KDP Says "No TOC Found" After Editing Your Book? Here's Exactly How to Fix It

KDP said your table of contents was missing. But you can see it right there in your manuscript. So what's going on?

This is one of the most frustrating errors indie authors run into - especially after making what felt like a tiny change. The good news is it's fixable. And you don't need to rebuild your book from scratch.

Why This Happens

KDP actually checks for two completely different types of table of contents - and most authors don't know that.

The first is the one you can see: the HTML TOC. It's the page in your book that lists your chapters. Readers can scroll to it and click the links.

The second is invisible: the NCX or navigation document TOC. This is what powers the "Go To" menu on Kindle devices and apps. It lets readers jump between chapters using the device controls - not just by finding the TOC page.

When KDP says "no TOC found," it almost always means the navigation TOC is missing or broken - even if your visible TOC looks completely fine.

A small edit can break this because most word processors and converters regenerate the file structure when you re-export. If heading styles get changed or removed during that edit, the navigation TOC loses its anchors and stops working.

The Most Common Causes

There are a few specific things that trigger this error most often.

One is heading styles getting changed to plain text. If you manually bolded a chapter title instead of using the Heading 1 style, KDP has nothing to build the navigation TOC from. It looks like a heading but it isn't one structurally.

Another is re-exporting from Word without regenerating the TOC first. If you edit the manuscript and export again, the TOC in the file may still point to old anchors that no longer exist in the new export.

A third cause is using Calibri or a basic converter to create your EPUB. These tools often miss the NCX structure entirely, especially on older EPUB 2 files. The visual TOC comes through fine but the navigation layer doesn't.

How to Check If Your Navigation TOC Is Actually Missing

Before you fix anything, confirm the problem. Open your EPUB file in Kindle Previewer. On the left side of the screen, look for the Table of Contents panel. If it's empty - no chapter entries listed there - you have a missing navigation TOC, even if your book's TOC page looks normal.

That's your confirmation. Now fix it.

Fix 1 — If You're Working From a Word Document

Go through your manuscript and make sure every chapter title uses the Heading 1 style — not bold text, not a larger font size, but the actual Heading 1 style from Word's styles panel. Subchapter titles should use Heading 2.

Once all headings are properly styled, delete your existing TOC page and regenerate it. In Word, go to References → Table of Contents → Automatic Table 1. This rebuilds the TOC from your heading styles.

Then re-export to EPUB or DOCX and upload the fresh file to KDP.

Fix 2 - If You're Working Directly With an EPUB File

This is where most authors get stuck. Editing an EPUB directly feels intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. The key is running EPUB Check first so you know exactly what's broken before you touch anything.

What is EPUB Check?

EPUB Check is the official open-source validation tool maintained by the EPUB standards body. It's the same validator that major retailers — including Amazon, Apple Books, and Google Play - use to check your file before accepting it. When KDP rejects your EPUB, it's essentially running EPUB Check behind the scenes.

The good news is you can run it yourself before uploading, which means you catch the problem first.

How to run EPUB Check

The easiest way is through the free online validator at epubcheck.online - just upload your EPUB file and it returns a full list of errors within seconds.

If you prefer the command line, download the EPUB Check JAR file from GitHub and run:

bash

java -jar epubcheck.jar yourbook.epub

Either way, you'll get a list of errors with file names, line numbers, and error codes. It looks scary at first but it's actually very readable once you know what to look for.

Reading EPUB Check output - what the errors actually mean

Here are the most common TOC-related errors you'll see and what each one means:

OPF-055 - Your toc.ncx file is missing or not listed in the OPF manifest. This is the most common cause of the "no TOC found" error. The manifest is a file called content.opf that lists every file in your EPUB package. If toc.ncx isn't listed there, KDP can't find it.

NAV-001 - Your navigation document is missing the required epub:type="toc" attribute. Without this, the file exists but KDP doesn't recognize it as a TOC.

NAV-003 - Your navigation document links to files that don't exist in your EPUB package. This happens after edits when chapter file names change but the TOC still points to the old names.

RSC-007 - A file referenced in your manifest doesn't actually exist in the package. Often this means a chapter file was renamed or deleted during editing but the manifest wasn't updated.

NCX-002 - Your NCX file exists but has no navPoint entries. This means the navigation structure is empty - it's there but it doesn't point to anything.

