Have you tried opening in acrobat: Save as Other-> Reduced Size PDF and setting the "Make compatible with:" to Acrobat 5.0 and later?

There's also a nasty bug with black not overprinting in certain situations.

My experience with it is that it's a program with lot's of potential, but at the moment it's only usable for digital printing.

Hello.
That error happens when the XMF backup destination isn't available when XMF tries to make the backup. For the error to stop, you have to login to the server, open the "Database backup utility" and you'll have a option to stop the error mensage.
As for whats causing the XMF error in the first place, have you tried restarting everything? Especially network related devices like switches and routers. Usually it's a good starting point.
We have the backups pointed to a NAS and we get that error when, for some reason, the XMF server can't see the NAS. Restarting the NAS and the Server solves it for us.
Good luck

Just to add a few more things to your post.
I ditched Adobe completely from home. Replaced Premiere with Davinci Resolve, Lightroom with Capture 1, Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign with Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher.
I also replaced Acrobat with the free version of Foxit PDF Reader. Foxit installs a PDF printer, so when i need to use a PDF in Publisher i open it in Foxit and print it to file with rasterizer enabled. I end up with a rasterized PDF which obviously doesen't ask for fonts.
I would also like to add that being unable to use a Document Fonts folder to access the fonts for a given document is a little annoying, but i solved it by installing the free Font Base font manager, that works really well.

I'm very impressed with Affinity so far, they managed to make a very solid first version of a DTP application, that is already a solid alternative to Indesign for some people.

We are also on the first floor, while printing is on the ground floor.
We have a few of this https://www.ggrgroup.com/products/trolleys-and-a-frames/ggr-plate-glass-trolley/ with an offset plate cardbox attached to each. We put the plates inside the box and had a custom made steel platform pulled by a winch. Its very similar to the skyscrapper windows washer platforms, but smaller.
The platform has wheels that glide through the wall to keep it steady... It works just like an elevator but the size and weight it can lift/lower is just for the transporters (can't be used by a person, for instance).

Quote from: Possum on July 11, 2019, 08:27:09 AM
So the guys complaining were the guys causing the problem. Figures.

Yes, but trying to convince them that they're the ones causing it is an almost inpossible task!
I should win a Nobel Prize just for trying!

We use XMF with Prinect interface that connects to the press.
The heidelberg software runs on a computer with an hotfolder on it and XMP "dumps" the cip3/JDF files on the hotfolder and Prinect reads it into the Prinect Press Interface that connects to the presses.
Its a 15 minute configuration and runs smoothly.

Had the same problem with the same plates. We eventually figured out that the fingerprints where from the press operators when loading the plates to the press.
We solved it by changing the gum. We used the finishing gum on a 1:2 dilution. We changed to 1:1 and the problem went away.
Hope it helps.

Edit: I just remebered another thing. At the time we used Fuji's FN-6E gum. At the time of the problem, our Fuji rep advised us to change to another gum (besides changing the dilution). So, after we finished all the FN-6E gum we had in stock (without further issues), we changed to Fuji's FG-8E gum. We kept the 1:1 dilution, and haven't had any issue since.