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Participant
December 29, 2024
Question

Cross-references keep breaking for no apparent reason

  • December 29, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 394 views

I am currently working on a book with about 16 documents and literally thousands of cross-references.

 

Every time I open the documents, there are 5-12 broken cross-references in each document. I fix them all, and the next time I open the documents it might be the same ones broken again, or it might be different ones.

 

For example, there might be three specific pages that are "problematic," and many -- but not all -- cross-reference (across all the documents) pointing to those pages will be broken. I fix them all. Then the next day, maybe the same 3-4 pages or maybe a different 3-4 pages will be problematic, and many -- but not all -- cross-references pointing to THOSE pages will be broken. Nothing about the source pages has changed. 

 

Does anyone know why this might be happening? Or what I can do to prevent it from continuing to happen? 

 

The project is nearly done, so I'm considering just ignoring the broken cross-references for now, and then having that be my final step before exporting (so hopefully they don't have a chance to rebreak).

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1 reply

Robert at ID-Tasker
Legend
December 30, 2024

How long have you been working on those INDD files? 

 

And how often have you saved them with a new name - doing Save As? 

 

Participant
December 30, 2024
quote

How long have you been working on those INDD files? 

 

And how often have you saved them with a new name - doing Save As? 

 

By @Robert at ID-Tasker

 

two years, and I haven't done "save as" maybe ever? 

 

Also, each document has ~200 pages that all have cross-references pointing to them, and it's only ever 3-4 pages that go bad. 

Robert at ID-Tasker
Legend
December 30, 2024

Wow... 

 

You should DEFINITELY re-save your files - of course make a backup copy of everything first. 

 

Or - as you've been working on those files for SO LONG - do IDMLing on each one - export as IDML, open, save with a new name - do not overwrite your original file - unless you've made a backup copy - then you can overwrite file you've exported IDML file from.