but is not completely clear to me.

I'll keep trying to find out exactly what is happening.

If you have other information about it, please share with me too!

Tks!


----------



## Victoria Bampton

I think you're right about a bug Fabio.  It's just going to be tough to track down when it magically fixes itself!


----------



## fagrimo

Hello Victoria,
Finally I found out about the other bug on my second book. There was a conflict between the background picture on the cover and the rest of the book. When you add a picture to the cover and flag the checkbox "apply to all", and after that do the same on the book pages, it generate a bug. You have to delete bothe and do the task once.
On the first book, the bug was on both, pictures and layout. I simulated the bug again and generated the same problem. 
Let's wait for the next bug to figure it out.
tks


----------



## Victoria Bampton

That's a great bit of detective work Fabio.  Make sure you report it at the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum


----------



## LouieSherwin

Yes good work. 

I have found PDF files at times to be particularly finicky and fail to load for unknown reasons particularly those that are generated files not just save as PDF of a document.  For example, there was a while that I couldn't print international mailing labels generated by the USPS online system. Other times I have received a PDF from a download or email that I cannot open in Preview (my default PDF viewer)  or print. Sometimes I can get it to print if I just do a save as of the original and then the new file will print. 

I suspect that some of the PDF generation libraries are not always able to create consistent files. Probably what is happening here. 

-louie


----------



## EvG

I too have an issue with both pdf generation and uploading to Blurb, and it is a major one. I have made quite a few Blurb books in the past, and two or three Blurb books using the LR 4.1 Book Module. It took me quite a few attempts to get recent uploads to complete without an error message, but I finally got my large books to Blurb from LR 4.1 and they came back fine.

  For the last several days I have been trying to both make a pdf and upload to Blurb a slightly modified version (same photos but with develop adjustments, font changes) of a book I already uploaded to Blurb a few weeks ago after many tries. After at least a dozen unsuccessful attempts in each mode, pdf and Blurb, I’m trying this forum in the hope someone can help. 

  The LR behavior is identical whether stalling in pdf or Blurb mode. The progress bar top left moves along smartly until it stops and LR flashes one of two error messages. One error message is generic (An error occurred while saving the book. There was an error creating the pdf file) or specific (An error occurred while creating the book. The book could not be created  because the photo named (filename.jpg) could not be rendered). There seems to be no pattern as to which error message I receive. Some specific pages/photos seemed to cause errors repeatedly, but replacing them didn’t help and I continued to get error messages.


  I have tried making a copy of the 189 page book, deleting all the different photos/pages that the specific error message identified and even more pages. I have deleted all text pages (but not page captions); I am still unable to make this book into a pdf or upload it to Blurb.

  I am not sure, but as the problem is with pdf creation on my Windows 7 PC as well as uploading to Blurb, I suspect there is something wrong with LR’s rendering engine and that this is not a Blurb problem. Does this make any sense? Is it a bug that only a few of us have, or are many LR users/Blurb customers suffering from this issue?


  Any suggestions would be most welcome.


----------



## JaniceB

I am a new member who found this forum by searching for answers to the "can't export to pdf or blurb" problem. I just want to thank you all for the input I found here. It "saved my bacon" as I was on a deadline with a large book I was completing for a client and was afraid I would have to start over from scratch. The "binary search" idea from Mark and the hints of issues (such as background, etc) allowed me to find and solve my problem. LR4 clearly has a bug, at least in the fact that no error messages are given when it encounters a problem with a page. Once I identified the page that would keep the book from exporting, I had to delete and replace it - as there was no obvious or visible problem - but after I replaced it, the export worked.
Thanks again.
Janice


----------



## kneedeep

*Book will not save or upload*



waveydavey27 said:


> Hi Mark - I have exactly the same problem and, having just made our wedding book at 130 pages to give (at least a soft copy) to my wife on her birthday this week, I'm desperate to sort it out without building from scratch again!
> 
> Exports were all fine part way through the build, but have just stopped.  Clicking the export to PDF/ Blurb does absolutely nothing.  However, start a new book and it works fine.
> 
> I've copied the layout (without pictures) and that won't work either, so it's something to do with my present layout.  Have experimented deleting pages as you did, but still nothing.
> 
> I'm currently running the 4.1 RC update as 4.0 won't support some of the fonts I need.  Randomly if I uninstall and go back to 4.0 it works (but without the fonts I need).
> 
> Rather frustrating so ANY help/ further suggestions from anyone on this forum would be massively appreciated!
> 
> Unlike your issue, mine doesn't even start - pressing the export button does absolutely nowt!
> 
> Thanks in advance...
> 
> Dave



Hi,

I too can not save or upload my book.  I would like to do the uninstall of 4.1 and install of 4.0.  Would you let me know where I can download 4.0?