Fixing the errors in Sigil

Once you know what's broken, open your EPUB in Sigil, a free, open-source EPUB editor. Here's how to fix the most common issues:

For a missing or broken navigation document, look in Sigil's Book Browser panel on the left. You should see a file called nav.xhtml or toc.xhtml. Open it. A working EPUB3 navigation document looks like this:

html

<nav epub:type="toc">
  <ol>
    <li><a href="chapter1.xhtml">Chapter One</a></li>
    <li><a href="chapter2.xhtml">Chapter Two</a></li>
    <li><a href="chapter3.xhtml">Chapter Three</a></li>
  </ol>
</nav>

Check that every href value points to a file that actually exists in your Book Browser. If chapter names changed during editing, update the hrefs to match.

For a missing NCX file, Sigil can regenerate it automatically. Go to Tools → Table Of Contents → Generate NCX From Nav. This rebuilds the NCX from your navigation document in one click.

For OPF manifest errors, go to your content.opf file in Sigil. Look for the <manifest> section. Every file in your EPUB needs an entry here. If files are missing, add them manually or use Sigil's built-in tools to clean up the manifest.

After fixing -validate again

This step is important. After making changes in Sigil, save the file and run it through EPUB Check one more time before uploading to KDP. It's very common for fixing one error to reveal another one hiding underneath. Keep running the validator until you get a clean result, zero errors, zero warnings.

Then open the fixed file in Kindle Previewer. Check the left panel for chapter entries. If they're there and clickable, your navigation TOC is working correctly.

Fix 3 — If You Made a Small Edit and Re-exported

This is the most common scenario. You changed one paragraph, re-exported, and suddenly KDP says the TOC is gone.

What likely happened is your heading styles got reset during the edit. Check every chapter heading again. Re-apply Heading 1 to each one. Regenerate your TOC. Re-export.

Then run the file through EPUB Check before uploading. This catches the problem before KDP does - saving you hours of back-and-forth with the publishing queue.

Why This Keeps Happening to the Same Book

Some authors fix the TOC error once, publish successfully, make another small edit months later, and hit the exact same error again. So here's why it keeps coming back.

Every time you re-export from Word or Docs, the tool regenerates your EPUB structure from scratch. Any manual fixes you made to the previous EPUB file are gone. The new export starts fresh, and if your heading styles aren't perfectly set up in the source document, the navigation TOC breaks again.

The real fix isn't patching the EPUB each time. It's making sure your source document has clean heading styles before every export. That way each new export generates a valid navigation TOC automatically.

So set aside 20 minutes after your next edit to go through the full document, confirm every heading is properly styled, regenerate the TOC in Word, then re-export. Do that consistently and you'll stop seeing this error.

Fix It Faster With Book Kraft AI

If manually editing nav documents or running EPUB Check feels like too much, Book Kraft AI's EPUB Validator catches these exact errors automatically. It checks your navigation structure, OPF manifest, and heading hierarchy - and tells you what's broken in plain English, not error codes.

The TOC Generator tool also rebuilds your table of contents from your heading structure without needing to touch any code.

Both tools are free to try at bookkraftai.com/tools/epub-validator.

After You Fix It

Once you've corrected the TOC and re-exported, open the file in Kindle Previewer one more time before uploading. Check the left panel for chapter entries. If they're there, your navigation TOC is working.

Then upload to KDP and the error should be gone.

If it comes back, paste your EPUB Check error output in the comments below — happy to help you read it.

Then run the file through an EPUB validator before uploading. This catches the problem before KDP does-saving you hours of back-and-forth with the publishing queue.

Fix It Faster With Book Kraft AI

If manually editing nav documents or running EPUB Check feels like too much, Book Kraft AI's EPUB Validator catches these exact errors automatically. It checks your navigation structure, OPF manifest, and heading hierarchy-and tells you what's broken in plain English, not error codes.

The TOC Generator tool also rebuilds your table of contents from your heading structure without needing to touch any code.

Both tools are free to try at bookkraftai.com.

After You Fix It

Once you've corrected the TOC and re-exported, open the file in Kindle Previewer one more time before uploading. Check the left panel for chapter entries. If they're there, your navigation TOC is working.

Then upload to KDP and the error should be gone.

If it comes back, paste your EPUB Check error output in the comments below - happy to help you read it.