# EPUBCheck NAV-011: nav entries out of order, how to fix it

Source: https://epubcc.com/epubcheck/nav-011/ (updated 2026-11-04)

EPUBCheck NAV-011 is a warning message: “"…" nav must be in reading order; link target "…" is before the previous link’s target in … order.” The entries of a nav are not in reading order. A link points to a place before the previous entry's target, in spine order or within a document, and EPUBCheck names both.

- Official message (EPUBCheck 5.4.0): "%1$s" nav must be in reading order; link target "%2$s" is before the previous link’s target in %3$s order.
- Default severity: Warning

## Typical causes

- A table of contents edited by hand whose order no longer matches the spine.
- A chapter moved in the spine without updating the table of contents.
- A page list built from page numbers sorted as text (1, 10, 11, 2).

## How to fix it

1. Find the entry EPUBCheck reports and compare it with the spine order in the package document.
2. Reorder the nav entries to match the spine and the order inside each document, or fix the spine if it is the spine that is wrong.
3. Rebuild the EPUB and run EPUBCheck again to confirm the message is gone.

## When it's not this

If an entry links to a remote website, the message is NAV-010.

## Sources

- EPUB 3.3, §7.4.2 The toc nav element: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/#sec-nav-toc (read 2026-11-04)

Message text and severity: EPUBCheck (W3C, BSD-3-Clause). Explanation: EpubCC.