Thanks,


----------



## kneedeep

fagrimo said:


> Hello Victoria,
> Finally I found out about the other bug on my second book. There was a conflict between the background picture on the cover and the rest of the book. When you add a picture to the cover and flag the checkbox "apply to all", and after that do the same on the book pages, it generate a bug. You have to delete bothe and do the task once.
> On the first book, the bug was on both, pictures and layout. I simulated the bug again and generated the same problem.
> Let's wait for the next bug to figure it out.
> tks



Thanks for the update.  Now that you found what causes the problem, is there a way to correct it?  I have a 126 page book that will not upload or save as a pdf.  I am sure it is because of the background picture on the cover and maybe with the rest of the book.  I am hoping I can save the book.  Do I need to remove the background picture from the cover, un-check the "apply background globally"?  I tired that but still not able to upload or save, is there anything else that may work???

Thanks


----------



## MarkGottlieb

First, I am very dissapointed in Lightroom (Adobe) for not fixing this bug so many people are having for six months now.

In the meantime - the only thing I conclude is that one must first duplicate the book so you don't loose all your work.  Then, you must find the page that is causing the problem.  To do that - on one copy - delete the last half of the book.  If it then exports - you know the bug is in the last half.  If it still does not work, delete that portion, and start again by making another copy of your book - but this time delte the first half.  Then export.  You will see it now works.  So, with this method - you can slowly determine which page it is.  Like a 'binary search' approch.  You should be able to run this down to the culprit page in less than an hour.   When you find the page - again - make a new copy of the book - and delete that page.  Recreate that page  and you should be good to go.  As to what is causing the bug - I have no clue.  But my experience and from reading others in this forum - it tends to be a bug on one page that when eliminated then works.  Good luck.  And for all our sakes Lightroom - please fix this quickly.   Mark


----------



## MarkNicholas

Has anyone been able to get any success in the book module. There seem to be lots of complaints ! Perhaps its a fix for LR4.2?


----------



## fagrimo

kneedeep said:


> Thanks for the update.  Now that you found what causes the problem, is there a way to correct it?  I have a 126 page book that will not upload or save as a pdf.  I am sure it is because of the background picture on the cover and maybe with the rest of the book.  I am hoping I can save the book.  Do I need to remove the background picture from the cover, un-check the "apply background globally"?  I tired that but still not able to upload or save, is there anything else that may work???
> 
> Thanks


Regarding the background bug, the only way it worked for me, was deleting all background (cover and book) and adding all over againg without checking "apply to all". If you are patient, you can do one by one, not forgetting to uncheck the box " apply to all". Sorry if this is a bad news. Even though, i hope it helps.
Fabio


----------



## johnbeardy

MarkNicholas said:


> Has anyone been able to get any success in the book module.


Yes, though I think it should be better and more reliable.


----------



## EvG

In case it is helpful to anyone, here is an update of my July 26 post on my difficulties exporting to Blurb and to pdf. I am using LR 4.1 on Windows 7 Ultimate. The bottom line is that with a great deal of effort and wasted time, I was ultimately able to upload successfully to Blurb, but am now unable to generate a pdf of the same book after umpteen tries. I do not use graphic page backgrounds but do have all my page background colors set to black. I think Tom Hogarty and the folks at Adobe have some urgent work to do, and I suspect Blurb is losing some business.


  As far as uploading to Blurb is concerned, when the error message was page/photo specific I changed the indicated photo. Sometimes making a virtual copy would do the job, sometimes I had to resize the image in PSE. Many but not all of the culprits had a lot of white. When the error message was generic and failed to identify the problem photo I had to carefully watch the progress bar to see how far it advanced before stopping, generating an error message and quickly going back to square one. This cost me a lot of time on a 184 page book. Finally I “fixed” enough photos (about ten out of more than 200) so that the book would upload to Blurb (on the third try) without a rendering error.  The issue was neither layout nor text/fonts, but I can’t rule out my black pages being a problem for LR.


  Making a pdf (which I like to put on my iPad for proofing and display) has now become impossible; the pdf generating engine no longer will create a book at any jpg percentage. The odd thing is it is very inconsistent and seems to create generic error messages at different book pages on each try. Generating pdf’s on LR 4.1 was never easy for me, but is now impossible.

  I assume there would be a horrendous hue and cry if all LR 4.1 Book Module users were suffering. But enough of us are having issues that Adobe owes us a fix.


----------



## johnbeardy

Once you've uploaded a book to Blurb, their site can now save the book as an eBook and email a link to your iPad.

John


----------



## kneedeep

kneedeep said:


> Thanks for the update.  Now that you found what causes the problem, is there a way to correct it?  I have a 126 page book that will not upload or save as a pdf.  I am sure it is because of the background picture on the cover and maybe with the rest of the book.  I am hoping I can save the book.  Do I need to remove the background picture from the cover, un-check the "apply background globally"?  I tired that but still not able to upload or save, is there anything else that may work???
> 
> Thanks



My update..... I ended up copying my 126 page book, then click off "Apply Background Globally" and "Graphic", then I chose "Background Color" for each page.  Then I was able to upload my book to Blurb.  It worked, but a waste of time, I could have used that time for my other pictures....  I hope Adobe will fix a product that they put out for us to use, but dose not work as advertised!


----------



## MarkGottlieb

Lightroom 4.   This used to work - but won't anymore.  Does anyone know what I have wrong in my 92 page book that won't let it export to pdf or upload to Blurb.  If I create a new Book with a few pages it will work.  But - not on my big book I have created.   Mark


----------



## EvG

Update. Something good seems to have happened on or about August 20. Since that date I have been able, albeit with a few aborted tries, to upload a rendered book to Blurb on three occasions! No idea whether Adobe tinkered with LR 4.1 or if something unknown changed on my system. Rendering pdf's still seems to be an issue, but things seem to be a lot better all of a sudden as far as uploading to Blurn is concerned. Thanks John for your suggestions.


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Well that's clever!  Perhaps something changed at Blurb's end.


----------



## smithnc

I'm still having problems uploading to Blurb. Sent one succesfully in beta Lightroom 4, last book 150 pages, gets through rendering and uploading but stalls at waiting for Blurb Server Processing, multiple attempts. Even tried registering a new Blurb account. Eventually through Blurb support sent a pdf copy to their dropbox account, this was loaded and the book ordered. Started a new project, sent a 20 page trial first, uploaded properly, now almost finished the project at 160 pages and it stalls at waiting for Blurb Server Processing. Could Blurb be timing out?? Must be the size of the project, it uploads small projects. Is my upload speed too slow?
Might have to start again with Booksmart. 
On balance I think LR4 is better, its easier to make quick adjustments to photos flipping into Dev module, but the layout is less flexible. 

Nick


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Hi Nick, welcome to the forum!

You could check www.speedtest.net to see how your upload speed is looking.  Where in the world are you based?


----------



## smithnc

Thanks for your welcome Victoria.

Soprry about my delayed response, I've rebuilt this PC, could have been smoother!

I took the opurtunity of a faster machine to reattempt the upload. It rendered faster but the upload still stopped at waiting for Blurb Server Processing.

I have checked my upload speed, it is improved but it is still slow, 645kbps. I do live in a semirural area near Dorchester, UK, just an hour along the coast west of you Victoria!

I think I am going back to Booksmart but I will miss being able to quickly slip into the dev mode to make quick changes. I think the book module is satisfactory for smaller projects.

Best wishes, and thanks once again for your interest.
Nick


----------



## dlos

I am having a problem uploading to blurb today. This is my first book, its 135 pages, 400 pictures. I can export to PDF all day long. I have deleted and recreated the cover page, unchecked "graphic" and "alpply background globally". The error I am getting is:

There was an erro uploading you book to the Blurb server: error.arguments
illegal refid http://blog.blurb.com

This really is annoying. At least the LR could tell you where the failure is, on what page! 

Anyone seen this error?


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Hi dlos, welcome to the forum!  Sorry to say I haven't heard of that one, and google's not turning anything up either.  You could try dropping a line to Blurb support - it may be a server issue if the PDF export's working ok.


----------



## dlos

It actually uploaded late last night. Almost makes me wonder if the problems experienced by many that are documented here are simply just a bandwidth issue on the blurb side?? I didn't make any other changes and for no apparent reason it just went.

Unfortunately, one page has a layout issue I didn't catch so now I have to upload all over again 

Oh well....


----------



## MarkGottlieb

I am quite convinced it is a LF4 bug.     Make a copy of the book - delete the first half - and see if it works with the second half.  If so,  you know the problem is in the first half.  Then start over - but only delete the first quarter.  If the last 3/4 work - then you know its in the first quarter.   Use this 'binary search' approach to find the guilty page - and in an hour you will be done.   That is the only way to fix this problem until Adobe decides to fix it for us.  They have known about this bug for 8 months - and have chosen to ignore it.  Good luck .   Mark


----------



## Victoria Bampton

Very interesting dlos, it certainly could be a mix of different issues involved.


----------



## paolone

Hi all,

  I have problems too in uploading a book to Blurb with LR 4.3 on iMac (Mac OS X 10.7). The process starts, I can log into Blurb account, I can see progress bar growing and associated messages changing: LR can create cover and pages files, uploads cover, then starts uploading book's pages but never ends, the progress bar stucks at about 3/4 of the task. Monitoring network data rate, upload starts at about 50 kbps and than drops at 0 kbps after a couple of hours.

 PDF creation has no problems, using Book module to export PDF instead send to Blurb created pages' PDF is OK and its size is about 800 MB.

  I use "pmset noidle" command to avoid system idle suspension and I'm quite confident about internet connection, during upload I periodically checked connection finding no issue.

  Is there any LR log to scan for information about why the transfer stops? 

  I just asked info to Blurb's support team too, I'm waiting for a reply.

  Any suggestion?

Thanks.

Paolo


----------



## Victoria Bampton

There isn't, I'm afraid Paolo.  Hopefully Blurb will be able to look at their logs and see where it's failing.


----------



## paolone

I made further retries, once it finished loading pages and stopped "Waiting for Blurb's server processing..." (or something like it, I have LR Italian version installed), another one LR stopped loading pages and returned an error in pop-up window "Communication stopped for Blurb server time-out".

Might my connection be too slow? However, never had problems with BookSmart with big files too.


----------



## Victoria Bampton

50k upload speed does sound painful - at an 800mb file, that's, what, 30-40 hours uploading?


----------



## paolone

paolone said:


> I made further retries, once it finished loading pages and stopped "Waiting for Blurb's server processing..." (or something like it, I have LR Italian version installed), another one LR stopped loading pages and returned an error in pop-up window "Communication stopped for Blurb server time-out".
> 
> Might my connection be too slow? However, never had problems with BookSmart with big files too.



That's the error I often get while loading pages: "Error during communication with Blurb's server. Error code: xslt-parse-error; server's answer: Gateway timeout.


----------



## Rosy22

I seem to be having a similar problem with my LR5 upgrade. After completing a book of 56 pics I hit the download to Blurb button and it does not bring up the blurb login page? However it does show a task in LR "uploading to Blurb". It never show any progress or error message. Does anyone have any suggestions. I talked to Blurb Support but they referred me to this forum?  Glenn


----------



## paralingaw88

I have the same problem but I eventually figured it out.. I made a 10 pages photobook and when I tried to export it to JPEG the status bar doesn't move at all. I have made a layout with 4 photos per page but I noticed on my 4th page I was only able to place 2 photos. I deleted that page then when I saved my book it already worked.

Hope this helps.. =)


----------



## Rosy22

*PDF solution from Blurb support.*



MarkGottlieb said:


> Lightroom 4.   This used to work - but won't anymore.  Does anyone know what I have wrong in my 92 page book that won't let it export to pdf or upload to Blurb.  If I create a new Book with a few pages it will work.  But - not on my big book I have created.   Mark


I
'm not sure if this ever got answered but here is a rather confusing answer from Blurb help desk.=====================================================================================================






*Padraic* 
( Blurb Support) 

Aug 02 13:22 (PDT) 

Hello,

Your 
ticket has been transferred to me.

We 
_may_ be able to upload a PDF version of your file. In order to try this 
please do the following:

Create 
the PDF from your Lightroom 4 Book project:
- Make sure there is at least 1 
blank page before the last logo page.
- Under Book Settings choose Book > 
PDF.
- JPEG quality 90-100 (if the trouble is mainly timing out, a lower 
quality setting may help get the file to us without reducing print overall 
quality).
- All other settings as is.
- Click "Export Book to PDF" to the 
bottom right.

Take 
a screenshot of the Book Settings for Blurb. Specifically, we need to know the 
book size, cover type, and paper type.

Send 
the cover and pages PDF to us along with the screenshot of the book 
settings:
- Go to http://dropbox.yousendit.com/blurb.
- 
Browse for and attach your files.
- Send the files.

*Please 
let me know (by replying to this message) when the file transfer 
completes.*

Best,

padraic
Blurb 
Technical Support​


----------



## smithnc

I have not tried to use the book module for a while initial success with smaller books but failure with larger. I'm sure the problem is that Blurb times out while those of us with slow connections are uploading, so once its uploaded the Blueb site does nothing. I was given the pdf option, I exported from LR to pdf and uploaded this to a site they gave. Somehow the fonts in the pdf were not quite like the original, it was apparent in my pdf on the local machine, fonts appeared blocky,so I did not order that book, I remade it with booksmart, I had already decided the layout and photos, I copied and pasted larger text boxes. I have never used LR book module again. You cannot tell if it will work on a large volume without wasting time. It works with small books. I was thinking of trying again it is convenient, but I will wait! Nick


----------



## julesphotography

*I found the solution!*



Rosy22 said:


> I seem to be having a similar problem with my LR5 upgrade. After completing a book of 56 pics I hit the download to Blurb button and it does not bring up the blurb login page? However it does show a task in LR "uploading to Blurb". It never show any progress or error message. Does anyone have any suggestions. I talked to Blurb Support but they referred me to this forum?  Glenn




Blurb replied to my question and suggested selecting all pages and simply clicking the background graphic checkbox off and then on... I didnt hold out much hope for that suggestion but to my amazement it worked!!
i hade 2 x 100+page albums finished and was distraught!!
happy now


----------



## sdeleng

*LR 5 book export problem - install beta upgrade*



julesphotography said:


> Blurb replied to my question and suggested selecting all pages and simply clicking the background graphic checkbox off and then on... I didnt hold out much hope for that suggestion but to my amazement it worked!!
> i hade 2 x 100+page albums finished and was distraught!!
> happy now



That did not work for me.  I had no problem uploading a 100 page wedding book the first two times, but some buggy script kept on appearing in the preview copy ("photo text" underneath one photo).  It seems to be there by default with no way to switch it off except being careful to delete it on every page.  I did this and then I could not upload or export to pdf.  Like others, did not even start.  Tried all the steps I could find here and elsewhere. Nada.  Became desperate.   In the end I just installed the latest LR5 update - still a beta version - and everything worked!

LR5 book module is still slow and buggy though.  I hold my breathe every time I do something (on a MAC by the way).


----------



## workavoidance

MarkGottlieb said:


> I first made a copy of the book.  (Right mouse on the book and chose duplicate - or something like that.)   Then I deleted the last half of the book to see if the first half would not work.  Still did not work.  I then copied the original again - and deleted the first half of the book to prove the second half was fine - and it was (I could export easily).  So - I knew it in the first half.  Then I deleted the last half of the first half.  Etc Etc - till I was down to a few pages.  Deleted the first page of my book - which had a bunch of text in it of big fonts.  And it worked.  I remade that page - and everything was golden after that.  Good luck.



By far the best advice on this thread. Worked perfectly for me!


----------



## Beserei

MarkGottlieb said:


> I too had it such that when I pushed Export to PDF - or Export to BLURB - it appeared to start - but did nothing and sat there.  The progress bar in the top right never moved.  So - I found the culprit page by a binary search.  I first made a copy of the book.  (Right mouse on the book and chose duplicate - or something like that.)   Then I deleted the last half of the book to see if the first half would not work.  Still did not work.  I then copied the original again - and deleted the first half of the book to prove the second half was fine - and it was (I could export easily).  So - I knew it in the first half.  Then I deleted the last half of the first half.  Etc Etc - till I was down to a few pages.  Deleted the first page of my book - which had a bunch of text in it of big fonts.  And it worked.  I remade that page - and everything was golden after that.  Good luck.




I realise this thread is already a bit old but I just wanted to thank you so much for this advice that has just saved me from having to reconstruct a 220 page photobook. 

I had already successfully uploaded this book once but when I tried to upload it for the second time after making some corrections (changed some minor text and added a photo or two) the status bar just didn't move. 
I checked several threads on this forum and accordingly tried redoing the backgrounds, checking and unchecking the graphic and apply background globally function, all to no avail. 
Eventually I came across your advice and did the binary search and in less than 15 minutes I had narrowed down the problem from 220 pages to just one. It turned out there was one tiny photo there that had corrupted metadata but I hadn't detected it because this error makes de photo show as light grey the same as the background I had on that page. I still do not know how the photo could have its metadata corrupted but it was easily solved: I just redid that one page and after that the book uploaded without any problem. It also seems odd that no dialogue box came up to warn that I had a corrupted photo in this book, surely seems something that LR developers should, and perhaps already have, solved in subsequent versions of the application.


----------

